I’m a scaredy cat, y’all.

Yep. And it’s just not about things that go bump in the night.

I am positively terrified of the cardboard encased can of cinnamon rolls, after I have carefully peeled off the outer layer, waiting for it to explode on contact with the shaky fork I’m holding like an unpinned grenade in my iron squeezed fist.

Ellen Malphrus unties the moon . . .

By Margaret Evans, Editor

Lowcountry native Ellen Malphrus – published poet, professor of English, possessor of fabulous hair – will launch her debut novel Untying the Moon on the afternoon of Friday, October 16, at the Heyward House in Old Town Bluffton. Joining Ellen will be her friend Pat Conroy, who, when not laboring over his own bestsellers, moonlights as editor-at-large for Story River Books. With splendid novels like Ellen’s and a host of others on its list, Conroy’s southern fiction imprint with USC Press is proving to be ‘the little label that could,’ having rapidly made a name for itself in literary circles far beyond South Carolina.
            I’ve known Ellen Malphrus for years and had hoped we could get together for a long, wine-fueled conversation before her book launch party. Alas, life being what it sometimes is, we had to settle for an email interview instead. But even through that impersonal medium, Ellen’s voice rings warm and true and absolutely Ellen . . . much as it does in her debut novel.

USCB Center for the Arts is proud to be hosting Joshua Carswell, a vocalist that brings along with him an incredible take on the Great American Songbook, to the main stage on Sunday, October 18th, 2015 at 3:00 pm. A winner of the esteemed American Traditions Competition, held annually in Savannah Georgia, Joshua Carswell is a frequent performer of commercial music, musical theatre and opera.

Last issue, we heard from several of the Southern writers heading to Beaufort later this month for “Pat Conroy at 70: A Literary Festival Celebrating South Carolina’s Prince of Titles.” We’d asked them each a simple question: How has Pat Conroy influenced you? Some of them had so much to say, we had to run the article in two parts. (You can read Part One here.) This is the second installement.