Featured Image Credit: Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman
Hey, book worms! We have some exciting news for you: an England-inspired book festival is making its way to Charleston. The new festival is a partnership between the Charleston Library Society in historic Charleston, South Carolina, and the celebrated Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, England.
So here are the details! The Charleston-to-Charleston Literary Festival will be co-sponsored by the Charleston Library Society and The Charleston Trust U.K. The weekend will be packed with various programs and events at multiple locations downtown.
“The Charleston Festival is the No. 1 literary festival in Europe, so we are thrilled to partner with the Charleston Trust to create a new cultural attraction in the U.S. Our goal is to strengthen the festival each year to continue to unite internationally acclaimed authors with readers for years to come” said Anne Cleveland, executive director of the Charleston Library Society.
Guest speakers include:
Sir Kim Darroch – British ambassador to the United States
Marjorie Spruill – Southern historian Nigerian poet and novelist
Ben Okri – Nigerian poet and novelist British novelist
Bernard Cornwell – British novelist
Dominic Dromgoole. – Former director of London’s Globe Theater
Friday (November 3rd) events:
Cornwell, Dromgoole, and Nan Morrison, all eminent Shakespearean scholars, discuss Shakespeare’s impact on the past, present, and future of Charleston’s Circular Congregational Church.
Saturday (November 4th) events:
Spruill joins Belinda Gergel and Margaret Bradham Thornton for Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women’s Rights, a panel discussing the past and present battle over, yep, women’s rights. Also on Sat. Nov. 4, poet Okri joins Charleston’s artist, activist, and academic Jonathan Green for Meditations on Greatness, a discussion of the qualities we need to survive and transcend the age in which we live.
Many more events will be taking place along with these ones. The festival also includes a screening of William Nicholson’s Breathe.
Stay up to date with the fest’s full schedule at charlestontocharleston.com. And if you’re interested in early bird tickets, call (843) 723-9912.