USCB Lunch with Author series will continue on May 16 at Sea Pines Country Club with New York Times best selling novelist Robin Oliveira. Oliveira is the author of My Name Is Mary Sutter, I Always Loved You, and her latest, Winter Sisters. She received an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is also a former registered nurse, specializing in critical care. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Art League of Hilton Head and The Literacy Center have teamed up in a collaborative effort entitled Benches, Books & More! This week-long exhibition features hand-painted furniture by locally well-known artists inspired by, and in partnership with, Lowcountry authors.

The South Carolina Academy of Authors will induct four new writers into the Palmetto State’s literary hall of fame in a weekend featuring an awards dinner, free public conversations, exhibitions, and tours in Beaufort, April 27–29. The SCAA’s 32nd annual induction weekend will honor the literary contributions of James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Nathalie Dupree, New York Times best-selling novelist Mary Alice Monroe, Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer Valerie Sayers, and dramatist and first director of the SC Academy of Fine Arts John Blake White (1781–1859).

Sophisticated Cuisine from the South Carolina Lowcountry

It's getting real up in here! My new cookbook, Celebrate Beaufort, is set for release on Thursday, April 19^th and I'm so excited! The cookbook arrived just in time for Mother's Day gift giving and book signings are scheduled all over town during the next few weeks. (A current listing follows at the end of this column.) Celebrate Beaufort is a gorgeous book, full of easy-to-prepare and delicious recipes, beautiful photography, a bit of local history and folklore, and a few personal stories about some of my favorite Beaufortonians.