ANNE BOGEL: That's a lot. That's a lot of books from one conversation.
SARAH MORIARTY: This wasn't long enough. You're welcome.
ANNE: Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogel, and this is What Should I Read Next?. Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader, what should I read next? We don't get bossy on this show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read.
[00:00:36] Readers, as we get ready to mark the 500th episode of What Should I Read Next?, I want to take a moment to thank our Patreon community and the members there that help support the show's creation each week.
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[00:01:35] We also regularly invite our community to submit three books they love and one book they don't, and I do a lightning round of mini-matchmaking for a bunch of readers each time. I also explore reader dilemmas in our Dear Book Therapist episodes, and our team members regularly share insights into their own reading lives in team-focused episodes.
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Readers, we get real excited about book events around here, and we love a good festival. You may have heard that in a few of our previous festival-adjacent episodes, we've certainly heard it from you in your comments and questions.
[00:02:36] So today, I'm happy to welcome Charleston's Sarah Moriarty to the show. She is the Executive Director of the Charleston Literary Festival, and she's here to talk about the art and craft of curating an engaging literary festival, and what you may be glad to know before attending a literary festival yourself.
I can't wait to dive into the magic of live literary events with Sarah as we take you behind the scenes of what goes into planning such a festival.
Sarah also speaks to her specific experience in curating this year's festival, happening this November, which is welcoming more than 70 writers and thinkers from around the globe, including more than a few names you have heard on this show before. I especially love Sarah's thoughts on the magic of in-person book events, and nod along when she says, in-person events are back, baby!
We explore what makes a particularly satisfying in-person gathering, especially when it comes to a good conversation about the books we love, or the books we didn't even know about before but are so glad we discovered.
[00:03:33] Intimacy, spontaneity, and serendipity are just three of the important factors we touch on, and I especially love Sarah's three-point recommendation for getting the most out of your own festival experience.
Readers, this is a lot of fun. Let's get to it.
Sarah, welcome to the show.
SARAH: Thank you, Anne. So delighted to be here with you.
ANNE: Oh, well, I can't wait to hear more about who you are, and especially what you are up to in Charleston in this season. Sarah, we'd love to start by just grounding our listeners in the conversation. Would you tell me a little bit about who you are?
SARAH: My name is Sarah Moriarty. I'm Executive Director of Charleston Literary Festival, which is a 10-day book festival that happens every November in downtown Charleston, in South Carolina. Right now, I'm sitting in my upstairs spare bedroom, that's also my office, surrounded by lots of different books, and also on the bed, a snoozing terrier called Agatha Christie, who you might hear from, hopefully we don't hear from.
[00:04:34] ANNE: Oh, Daisy's going to be so jealous. I make my yellow lab leave for recordings.
SARAH: So I'm just sitting up here in my guest room/office. We just released our program for our 2025 season, so we're all hands on deck for the next two months as we build up to November.
ANNE: Now, Sarah, as I told you, we have received so many questions from readers for many years about literary festivals. Some who say, Oh my gosh, Anne, I'm so glad I heard about this festival from a guest or from an author, because I had no idea what an amazing experience, but many more from readers who have never been, but want to, and feel a little intimidated by what can really seem the enormity, like the sheer abundance of a really robust festival.
And I was surprised to look back at our What Should I Read Next? record log and see that we have not talked about book festivals specifically since 2022. Y'all, we had a great episode, it was number 354, called Book Festivals for Beginners.
[00:05:36] So three years later, Sarah, I'm so glad that you are here to give insight into the Charleston festival specifically, but also in general, just to help readers imagine what it might be like. And look, if you've already been to a literary festival, you're going to listen to this with different ears, but you are welcome here as well.
Sarah, how long have you been in this role of... is it fair to say you curate the festival? Why don't you tell us what your role is?
SARAH: Yeah, absolutely. I've been in the role for three years now. This will be my third... We count in festivals. This will be my third festival. I started working with the Charleston Festival in 2022, just helping with marketing and the strategic plan. And that was when I just joined. And then they opened up a position for executive director in 2023. So I did '23, '24 and this year '25 will be my third festival.
[00:06:27] The first year I worked very closely with the founding artistic director of the festival in 2023. I worked very closely with Diana Reich, who's based in London in the UK, because that's initially where our festival actually originates. It originates from the UK.
When I came on as executive director first, Diana was alongside me and we programmed that first festival, I mean, the first festival that I looked after together. And then Diana stepped into a new role called senior artistic advisor. So she's still around as a mentor, I call her basically every day, but I do curate the festival. So '24 and '25 are curated by me, but I'm very lucky to have the mentorship and the guidance from Diana.
And a little bit about just where the festival came from. So this year is its ninth year in Charleston, South Carolina, but it originates from Charleston House in Sussex in the UK.
[00:07:20] Charleston House is the home of the Bloomsbury group. So Virginia Woolf lived down the road, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Stewart, all the painters, the thinkers, Elliot would drop by for dinner, T.S. Elliot, and they would... The house itself is extraordinary because they sort of lived in this house and transformed it. They painted all the walls, they painted all the furnishings, and it's now been preserved.
A wonderful woman called Debo Gage was behind the preservation of that site as a historic place. And then Debo Gage and Diana Reich decided to build or found a literary festival in Charleston House in Sussex in the UK. And that literary festival has been going now for over 40 years, and it's still happening.
I mean, Charleston House, if you're ever in London, it's a quick train ride to Sussex, and you should go and visit that incredible farmhouse.
[00:08:20] They have different kinds of festivals there. They obviously have the literary festival still over 10 days in Charleston House, but they also have an art gallery and lots of other things to activate that space and bring that Bloomsbury spirit alive.
So Debo and Diana thought it'd be fun to go from Charleston House to Charleston, South Carolina. And in 2017, they founded the first Charleston Literary Festival, which was just over three days in Charleston. And then, since then, again, this is the ninth year, it's grown from three days on a weekend to a 10-day festival in one location in Dock Street Theatre every November in downtown Charleston. So, yeah, that's kind of the beginnings.
ANNE: That's incredible. I'm so curious about Charleston in particular. So I was telling you I haven't been to Charleston since college, but I am itching to get back. And I'm wondering if this is a festival that could happen anywhere that happens to be in Charleston, or if it feels very much like it belongs in Charleston, South Carolina.
[00:09:18] SARAH: I think it's very important that it is in Charleston. So, you know, we say that Charleston holds the whole history of the United States and its cobblestones.
ANNE: I didn't know we said that.
SARAH: We say that. And I think that really lends a sense of real evocative power to Charleston, you know, as you walk through the streets, and also as you sit in the theatre. So, we take place in Dock Street Theatre, which is the oldest purpose-built theatre in the United States.
And all of that history and sense of place really adds to the atmosphere of the festival and really informs kind of the feeling in the room when you're listening to different authors talking about, you know, their artistic inspiration, their process, their stories, their hopes for the future, their whatever, you know, all of the different kind of things that come up. And that part of being part of a bigger conversation comes through when you're in Charleston.
[00:10:08] Charleston also is, it's a very small downtown that's quite walkable. So there's a real intimacy to it. I think in a bigger sort of convention center, you see an event and then the speaker kind of disappears into the night. Whereas in Charleston, you see someone on the stage, and then you see them at the coffee shop the next day, you see them at the wine bar on King Street, you see them over at the Publix picking up some cough drops, whatever it is, you know. There's a real intimacy to the experience being in Charleston that also I think is extra special when it comes to literary festivals.
ANNE: That sounds incredible. Sarah, I believe that you have the clarity that comes from coming to a place at an older age, as opposed to not having known anything different as a child. I'd love to hear how you'd describe the personality of the city and also the literary festival.
[00:11:01] SARAH: Well, I'm originally from Dublin in Ireland. You know, I grew up in Dublin. And then when I was 22, I moved to Paris, and I lived in Paris for three years. And then I moved to Berlin, and I lived in Berlin for nine years. And then I moved from Berlin to Charleston. We moved in 2021, in October 2021. So that's almost four years ago now.
And we moved because, and it's very pedestrian, but my husband got a job here. And so interestingly, it's the first time I've ever lived in the United States, and just straight to Charleston.
I think the idea of being surrounded by history is really important when you think about how Charleston feels, and especially as a transplant into Charleston. You know, when I moved to Charleston, I learned lots of things about the city. It's the birthplace of preservation. Historic preservation is huge in Charleston. And I thought that that meant, oh, everything's kind of frozen in time.
[00:11:56] But what it actually means is that in Charleston, you're constantly in dialogue with the past, and then you're constantly in dialogue with: how do we preserve into the future? And what do we preserve into the future? Those conversations necessitate questions around what stories are we telling collectively? What stories do we sign up for? What is the mythology of a place or of a country or of a nation? What stories get elevated? What stories are untold? And so there's a real rich culture of storytelling in the city. And people take, as I said, historic preservation very seriously, but they also take that sense of story and self-mythologizing also very seriously.
It's also an extremely fun place to be. Southern hospitality is real. Everybody has a door flung open and wants to bring you in for a cocktail or a cup of tea or a cup of iced tea and a dinner. There's an incredible sincerity in the people in Charleston.
[00:12:58] So I moved here and I would meet people on the playground, initially was where I would meet people because I have two little kiddos, and people would say, "Oh, well, you have to come over for dinner." And in my head, I was thinking, "Yeah, that's definitely never going to happen." But then, sure enough, here would be the place where dinner would come and then people would follow up.
And so it's quite a small place that's very, very tight-knit. People are very welcoming and there are lots of eccentric people. It reminds me a lot of Dublin, where I'm from, in a way because of the cobblestones and because of like there's sort of character on every corner and people love to chat and people love to kind of be together. So that's me trying to grasp the personality of Charleston. That's sort of how I see it or how I experience it.
ANNE: I love that picture. And I'm imagining that if you're creating a festival that feels true to its home, then what you said about the sense of hospitality and welcome would be very important.
[00:13:53] SARAH: Absolutely. And that's actually one of the key things about our festival that people mentioned. So when you attend Charleston Literary Festival, we throw parties in people's private homes downtown.
ANNE: Oh my gosh.
SARAH: For the authors.
ANNE: That sounds amazing.
SARAH: Well, it's super fun because if you come to Charleston and you see the beautiful old 18th-century, 19th-century houses, at the festival you can actually come in and walk around them and have a great party because the city throws open its doors. It really does for the festival itself.
This year, for example, we're having, in the first weekend, we're throwing a birthday party for Jane Austen because she's 250, but she doesn't look a day over 240. So we're throwing her a birthday party at a historic home downtown in Charleston that is also 250 years old. Again, that's just people who are friends of the festival who are opening up their home and the grounds of their home.
[00:14:48] And then in the second weekend, we're going to have a Gatsby party to celebrate the centenary of The Great Gatsby this year. And so we're going to have a sort of rollicking, wild, fun Gatsby party at another private home downtown as well. That just means it's just great because it opens up things to the public and people can experience all kinds of Charleston.
ANNE: Yes. And every literary festival has its strengths, but the picture you're painting is very different from moving from one hotel ballroom to another.
SARAH: There's not a hotel ballroom in sight. I also think hotel ballrooms can work, and people do that really well. But for us, we have this one location, which is the Dock Street Theatre, and we don't counter-program things. So it's not like we have a stage here, a stage there, a stage here, and you have to choose. We have one stage and one program with consecutive events.
ANNE: I noticed that. And that's quite unusual. Would you say more about that? What drove that choice?
[00:15:47] SARAH: Well, you know, at the beginning, you said you were sort of addressing your listeners and you sort of said, you know, if you feel overwhelmed by a festival and you don't know where to start, we're going to talk a little bit about it. I think for us, we're very purposeful in sort of who we choose and how we program, but also how we lay it out. And so just having one location and one stage, it just means that there's no competition between the events and authors like it, we like it, the audience likes it. It just makes things kind of easier.
ANNE: Relax, rest easy, no decisions, no one's in competition. Settle back and enjoy.
SARAH: Exactly.
ANNE: These are the vibes I'm imagining. Sarah, we've referenced curation several times, but I'm so curious to hear the behind-the-scenes thought process of how do we present a pleasingly, delightfully varied of literary options to our readers who are coming from all over to attend our literary festival?
Now, you mentioned The Great Gatsby and Jane Austen's 250th, but a great many modern authors are attending to talk about their works that have come out quite recently. And there's such a variety there. I'd love to hear about putting that together, because I know that does not happen by accident, but I don't know how it happens.
[00:17:06] SARAH: Yeah, absolutely. So the way that we approach programming at the literary festival, I guess we have kind of a lens that we lay over things. I mean, the first thing is that we put an emphasis on literary excellence.
So we want to bring... and again, what is literary excellence? But we put an emphasis on literary excellence, and we define that in lots of different ways. So the first thing is, okay, prize-winning. So this year, for example, we've got the Pulitzer Prize winner for history, 2025, Edda L. Fields-Black, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight. We've got Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham talking about Dalloway. We've got two books that are contenders for the Booker this year, Katie Kitamura's Audition and David Szalay's Flesh, and on and on.
So we've got prize winners, but we also have books that we feel are relevant for a particular reason, or have some sort of relevance. So for example, Deborah Treisman is coming, the fiction editor of the New Yorker, to talk about a century of fiction in the New Yorker, marking that centenary of the New Yorker this year with Nathan Englander.
[00:18:11] And so that's going to be a conversation about craft, about the evolution of fiction, about the evolution of fiction in the United States over 100 years, and that feels like it has relevance.
We also go for resonance. So what's actually touching people right now? So, Aria Aber, her book, Good Girl, is a debut. Again, she's sort of brand new, and we programmed her quite early on, but we programmed her because the book is excellent, and also it's causing a real stir. It's really touching people. People are very excited about it.
So Aria Aber's book, Good Girl, is a story of a daughter of Afghan refugees growing up in Berlin, and her trying to find herself in the city's underground nightlife. And that idea of resonance also, Chris Pavone is coming. He wrote The Doorman, and that book, which is sort of more of a thriller, is in New York City, but it's also social commentary. That book also resonates with people.
[00:19:04] And then the final kind of thing that we think about... well, there are two more things I'll just quickly mention. One is we'd like to have an international element to our program. So around 20 to 25% of our program is international, and that pays tribute to our origins in the UK, but it also pays tribute to the fact that Charleston is a port city. It's always been a city where different cultures and different kinds of people mix and mingle together. And so as a port city, we have this international element to our program.
I mentioned Flesh by David Szalay. That book's phenomenal. It's so propulsive. I mean, I read it in one sitting. David Szalay is coming all the way from Hungary to be at the festival. We've also got Andrey Kurkov, the former president of Pen Ukraine, a Ukrainian writer, who's probably one of Ukraine's most celebrated authors, coming to talk about his new book, The Stolen Heart.
[00:19:57] We've got an Irish writer, Colum McCann, coming. We've got English writers coming from the UK, British-French writer, Philippe Sands, lawyer, coming to talk about a sort of renowned human rights lawyer, and on and on. So the international edge is important.
And the final thing I'll say is we also like to have a bit of fun, and we like to mix up the genre. So yes, we program Colum McCann, high literary fiction, Colum McCann. We program Imani Perry.
We're also programming Patricia Altschul, the matriarch of Bravo's Southern Charm. She's got her memoir. We're launching her memoir. She'll be in conversation about her memoir, Eat, Drink, and Remarry, with the creator of Desperate Housewives, Mark Cherry. And so it's very important for us to have a full program that hits lots of different notes.
[00:20:55] ANNE: Looking at the program, one of my thoughts was, oh gosh, how do people plan to attend this? Because you all do have good stuff happening all day for a full week. Do you recommend people come for as much as they can? Do people drop in for a day? Do people block out 10 and hang out in Charleston for the better part of November? What are readers' options here? I mean, I know what my dream would be, and it would be the long version, but what are readers' options?
SARAH: Yeah, so there are lots of ways to attend the festival. So we are 10 days, and those 10 days fall over two weekends. So one thing that you can do is, you can visit the festival on a VIP weekend experience. So we create these VIP weekend experiences on both weekends. And that basically means you can attend all of the festival events. You can attend the... we have a festival lounge that you can attend. You can attend all the parties in the private homes.
[00:21:49] And then we build in an experience of Charleston the city as well. So we give you a restaurant concierge to help you get the best reservations. We give you a garden tour of Charleston, because gardens are so important here. We give you a literary walking tour of the city, and we give you a tour of the International African American Museum.
That's the ultimate sort of package, the VIP weekend experience. You attend for one weekend, all the events, and you also get a real taste of Charleston, top to bottom. That's the VIP weekend experience.
We also have, and we just introduced this this year, we also have a book club Concierge Service. And we introduced this as sort of an idea and it totally took off. Like we were surprised at how much it just took off, because what we learned is that people want to be together. People are in their book clubs. People have been in book clubs for years and years and years, like five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years in these book clubs.
[00:22:48] And people love to travel with their book clubs. So we offer a book club concierge service, which is essentially you write to the book club concierge and say, "Hey, we're coming from Nashville. We are 11 people. We are six people. We really want to attend the festival. Can you help us a little bit to navigate attendance?"
And so what we will do then is we'll give you the program. We'll also give your book club a special code so you get 10% discount on tickets. We'll help you to find your hotel. We have hotel partners that also offer discounted hotel rooms. And then when you're here, if you have any questions, you'll have a touchpoint to talk to, and we'll help you sort of plan your stay.
That's a really nice way for book clubs to opt in. And as I said, we have book clubs that are three people and we have book clubs that are 14 people coming from all over the country to just come for a few days or a day or, you know, two days or whatever it is.
[00:23:44] And the book clubs aren't married to the weekends. Like the book clubs very much come whenever they want, essentially. They might come from a Tuesday through Thursday or a Wednesday through Friday, like whatever it is.
Then the final way to attend is just, you know, come whenever you want and buy individual tickets. Individual tickets are available in advance. Also, we sell tickets on the door so you can literally just walk up. Well, not for everything, though, because things sell out. So be careful.
ANNE: Understandable. You know, something we haven't touched on yet is how live literary events are feeling now in 2025. You and I were talking about how attendance at public events in general has been down since the pandemic.
And readers have gotten lucky with how often they can now attend, like book launch events at a bookstore on Zoom, where that just wasn't an option 10 years ago. And yet I imagine you and I share a belief that there's something magic about being with book lovers live for something like this.
Could you talk more about the importance of in-person events in an ongoing sense, but also particularly at this moment in time?
[00:24:48] SARAH: Yeah. I mean, I would say in-person events are back, baby.
ANNE: Oh, I love it. You know, 10 minutes ago, I bought a ticket for an in-person event here in Louisville, Kentucky tonight, a book launch of a favorite author. And I thought, "You know what? Why not?" I mean, I could stay home, and maybe three years ago, I would have been like, "Why, when I can stay home?" But now I'm like, "Let's go. Let's go," because there's something so special about it.
SARAH: Absolutely. And you know, I will tell you that our ticket sales, as I mentioned, we launched on Thursday. So we've been live for one week now. Ticket sales have been live for a week. We sold double the number of tickets this year than we sold last year. The feedback that I'm getting is that people are really hungry to be together in a space.
One of our sort of tenets of the Literary Festival is this idea of 'embrace the conversation' so that you come and you, you know, you listen to two people in... all of our events also, the majority of our events are authors in conversation. So they're not sort of presentations or PowerPoint presentations or whatever. They're authors-
[00:25:48] ANNE: I love that format, personally. How did you all land on that?
SARAH: That we took directly from tried, tested, proven at Charleston in Sussex in the UK. So they put a huge emphasis on that dialogue on that sort of the conversation unfolding. And so we inherited that for the Literary Festival here in Charleston.
And it's really important because there's an intimacy to conversation. There's a spontaneity to conversation. There's the magic of the thinking on the spot and thinking in the room. Also, there's the encouraging the audience to be involved.
So all of our events end with obviously audience questions, but then you have this cacophony of voices. You have the two voices on the stage, and you have voices in the room.
What we try and do as well is encourage people to talk to each other. We keep the house lights up in the theater because it's not sort of like, this is the presentation now and you shall all be anonymous and dark. It's rather keep the house lights up because we want people to be looking at each other, speaking to each other, leaning across the seats and kind of in conversation.
[00:26:49] That idea of conversation is really, really important because, you know, oftentimes we see people turning away from each other these days and we want people to turn towards each other. And books are a great way to do that.
Michael Greenbaum is coming. He wrote The Empire of the Elite, which is a nonfiction book about the rise and demise of Condé Nast. It's a fabulous book. It talks all about Psy, Newhouse and the founding of Condé Nast and, you know, the evolution of Vanity Fair, the evolution of the Newarker and all these glossy publications. It's really fantastic.
So if you like Tina Brown and Tina Brown's Diaries, this is all about, you know, Tina Brown's career. If you like Graydon Carter's new book, this is all about Graydon Carter. But at the end, Michael Greenbaum talks about the idea that in the dentist waiting room, we used to pick up copies of Vanity Fair, you know, and it was a real tastemaker. It was the trendsetter. And it's like now in the dentist waiting room, we're scrolling on a phone and the algorithm decides sort of what we see based on what we've seen before. And there's a real kind of flattening of what we're exposed to based on this kind of algorithmic driven life.
[00:27:55] And then he asked this question, he says, like, who challenges us? And who broadens our sense of the world? And I think being in person with different kinds of people, sitting in rooms, listening to different kinds of authors talk about their work, why it's important, why it matters, what challenges them, there's something really... I really think that that goal of like broadening the sense of the world is crucial. And people are craving it in person now more than ever.
ANNE: Book events are back. Live events are back. I'm so happy to hear it. And I love what you said about that in conversation.
Now, speaking of that spontaneity factor, something that I found in my own experience attending festivals and conferences is, of course, I'm excited to go see the people I'm excited to see. Like, Imani Perry is going to be in conversation with Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Yes, please. And I want to hear Gloria Eaton talk about Gather Me with Safiya Sinclair. Love both those books. Want to hear from those women.
[00:28:57] But often, I will be blown away by someone whose name I did not know when I showed up at the event to attend. And I'm wondering how you all account for and encourage that spontaneous experience for your festival attendees. Well, I'm also wondering and hearing, is that just me? Because that can't just be me.
SARAH: No, I think you're dead right. Some of it is baked into the way the festival’s structured. So we have festival insider passes, which is an all you can eat kind of pass that all of our supporters and also our insiders who purchased the pass, they get that. So they have access to the events, all the events, so they can kind of like create their own a la carte menu. That's sort of the way that it's structured. People are encouraged to attend whatever they want.
For other people, I would say, when they come in, so say you come in for Patricia Altschul, because you like Bravo and you want to understand how ideas of Housewives are constructed or whatever, you're in it for the martinis.
[00:29:59] One thing we try and do at the beginning and the end of the session is obviously just tell people a little bit about our program. Especially at the end, we say like, "Thank you so much for coming. If you enjoyed this, you might like this and this. Please come and experience something new at the festival." So we do it like on the day there.
But also as we talk about the festival, and as we sort of roll it out, we encourage people to choose something you know, choose something that's interesting for you and choose something you've never heard of, you know? And then there is that kind of spontaneity and serendipity built into the program itself.
In Berlin, there's a cinema thing and it has its phrases: in the right cinema, you'll never see a bad film. And I think we like to feel the same way. Like, in the right festivals, at the Charleston Literary Festival, you'll never see a bad thing, hopefully. Like whatever you go to we'll have a certain standard, we'll have a certain level.
And you know, it could be not your cup of tea, but maybe it'll help you... I know, it'll make you think in a new way, or it'll make you tick in a different way. So there's always something new for you to explore. And people are often very, very interested in things that they're... you know, in being surprised.
[00:31:07] ANNE: Oh, I believe that. And I hear what you're saying. Like, maybe I'm not going to find my new favorite book, although I definitely could, but to spend time in a session and think, gosh, I'm so glad I attended that. That's a great way to feel.
Okay, I'd love to hear about serendipity in your own reading life. If you feel it's appropriate to share a handful of authors that you're so excited to see in person, either because you've crossed paths before, or you've enjoyed their works, and also perhaps a few authors that you've discovered in the process of curating the 2025 festival that now you get to see in Charleston come November.
SARAH: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, I'll start with Colum McCann. His new novel Twist is about the underwater cables that carry the internet around, which is such this tangible, physical, visceral book, visceral descriptions of these tangible wires that carry our digital existence around. It's this incredible poetic take on the sort of internet-soaked reality we live in.
[00:32:11] Colum McCann is an icon in Irish writing, like Let the Great World Spin, A Paragon, and many more books. I'm definitely a fan. So it's going to be exciting to see Colum McCann on the stage.
Kevin Sack is coming. Kevin Sack is a New York Times journalist. He lives here in Charleston, and he wrote a book on the history of the Mother Emanuel Church. That's where the tragic massacre happened 10 years ago. so that's very close to Charleston. Obviously, it's incredibly important for the city. And this year marks that 10-year anniversary of that terrible massacre.
Kevin Sack will be in conversation on stage about his book on Mother Emanuel with Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Eddie Glaude is a phenomenal speaker, a phenomenal educator. He's so generous with his time. He's come to the Literary Festival for the past three years. He's an incredible thinker.
[00:33:07] And so to have Eddie Glaude and Kevin in conversation about the Mother Emanuel book on this 10th anniversary, that's going to be extra special. We're going to have an appearance by the Mother Emanuel Choir after the onstage conversation. So we'll have the onstage conversation and then an appearance by the choir, who will sing a choral program that traces the 200-year history of the church as well. So that way, like art reflecting the conversation. So that's going to be really extraordinary.
Again, that's an example of very local to Charleston, but also with huge national and global relevance and significance and resonance. I'm so excited for so many things.
You know what? We have our Cato Fellows every year. This is our second year doing it. We have a fellowship prize that we award to emerging writers, two emerging writers in South Carolina and North Carolina.
Last year, Dasia Moore and Latria Graham, Desia is a poet, Latria is an essayist, they won the fellowship and they stayed with us at the festival for 10 days. They access all the programs. They meet all the authors. They attend all the events. They have dressing rooms with writing desks in them in Dock Street Theatre that are just for them so they can sort of reflect and write over the 10 days.
[00:34:19] This year, we're going to have two more fellows and we have an event with the fellows. The fellows, it's an incredibly rewarding program. Last year, Latria Graham and Dasia Moore brought so much richness to our program and also spotlight the wonderful talents in the low country. I mean, in South Carolina, North Carolina. So that's also exciting.
And that will be something that, you know, people wouldn't... obviously these are people... you know, it's not Jenna Bush Hager and Ariel Sullivan on the first day, but it's something that you will be astounded by, I'm pretty sure. I mean, last year, the Cato Fellows was one of the standout events.
And then Adam Gopnik from The New Yorker is coming to perform his one-man show, Talk Therapy. You can't see that anywhere else in the world right now. You can just see it at the Charleston Literary Festival. So that feels really exciting.
Adam Gopnik, also a friend of the festival, has been a few times and is coming to perform his one-man show on the second Saturday, November 15th. That also feels sort of extra exciting. I could go on and on, but I will stop there.
[00:35:19] ANNE: What comes to mind first when I ask for some advice you give to those thinking of attending their first literary festival, or who are specifically coming to Charleston in November?
SARAH: Very practically, just try and get the tickets as soon as you can. Because if you have your heart set on seeing Daniel Mendelsohn talking about The Odyssey, and then you get there and it's sold out. So just very practically, logistically, try and secure your tickets as soon as you can.
Try and surprise yourself when you're choosing your events. If you say, "Oh, that's not really for me," it might be. You know, you never know. So try and pick, as we mentioned earlier, some things you know, some things that you're interested in, and then something that's like a total black box for you.
ANNE: Ooh, ooh, say that again slower. Okay, some things you know, some things you're interested in-
SARAH: And something that might be a black box.
ANNE: I love that. I want to put that on the laminated card and hand it out to everybody.
[00:36:19] SARAH: Bring your friends. I think it's really nice to do these things together.
ANNE: Oh, I think that's part of the magic of in-person. I mean, meeting new people, connecting with people who care about the things you care about, but also, it's so fun to go to book stuff with pals.
SARAH: Absolutely. And you'll make new pals as well. Like be open to sparking those conversations and making eye contact. Because everybody that you meet at the festival, you have something in common with. I think that also makes for a great sort of experience when you're open to sort of meeting new people as well.
ANNE: All right, friends, I imagine we're going to have an episode soon on how to deal with an overwhelming to-be-read list. Because Sarah, I jotted down so many titles that either Twist has spent some time on my nightstand. I had no idea it was about the internet cables. That sounds fascinating. And I didn't know about the Michael Grynbaum book, Good Girl.
SARAH: Oh, it's so juicy. It's so dishy.
ANNE: I've been meaning to read Jane Austen's bookshelf. I haven't done it yet, but Rebecca Romney is coming. Kevin Sacks' book sounds incredible. That's a lot. That's a lot of books from one conversation.
[00:37:24] SARAH: This wasn't long enough. You're welcome.
ANNE: I mean, it both never is because I'm always hungry to discover new titles that might be just right for me. Or maybe they're my black box and I don't know yet how perfect they will be for me.
Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time in your busy season to talk about the Literary Festival with me. If we could just bring this back to a personal level for a moment, I'd love to hear how this new role for you with the Charleston Literary Festival has impacted your own reading life.
SARAH: I'm reading all the time and I'm reading more widely than I usually would, definitely. Again, I'm being surprised. So, for example, Max Boot is coming to talk about his new biography of Ronald Reagan, one of the most fascinating books I read all year.
Previously, would I have picked up a biography of Reagan? Maybe not. I would have been like, "Oh, well, is that for me? Maybe it's something else." That biography of Reagan is incredibly well written, unbelievably well researched. It's unflinching. It's like an incredible book.
[00:38:26] And so, yeah, I'm definitely exploring new kinds of books. I'm just reading, you know, the width, the depth, the length, the breadth of what's out there. And that's really, really exciting.
I'm not precious whatsoever about how I read. So I read in like a million bajillion different ways, because obviously I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old and a dog and, you know, things are happening. And so I read whatever way I can.
So, for nonfiction, I do a lot of nonfiction in audio. I like to listen to audiobooks for nonfiction, especially if it's a memoir, because I like hearing people in their own voice tell their stories. But a lot of nonfiction works really well for me in audio, and I will listen to audio nonfiction. Like, for example, the Grynbaum Empire of the Elite, I listened to that in audio.
ANNE: Ooh, thanks for the tip.
SARAH: Yeah, it's great. I really enjoy nonfiction on audio. Literary fiction, I need to have... for some reason, the way my brain works, I need to have the actual book in my hand. And I think maybe it has something to do with like the slowness of it, or I like to luxuriate in it, and I like to kind of hide myself away and get lost a little bit.
[00:39:36] So for literary fiction, I usually like to have the actual book, but then I'll also read on the Libby app. I've got the Libby app and sometimes I read on the Libby app. So I read in a million different ways and I'm not precious whatsoever about that. I just like, whatever way you're reading, if you're reading a couple of pages, it doesn't really matter how you read it, just do.
Also, sometimes if I have to read something, I have this five-page rule where I'm like, okay... Sometimes, if you're like, I don't know if I can face that today, I just read the first five pages. And then the first five pages, suddenly you're like 45 pages in and it's like, "Wow, cool. That worked." So I don't know if that answers, but I think that's just kind of how I approach reading. It's really fun, honestly, and I enjoy it a lot.
ANNE: Oh my gosh. Well, I enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for the bonus tips on helping the long list of titles I just added to my TBR to feel a little more approachable. I mean, I know that, like listen to the audiobook. I just finished one yesterday. I'm ready for a new one. And yet it's still always nice to be reminded of the methods that work for myself and also other readers in our reading lives.
[00:40:46] Sarah, this was a delight. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk books with me today.
SARAH: Thank you, Anne. I hope that we see you at Charleston Literary Festival in the future sometime.
ANNE: Oh, it sounds like a dream. I'll keep an eye out.
SARAH: We'd love to see you.
ANNE: Hey readers, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Sarah. Learn more about the Charleston Literary Festival beginning this year on Friday, November 7th at charlestonliteraryfestival.com. And find the full list of titles we talked about today and all the links you need at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com.
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[00:41:49] Thanks to the people who make this show happen. What Should I Read Next? is created each week by executive producer Will Bogel, media production specialist Holly Wielkoszewski, social media manager and editor Leigh Kramer, community coordinator Brigid Misselhorn, community manager Shannan Malone, and our whole team at What Should I Read Next? and MMD HQ. Plus help from the Audio wizzes at Studio D podcast production
Readers, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. And as Rainer Maria Rilke said, "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." Happy reading, everyone.
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