This year’s festival begins September 10.
Two authors. Two events. Free and open to all.
Great writers, readers and friends will gather for two author visits in September for the University of South Carolina Fall Literary Festival. Now in its 26th year, the festival brings unique and inspiring literary voices to campus.
The 2025 festival welcomes noted journalist and biographer C.M. Kushins and New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Kaveh Akbar. 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.
All Fall Literary Festival events are free of charge, but we ask that those who plan to attend please register below.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 – Chad Kushins
6 p.m., Hollings Library Program Room
Reading/discussion, Q&A, book signing
C. M. Kushins has been a freelance journalist for over twenty years. His work has appeared in High Times and The Daily Beast, among others. He is the author of the acclaimed biographies Nothing's Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon, Beast: John Bonham and the Rise of Led Zeppelin, and, most recently, Cooler Than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard.
Mr. Kushins made extensive use of University Libraries’ Elmore Leonard archives when working on his biography of Mr. Leonard. Materials from the Elmore Leonard collection are also featured in the Irvin Department of Rare Books’ fall exhibit, “’The bad guys are the fun guys’: Celebrating 100 years of Elmore Leonard”. Mr. Leonard placed his papers in the Irvin Department in large part because of its already-extensive collections of modern American literature and crime fiction, some of which will also be on display in the exhibit.
Thursday, September 18, 2025 – Kaveh Akbar
6 p.m., Hollings Library Program Room
Reading/discussion, Q&A, book signing
Kaveh Akbar is the New York Times bestselling author of the novel Martyr!—a finalist for the National Book Award and one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year—and two books of poetry: Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf. He is also editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine and, with Paige Lewis, co-editor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. His writing appears in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Paris Review, New Republic, GQ, The Atlantic, Best American Poetry, Best American Sportswriting, and elsewhere. Since 2020, he has served as poetry editor for The Nation. Born in Tehran, Iran, he is the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa. His work has been translated into over thirty languages.