Literature

“C” is for Conroy, Donald Patrick (1945-2016). Author.

“C” is for Conroy, Donald Patrick (1945-2016). Author.

Claire Mattes and Sam Livoti met while working at the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina. In 2024, the two sat down with StoryCorps to discuss the impact of the book The Diary of Anne Frank, and how the book can be a helpful starting point for learning about World War II and the Holocaust.

Mike Switzer interviews Sean Scapelatto, board chair for the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, SC.

Mike Switzer interviews Sean Scapelatto, board chair for the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, SC.

“B” is for Boyd, Blanche McCrary (b. 1945). Writer, educator.

“B” is for Boyd, Blanche McCrary (b. 1945). Writer, educator.

This week we’ll be talking with Charleston author Victoria Benton Frank about her new novel, The Violet Hour. Victoria was born in New York City, raised in Montclair, New Jersey, but considers herself to have dual residency in the Lowcountry. She is a graduate of the College of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute. Her mother was the late Dorothea Benton Frank, a best-selling novelist and native of Sullivan’s Island.With the release of The Violet Hour (2026, Simon & Schuster), her second novel, she continues to hone her craft, this time with a story of grief and healing.

Today our guest is Mt. Pleasant native Grady Hendrix, author of the horror novel Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (2025, Berkley Books).The novel is set in Florida in 1970 and is about a group of pregnant teenage girls, living in a maternity home for unwed girls, who discover a book on witchcraft. For the first time in their lives power seems to be in the hands.We’ll talk with Grady about this latest book, as well as some of his past ones, and explore how he came to specialize in the horror fiction genre.

Colson Whitehead’s fiction often pulses with the spirit of jazz, shaping both rhythm and structure in his narratives.