May 18 – 20, 2012

Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center

Columbia, South Carolina

• The state-wide ^SCBook Festival celebrates its 16th Anniversary as the state’s premier literary event in 2012.
• The ^SCBook Festival has an attendance of over 6,000 people annually.
• The Festival is free and open to the public on Saturday, May 19th and Sunday, May 20th at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
• The Festival includes many special events May 18 – 20, including writing classes, keynote addresses, and receptions. For more information about special events, please click here.
• The Festival features over 70 authors in readings, solo presentations, panel discussions, and book signings all day and an Exhibit Hall filled with book sellers and community organizations.  Featured authors will have books available for purchase. For the presentation schedule, please click here.
• The Festival has over 80 exhibitors, including an Antiquarian Book Fair, selling books and book-related items.
• Free Festival Book Bags to the first 100 attendees!
• Giveaways and a Chance to Enter Drawings for free books and gifts all day!
• Free Door Prize Giveaways in the afternoon sessions!
• The ^SCBook Festival offers sponsorship opportunities and advertising in the festival program. For more information about sponsorships and advertising, please see the Web site or contact Festival Director, Paula Watkins at bookfest@schumanities.org
• The ^SCBook Festival is a program of The Humanities Council^SC, a non-profit state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Women Writers Forum at Charleston’s Center for Women (129 Cannon St.) will host Skirt magazine founder and editor Nikki Hardin on Saturday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to noon. Nikki will share her experiences with launching and maintaining her popular blog, Fridaville. Shark Marketing Co.’s Shari Stauch will moderate.

The workshop is $25 for members, $35 for non-members. To learn more or to register, CLICK HERE.

The number one frustration publishers face is authors not treating the industry like the business it is. Many authors see signing on the dotted line as the end and it’s really only the beginning of a very long journey. There are many elements involved that come as a surprise to authors.

Learn about the real commitment authors are expected to make after the publishing deal is made.  Lily Herndon Weaks is President of The Fig & The Vine Publishing in Mt. Pleasant, SC. The talk takes place at the Center for Women’s conference center at 129 Cannon St. in Charleston, from 10 a.m. to noon on February 4th.

Registration is $25 for members and $35 for non-members. CLICK HERE to register!

Kristof graduated from Harvard College, Phi Beta Kappa, and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he studied law and graduated with first class honors

After joining The New York Times in 1984, initially covering economics, Kristof served as a correspondent in Los Angeles and as bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. Kristof has taken a special interest in web journalism and was the first blogger on The New York Times website. A documentary about him, Reporter, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2009.

Haunted by what he saw in Darfur, Kristof traveled to the region four times to provide coverage of the genocide unfolding, winning his second Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2006 “for his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.

EVENT DETAILS:

Thursday, March 22 12:00 p.m.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS: $60 (includes lunch)

Montague Terrace in the North Charleston Coliseum, Convention & Performing Arts Center

Sponsor: The James O. and Harriet M. Rigney Literacy Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina

“I”m looking for poems, good poems– for a chapbook, for a performance, and for Jasper, the Columbia arts magazine.  (Please feel free to forward this.)

“First, I helping to organize a poetry component to the annual “What’s Love” Valentine’s Day art event in Columbia.  For this event, I’m looking specifically for two things:

1. Good poems (or short short flash fiction, 500 words or fewer) for a limited-run chapbook, to be published by Jasper magazine and distributed at the event.  Ideally, the poems will be about love, romance, sex, passion –and if at all possible, this year’s theme, technology, and how it has affected our relationships.  So, good writing about love or lust, but preference given to poems that also, in some way (however loosely), connect to the theme.
2. Good readers!  I need good readers or poetry, slammers, spoken word artists to perform as part of our Jasper upstairs performance space at the event.  Again, poems on love and sex –and technology, if possible.

For more about the event and the call for poems, see: http://jaspercolumbia.net/blog/?p=879 Ideally, I need poems by January 15, so that we have time to put together the chapbook.

Second, I’m the literary editor for Jasper. In each issue we include 1-3 poets — with sometimes additional content on the website.  We prioritize poets and poems with a SC connection.  Please consider submitting something. Send poems to:  emadden@jaspercolumbia.com. For more info contact Dr. Madden at 803.777.2171 (work)
or 803.445.4129 (cell).

Matt Matthews of Greer was the winner of the last competition. His book, Mercy Creek, was published in 2011. Brian Ray of Columbia was the winner of the inaugural novel competition. His book, Through the Pale Door, was published by Hub City in June, 2009. Both books have been widely and favorably reviewed across the Southeast.

The winning author will agree to at least five public appearances/book signings around the state, including the South Carolina Book Festival in Columbia in May 2014.

Selection Process
Applicants’ works are reviewed anonymously by panelists who make their judgments on the basis of artistic merit. Six to eight novels will be judged by nationally recognized novelist Josephine Humphreys, who will select the contest winner. The distinguished judge is the author of four award-winning novels: Dreams of Sleep, Rich in Love, The Fireman’s Fair, and Nowhere Else on Earth. Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Southern Book Award, and the S.C. Governor’s Award in the Humanities, she’s a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers as well as the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She lives on Sullivan’s Island with her husband, Tom Hutcheson.

Deadline
March 19, 2012

Notification
September/October 2012

Award
The winning author will receive a book contract with Hub City Press, an award-winning independent press in Spartanburg, S.C. Upon successful execution of the contract with Hub City, the winner will receive a $500 advance against royalties. Hub City will publish at least 1,500 paperback copies of the book.

Additional appearances/book signings around the state for this project will be provided by literary arts partners, The Humanities CouncilSC and the SC State Library.

To learn more and apply, visit www.southcarolinaarts.com/firstnovel

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Write On, Read On…