Join us for the Fall Literary Festival 2023
This year’s festival begins Oct. 11.
Three authors. Three nights. All free.
Great writers, readers and friends will gather for three Wednesday nights in October and November for the University of South Carolina Fall Literary Festival. Now in its twenty-fourth year, the festival brings unique and inspiring literary voices to campus.
This year, the festival welcomes poet, Guggenheim Fellow and South Carolina native Atsuro Riley; nonfiction writer, naturalist, MacArthur Fellow and S.C. native Drew Lanham; and children’s author and journalist Amina Luqman-Dawson. They join more than 60 award-winning authors who have visited the USC campus for the festival, participating in readings, book signings and other events – all free and open to the community.
The Fall Literary Festival is a partnership between University Libraries and the Department of English, supported by the generous legacy of Libraries friend Dorothy D. Smith. Mrs. Smith was a lifelong book lover who wanted to share her passion with others. This year, the Dorothy D. Smith Charitable Foundation, the School of Information Science, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Center for Civil Rights History and Research have joined in supporting the festival.
Wednesday, October 11, 2023 – Atsuro Riley
4:30-5:30 p.m. Craft talk for students, South Carolina Political Collections Seminar Room, Hollings Library
6 p.m.- Reading/Lecture, Q&A, booksigning
Atsuro Riley is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and winner of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of Heard-Hoard (University of Chicago Press, 2021), winner of the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a finalist for PEN America’s Voelcker Poetry Award, a Boston Globe Best Book of the Year, and a Bookworm Top 10 Book of the Year. His 2010 book Romey’s Order received the Whiting Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, The Believer Poetry Award, and the Witter Bynner Award from the Library of Congress. Riley’s other honors include Lannan Foundation and NEA Fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, and the Wood Prize given by POETRY magazine. Brought up in the South Carolina lowcountry, Atsuro Riley lives in San Francisco. He is the editor of Revel, a literary journal.
Wednesday, October 25, 2023 – Drew Lanham
4:30-5:30 p.m. Craft talk for students, South Carolina Political Collections Seminar Room, Hollings Library
6 p.m.- Reading/Lecture, Q&A, booksigning
A native of Edgefield, South Carolina, J. Drew Lanham is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, which received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize, and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal. Most recently, he is the author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts. He is a birder, naturalist, and hunter-conservationist who has published essays and poetry in publications including Orion, Audubon, Flycatcher, and Wilderness, and in several anthologies, including The Colors of Nature, State of the Heart, Bartram’s Living Legacy, and Carolina Writers at Home. Lanham is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, he and his family live in the Upstate of South Carolina, a soaring hawk’s downhill glide from the southern Appalachian escarpment that the Cherokee once called the Blue Wall.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 – Amina Luqman-Dawson
4:30-5:30 p.m. Craft talk for students, children’s lit. students and faculty, South Carolina Political Collections Seminar Room, Hollings Library
6 p.m.- Reading/Lecture, Q&A, booksigning
Amina Luqman Dawson loves using writing to tell stories and to build an understanding of race, culture and community. Her published writing includes op-eds in newspapers, magazine articles, travel writing and book reviews. She’s authored the pictorial history book Images of America: African Americans of Petersburg (Arcadia Publishing). She has a BA in Political Science from Vassar College and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley. Freewater (Little Brown) is her debut novel. The novel is a New York Times Bestseller and has received critical acclaim, including the John Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award. Amina is the proud mother of a 14-year-old son. She, her husband and son reside in Arlington, VA.
These events are free and open to everyone, but registration is required.