The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with award-winning novelist Carla Damron, author of The Weird Girl, on Tuesday, October 28, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Damron will be in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and DAYLO student leader E Achurch. Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE WEIRD GIRL
“A riveting read that will fill you with outrage and hope.”—Catherine Matthews, author of Releasing the Reins
Award-winning social worker turned award-winning novelist Carla Damron writes crime fiction to make a difference—humanistic cautionary tales populated by believably engaging characters confronting real-world dilemmas.
The Weird Girl heralds the return of Georgia Thayer, the social worker protagonist of Damron’s 2022 novel The Orchid Tattoo, winner of the PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Georgia has spent her career fighting for the vulnerable, but nothing could prepare her for being a foster mom to Tessa—a teenager haunted by her traumatic past. Determined to give her a normal life, Georgia’s hopes are crushed when a neighborhood party spirals into disaster, leaving one girl fighting for her life and another who vanishes without a trace.
As Georgia undertakes a frantic search for the missing girl, she uncovers a dangerous fentanyl trade that snakes from hospital emergency rooms to high school hallways to the darkest corners of her city. She is up against a charismatic candidate for attorney general and a ruthless drug kingpin, two powerful men willing to use lethal means to bury their secrets.
With her chosen family threatened, her faith in herself shaken, and an unexpected ally emerging from the shadow, Georgia’s efforts to save one girl puts her own in danger. The clock is ticking. The truth is deadly. And every second lost could mean another life destroyed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carla Damron is a fiction writer and social worker. Her first Georgia Thayer novel, The Orchid Tattoo, won a 2023 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Damron is also the author of The Stone Necklace, which winner of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s Star Award for best novel, and of the Caleb Knowles mystery novels: Keeping Silent, Spider Blue, and Death in Zooville. Her novels explore social issues like addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and human trafficking. Her short stories have appeared in Fall Lines, Six Minute Magazine, Melusine, In Posse Review, and other journals. In 2014, Damron was recognized as the South Carolina Social Worker of the Year, and in 2017, she was honored with the Pioneer Award by the University of South Carolina College of Social Work for her advocacy on the state and national levels. She holds a Master in Social Work (USC) and an MFA in creative writing from Queens University. She lives and writes in Columbia, South Carolina.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERS
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Charleston Post and Courier and a mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization.
E Achurch is junior at the Complete Student, where she is founding president of her school’s chapter of DAYLO: The Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization. She is a counselor for the Conroy Center’s Camp Conroy summer writing and art program and a past participant in the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities summer program.
You may also like the following events from Pat Conroy Literary Center:
- Next Thursday, 14th August, 06:00 pm, Open Mic Night--Featuring Novelist Michael Spake, Author of Life Close to the Bone in Beaufort
- This month, 23rd August, 04:30 pm, Silent Book Club Beaufort in Beaufort
- This month, 25th August, 06:00 pm, Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend in Beaufort
Also check out other
Arts events in Beaufort,
Literary Art events in Beaufort,
Nonprofit events in Beaufort.
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