Charleston Literary Festival Experiences Record-Breaking Ticket Sales Around Innovative 2024 Lineup

With just under a month until show time, Charleston Literary Festival is happy to report that the Festival has already sold out of three events, sold out the V.I.P. weekend packages, and seen an increase of 40% on total ticket sales from last year. The Festival is also delighted to announce that it is planning to further its community impact this year by welcoming student groups from 11 different schools and universities in South Carolina and North Carolina.

The full lineup of world-class authors and innovative literary experiences that will feature at the 2024 festival, set to take place from November 1 to November 10 at Dock Street Theatre. Tickets for the 2024 Festival—which boasts 37 events—are on sale now at CharlestonLiteraryFestival.com.

2024 speakers include Nikki Giovanni, Colm Tóibín, Rachel Kushner, Claire Messud, Adam Gopnik, Attica Locke, Chris Whitaker, Geoff Dyer, James Shapiro, Sharon Malone, Michele Norris, David Blight, Jayne Anne Phillips, Ilyon Woo, Ramie Targoff, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Marie Arana, Paul Murray, and many more.

“This year’s line-up reflects Charleston Literary Festival’s commitment to world-class programming with an international edge and constant innovation in the literary arts,” says Sarah Moriarty, Executive Director of Charleston Literary Festival. “We’re honored to host a 10-day celebration bubbling over with award-winning authors, big ideas, and lively conversations. From producing a world premiere play with an international creative team to launching the CLF Cato Fellowship to promote writers in North and South Carolina, this year’s Festival shows that there are no limits to what we can create in our thriving literary city.”

Event: Master Slave Husband Wife, Ilyon Woo in conversation with Dr. Kim Cliett Long, Founder of the Mayor’s Book Club and Charleston Literary Festival board member
Date and time: Sunday, November 10 at 4 p.m.
Location: Dock Street Theatre
Tickets: Admission is free, but registration required

This year’s Festival will see Ilyon Woo appear in conversation about her novel Master Slave Husband Wife—winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography—in a historic location with deep significance, the Dock Street Theatre.

Woo's book is the true story of Ellen and William Craft who pulled off one of the most dramatic escapes in US history by performing, in broad daylight, as master and slave. In 1848, the couple fled in the early hours of the morning by train from Macon to Savannah, where they boarded a steamship bound for Charleston, South Carolina. In Charleston, they stayed the night in Planter’s Hotel before sailing north. What was then the Planter’s Hotel is now The Dock Street Theatre. Festival attendees will hear Ilyon Woo discuss the Crafts and their journey to freedom in the exact building in Charleston where the fleeing couple hid 176 years ago.

Master Slave Husband Wife is the book selection for the third annual Mayor’s Book Club Charleston READS!, a city-wide read-together program launched in 2022 by the Mayor’s Book Club in partnership with Charleston Literary Festival. This event is free for the public; previous Mayor’s Book Club Charleston READS! authors include Imani Perry in 2022 and Elizabeth Dowling Taylor in 2023.

Two authors longlisted for the UK’s most prestigious award for fiction, the 2024 Booker Prize, will appear at the Festival in November. Rachel Kushner will discuss her wickedly funny novel dealing with espionage and eco-warriors, Creation Lake with Post and Courier editor-at-large, Autumn Phillips. Claire Messud will discuss her novel This Strange Eventful History, about exile and homecoming, with broadcaster, Georgina Godwin.

Two 2024 Pulitzer Prize winners will be in attendance at the Festival. As mentioned above, Ilyon Woo will speak about Master Slave Husband Wife. Jayne Anne Phillips will discuss her novel Night Watch, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction—a mother-daughter story set in a genteel asylum in West Virginia around the time of the Civil War.

Event: Nikki Giovanni in conversation with Dr. Tonya Matthews
Date and time: Monday, November 4 at noon
Location: Dock Street Theatre
Tickets: Admission is $30

Charleston Literary Festival is partnering with the International African American Museum (IAAM) on programming for the second year running to bring literary icon, Nikki Giovanni.

Renowned for her five-decade career as a poet and activist, Prof. Giovanni has captivated audiences with her conviction, humor, and devotion to telling her truth as a Black woman. The collaboration between Charleston Literary Festival and IAAM demonstrates great alignment between the two organizations and their complementary missions to illuminate untold stories of the African American experience.

In this marquee event, Prof. Giovanni will be in conversation with Dr. Tonya Matthews, CEO of IAAM. This is an important opportunity for audiences to share and embrace conversations with one of the most important poets of our time.

Charleston Literary Festival maintains its international edge by featuring six authors from the UK, two authors from Ireland, and the current Poet Laureate of Jamaica, Kwame Dawes. 

Event: Kwame Dawes & Kimiko Hahn: Fortunate Travelers
Date and time: Monday, November 4 at 2 p.m.
Location: Dock Street Theatre
Tickets: Admission is $30

Kwame Dawes is the author of twenty books of poetry and numerous other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. Dawes was born in Ghana, spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica, and then from 1992 to 2012, he was professor of English and distinguished poet-in-residence at the University of South Carolina. In 2009 Dawes was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors. He is currently  University of Nebraska as the Glenna Luschel Professor of English and the editor of Prairie Schooner. 

New Yorker Kimiko Hahn, born the child of artists—a Japanese American mother from Hawai‘i and a German American father from Wisconsin, earned a master’s degree in Japanese literature from Columbia University. Hahn is the author of ten collections of poetry, including The Ghost Forest: New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton, 2024); Foreign Bodies (W. W. Norton, 2020); and The Unbearable Heart (Kaya Production, 1995), which received an American Book Award. 

Dawes and Hahn with be in conversation with former South Carolina Poet Laureate, Marjory Wentworth.

Event: Ross Benjamin & Mark Harman: A Kafka Centenary Celebration
Date and time: Thursday, November 7 at 4 p.m.
Location: Dock Street Theatre
Tickets: Admission is $30

In celebration of the centenary of German-language writer Franz Kafka’s death, two of the most important English-language translators of Kafka’s work: Ross Benjamin, author of an essential new translation of Kafka’s diaries, The Diaries of Franz Kafka, and Mark Harman, author of a highly praised new collection of Kafka’s short stories, Selected Stories, will discuss Kafka’s worlds and the lasting impact of his work. This event is recognized as part of Project Kafka 2024—a global Kafka festival to celebrate the writer’s centenary coordinated by the Adalbert Stifter Association and the Prague City Library.

In the categories of fiction and poetry, Charleston Literary Festival 2024 will feature a host of award-winning, internationally acclaimed literary heavyweights including sessions featuring:

When it comes to nonfiction: the Festival will feature the following themes:

Charleston Literary Festival is delighted to again name the College of Charleston as the Festival’s official Academic Partner. This continued partnership offers opportunities for meaningful connections between visiting authors and College of Charleston students, staff, and faculty. Charleston Literary Festival offers heavily discounted tickets for students, staff, and faculty, as well as internship opportunities for students.

“Partnering with the festival is a great opportunity for the College’s faculty, staff, students and alumni to engage with the literary community,” says Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Suzanne Austin. 

Charleston Literary Festival will also renew its partnership with Charleston County Public Library (CCPL) this year—in an effort to increase accessibility for sessions and titles, the Festival will partner with the Library on a number of initiatives including a dedicated Festival widget on the CCPL’s Libby app. 

“The Library is a community connector, so we appreciate the opportunity to provide access to the titles featured in this year’s Charleston Literary Festival,” said CCPL Executive Director Angela Craig.

CCPL will also livestream three events at Charleston Literary Festival into CCPL branches this year in an effort to increase access to the programming.

CCPL Livestreaming Events at Local Branches

Event: Michele Norris with Kerri Forrest: Our Hidden Conversations
Date and time: Saturday, November 2 at 2–3 p.m.
Location: Dorchester Road Library (6325 Dorchester Rd, North Charleston, SC 29418)
Tickets: Admission is free

Event: A Conversation with Nikki Giovanni: Nikki Giovanni with Tonya Matthews
Date and time: Monday, November 4 at 12–1 p.m.
Location: Bees Ferry West Ashley Library (2020 Proximity Dr, Charleston, SC 29414)
Tickets: Admission is free

Event: Colm Tóibín with Bilal Qureshi
Date and time: Saturday, November 9 at 12–1 p.m.
Location: Charleston County Library (68 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC 29401)
Tickets: Admission is free

Charleston Literary Festival’s Young Writers Awards will return bigger and better than ever. The awards are open to public high school students in Charleston County. The Festival will give awards to nine students competing in three creative writing categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. The nine winners will receive a small cash prize, certificate, gift bag, and the opportunity to open a session at the Festival by reading their work onstage at Dock Street Theatre.

To learn more about the Young Writers Awards, visit https://www.charlestonliteraryfestival.com/young-writers-awards.

2024 also sees the launch of a brand new initiative: the Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize to support and nurture emerging writers in North Carolina and South Carolina. The two winning Fellows will receive full access to Charleston Literary Festival’s sessions and receptions, a writing residency in Dock Street Theatre, free accommodations in downtown Charleston, networking and collaborative opportunities beyond the Festival, and a stipendiary of $7,500 to allow them to further their writing career as they see fit. The Festival has just announced the shortlist of 12 writers. The winning fellows will be announced in mid-October.

Event: DEBATE: Baldwin v. Buckley
Date and time: Monday, November 4 at 6 p.m.
Location: Dock Street Theatre
Tickets: Admission is $35

In a true opportunity to Embrace the Conversation and witness the art of how to disagree at its best, on November 4, the 2024 Festival features Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley. Staged by Brooklyn-based theater company, the american vicarious, the play is a theatrical interpretation of the historic 1965 Cambridge Union debate between James Baldwin, leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., U.S.’s most influential conservative intellectual of the time.

Event: All The Beauty In The World
Date and time: Friday, November 8 and Sunday, November 10 at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Dock Street Theatre
Tickets: Admission is $45

A serendipitous meeting at last year's festival brought together author, Patrick Bringley, and British theater director, Dominic Dromgoole, who have partnered to create All The Beauty In The World, a stage play starring Bringley and directed by Dromgoole, the former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London. This monologue play has been adapted from Bringley’s book All The Beauty In The World and is produced by Charleston Literary Festival with the help of Spoleto Festival USA.

The play is a fascinating, revelatory portrait of one man who spent ten years as a museum guard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bringley’s story of museum treasures, grief, and what art does for us will be brought to life as a one-man-show for the first time ever on stage at Charleston Literary Festival.

Explore Charleston is helping to spread the word that Charleston is a robust literary and cultural center and Charleston Literary Festival is a must-see, signature cultural event. For the first time ever, the Festival is offering special weekend passes with exclusive offers to our increasing number of out-of-town visitors. 

Charleston Literary Festival has solidified a reputation as an intimate, carefully-curated, high-quality event with strong international influences. These hallmarks have made it a perfect complement to our region's lineup of longer-standing festivals and a great addition to our ever-evolving artistic and cultural landscape. Charleston provides the ideal setting for such distinctive programming, and we know this fall's event is sure to raise the bar through new elements such as VIP weekend experiences."
—Helen Hill, CEO of Explore Charleston

Note: V.I.P. WEEKEND PACKAGES ARE NOW SOLD OUT!

Event: Black and White Masquerade
Date and time: Friday, November 1 at 8 p.m.
Location: Festival Hall
Tickets: For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.charlestonliteraryfestival.com/masked-literary-feast

We are kicking off Charleston Literary Festival like never before with a Black and White Masquerade inspired by the legendary Black and White Ball that writer Truman Capote threw at the Plaza Hotel in New York in November 1966.

Experience a mysterious world of marvelous masks and luminous literati at Festival Hall on November 1 at 8 p.m. Join us to welcome our authors to Charleston and celebrate our guest of honor, artistic director and literary legend, Diana Reich. 

Our M.C. for the evening is Landon Bryant, a.k.a. Instagram personality @LandonTalks. The evening will also feature literary interludes from Laurence Leamer, author of Capote’s Women; Stephen Graham, son of Katharine Graham (Capote’s original guest of honor), and Asiah Mae, Charleston Poet Laureate.

Tickets and Information

Tickets for all sessions and events are now available for purchase at CharlestonLiteraryFestival.com:

For more information about the festival schedule, author biographies, and event details, please visit CharlestonLiteraryFestival.com or follow us on Instagram at @charlestonlitfest.

To make sure you stay up to date, sign up for our newsletter at https://www.charlestonliteraryfestival.com/newsletter

We encourage you to buy your books locally. You can buy your books at Charleston Literary Festival official bookseller: Buxton Books, located at 160 King Street. You can also check titles out at the Charleston County Public Library, or download or listen to Festival books from the library on the Libby app.

About Charleston Literary Festival

Charleston Literary Festival is a boutique literary festival with an international edge that takes place every November in Charleston, South Carolina. The Festival presents ten days of top-tier literary programming with an international edge—featuring world-class authors and thinkers in lively conversation. A champion of the free exchange of ideas, Charleston Literary Festival's work fosters the next generation of readers and writers in the Southeast with student programs, awards, and an emerging writers fellowship. Previous speakers at Charleston Literary Festival include: Margaret Atwood, Geraldine Brooks, Tina Brown, Hernan Diaz, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Yaa Gyasi, Patrick Radden Keefe, Ian McEwan, Joyce Carol Oates, Imani Perry, George Saunders, Claire Keegan, Simon Schama, Richard Ford, Safiya Sinclair, Lorrie Moore, Jeannette Winterson, and many more. For further information, visit CharlestonLiteraryFestival.com.