Literature

“S” is for Sayers, Valerie (b. 1952). Author. In 1992, Valerie Sayers was the National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow.

“S” is for Sayers, Valerie (b. 1952). Author. In 1992, Valerie Sayers was the National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow.

“T” is for Timrod, Henry (1828-1867). Poet, essayist. A native Charlestonian, Timrod—hedged by poverty, frail health, and the cataclysm of the Civil War—led a brief tubercular life.

“T” is for Timrod, Henry (1828-1867). Poet, essayist. A native Charlestonian, Timrod—hedged by poverty, frail health, and the cataclysm of the Civil War—led a brief tubercular life.

“E” is for Everett, Percival (b. 1956). Author, editor, educator.

“E” is for Everett, Percival (b. 1956). Author, editor, educator.

This week we have a fun conversation with author George Singleton about his new book Asides: Occasional Essays on Dogs, Food, Restaurants, Bars, Hangovers, Jobs, Music, Family Trees, Robbery, Relationships, Being Brought Up Questionably, Et Cetera. It's a collection of fascinating and curious essays, in which Singleton explains how he came to be a writer (he blames barbecue), why he still writes his first draft by hand (someone stole his typewriter), and what motivated him to run marathons (his father gave him beer). In eccentric world-according-to-George fashion, Laugh-In’s Henry Gibson is to blame for Singleton’s literary education, and Aristotle would’ve been a failed philosopher had he grown up in South Carolina.

“S” is for Sayers, Valerie (b. 1952). Author. In 1992, Valerie Sayers was the National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow.

“S” is for Sayers, Valerie (b. 1952). Author. In 1992, Valerie Sayers was the National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow.

“H” is for Heyward, DuBose (1885-1940). Author. In 1925, Heyward published Porgy, a novel about African American life in Charleston. Revolutionary for its time, the book changed literary depictions of Blacks in the United States.