Home Grown Authors
Inspired by a recent Weekly Geeks, I decided to write a post about authors from my home. Since I couldn’t find any well known authors from Bermuda, I decided to write about authors from my adopted home of South Carolina.
Pat Conroy was born in Georgia, but moved to Beaufort, South Carolina at the age of 15. He graduated from The Citadel in Charleston. He lives on Fripp Island today. Most of Conroy’s books are set in South Carolina. He has written quite a few books, but is probably best known for The Prince of Tides. On of his books, The Water is Wide, was made into a movie, Conrack, starring Jon Voight.
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Cassandra King is originally from Alabama but South Carolina claims her now that she is married to Pat Conroy. She has written for newspapers and magazines and taught at the college level. King is probably best known for Making Waves and The Sunday Wife. Obviously, she lives on Fripp Island too.
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Sue Monk Kidd was born in Georgia, but calls Charleston home these days since she is the Writer in Residence at the Phoebe Pember House. She has a B. S. in Nursing and even worked as an R. N. and taught nursing before turning to writing. Two of her books, The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair, have been made into movies.
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Carrie Ryan was born and raised in Greenville. She graduated from Williams College and Duke Law School. She worked as a litigator but has turned her attention to writing full time. She currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, but South Carolina still claims her as one of our own. Ryan is the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth.
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Mary Alice Monroe speaks English and Japanese. She helped start an English as a Second Language program for refugees from Southeast Asia. When she was prescribed to bedrest during her first pregnancy, her husband urged her to write the novel she’d always dreamed of. She’s written over a dozen books, including Sweetgrass and Turtle River. She lives on the Isle of Palms and is active in environmental causes.
Great post, Kathy!
What a fun post! I will have to steal this one. I know I saw The Prince of Tides, but I can’t remember if I read the book or not. I think I have, but I can’t be sure. Maybe that means I didn’t. LOL!
you would know if you read the book!!!
very cool, I loved The Mermaid Chair.
Pat Conroy has a new book out soon, I believe. One of my favorite SC writers is Dorothea Benton Frank. Mary Alice Munroe is also a fabulous writer. This is a really nice feature, Kathy. Thanks for sharing.
I’m trying to talk my wife into an anniversary trip to Charleston — maybe I should buy her a couple of these books as a hint. Hope you’re having a great time in NYC.
Sue Monk Kidd is a favorite of mine….good authors highlighted here!!
I like this post. I had no idea South Carolina was so prolific in the novel department.
The only one I know is Sue Monk Kidd. Great post Kathy. I know there are a ton here. Perhaps a future post for me.
Fantastic Post. I loved Prince of Tides.. and was happy to read the book. Some of the movie lines are right out of the book.. and YET it is VASTLY different. I also enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees.
South Carolina has a lot of wonderful authors.
I absolutely love Mary Alice Monroe! my mother-in-law discovered our kinship to reading when i was telling her about my favorite book which was Swimming Lessons and her reply was it sounded a bit like her favorite book because it had the sea turtles in and i told her the author and she actually had the first book The Beach House and I had the second book so we exchanged neither one of us really liked that idea so without each other knowing i bought her a copy and she bought me a copy, it was kinda funny but we went on to discover all the other things we enjoyed together and i feel it all goes back to the books : ) her son and I have been married 19 years and become extremly close since 4 years ago and i need to add she has 12 kids and i’m ranked at the top now and I’m a in-law LoL!!! Reading the right books will get you everywhere : )
What a fun post! I’ve been trying to learn which authors are from my area, simply because I think it is wonderful!
Wendi
This was a really neat post – it was so interesting reading about the different authors. The only two that I had heard of were Mary Alice Monroe and Sue Monk Kidd. I haven’t read any of Monroe’s work but I recently found the Secret Life of Bees as an audio book at http://www.audiobooks.ne which is wonderful because I find it a great deal easier to get through books when I listen to them rather than just read them due to all my traveling. I’ll be interested to look into all the other authors too.
I love Pat Conroy and Sue Monk Kidd’s ‘Secret Life…’ is one of my all-time favorite books! You know I love southern writers and am always looking for more so thanks for this feature, I really enjoyed it.
What a fun post! It’s neat to see the authors listed geographically like this; I didn’t realize that all these talented writers were from SC.
Fripp Island is a little slice of heaven, isn’t it?!
Just finished Pat Conroy’s South of Broad and loved it. Great characters. Was sad to finish the book. Highly recommend it. Was particularly meaningful with the descriptions of Charleston after visiting this beautiful city last October.