2024 Program & Tickets
Welcome to the Charleston Literary Festival. Let this year's stunning roster of speakers inspire you with transformative conversations on and off the Festival stage. Taking place at the historic Dock Street Theatre with book signings after most sessions, this is sure to be the cultural event of the South this fall.
For questions regarding ticketing, email us at enquiries@charlestonliteraryfestival.com. Student rates are available; email for further information.
Fri, Nov 7 at 9am - Sun, Nov 16 at 8pm at Dock Street Theatre
2025 Festival Insider Pass
Fri, Nov 7 at 10:30am - Sun, Nov 16 at 9pm at Dock Street Theatre
Charleston Literary Festival 2025
Fri, Nov 7 at 10:30am at Dock Street Theatre
Jenna Bush Hager & Ariel Sullivan with Thousand Voices - Conform
Fri, Nov 7 at 2pm at Dock Street Theatre
Colum McCann with Shane O'Reilly - Twist
Fri, Nov 7 at 4pm at Dock Street Theatre
Imani Perry with Dolen Perkins-Valdez - Black In Blues
Fri, Nov 7 from 5pm - 7pm at Dock Street Theatre
Special Event
Kevin Sack & Eddie S. Glaude Jr. - Honoring Mother Emanuel with special appearance by the Mother Emanuel Choir
Sat, Nov 8 at 8:45am at Dock Street Theatre
Film Screening - The Hours
Sat, Nov 8 at 11am at Dock Street Theatre
Michael Cunningham & Jenny Offill - Dalloway 100
Sat, Nov 8 at 1pm at Dock Street Theatre
Rebecca Romney with Sunday Steinkirchner - Jane Austen's Bookshelf
Sat, Nov 8 at 3pm at Dock Street Theatre
Aria Aber - Good Girl
Sat, Nov 8 at 5pm at Dock Street Theatre
Tim Bouverie with Jonathan Freedland - Allies At War
Sat, Nov 8 at 7pm at Dock Street Theatre
Glory Edim with Safiya Sinclair - Gather Me
Sun, Nov 9 at 9am at Dock Street Theatre
You'll See - Performance by Branar Theater Company
Sun, Nov 9 at 12pm at Dock Street Theatre
Joyce Carol Oates with Jean Hanff Korelitz - Fox
Sun, Nov 9 at 2pm at Dock Street Theatre
Jonathan Freedland - The Traitors Circle
Sun, Nov 9 at 4pm at Dock Street Theatre
Max Boot with Kurt Andersen - Reagan: His Life and Legend
Sun, Nov 9 at 6pm at Dock Street Theatre
Philippe Sands - 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia
Sun, Nov 9 at 8pm at Dock Street Theatre
New Yorker 100
Deborah Treisman with Nathan Englander - A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker
Mon, Nov 10 from 12pm - 1pm at Dock Street Theatre
Charles F. Bolden and Les Johnson - Journeying Through The Stars
Mon, Nov 10 at 2pm at Dock Street Theatre
Gish Jen, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, and Sue Halpern with Regina Marler - Family Legacy in Fiction
Mon, Nov 10 at 4pm at Dock Street Theatre
Bill McKibben with Leilani Brown - Here Comes the Sun
Mon, Nov 10 at 6pm at Dock Street Theatre
Patricia Altschul with Marc Cherry - Eat, Drink, and Remarry
Official Book Launch
Tue, Nov 11 at 12pm at Dock Street Theatre
Dava Sobel with Angela Saini - The Elements of Marie Curie
Tue, Nov 11 at 2pm at Dock Street Theatre
Anthony C. Wood with Paul Goldberger - Servant of Beauty
Tue, Nov 11 at 4pm at Dock Street Theatre
Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellows - An audience with the 2025 Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellows
With thanks to Marion Cato
Tue, Nov 11 at 6pm at Dock Street Theatre
Gary Shteyngart with Ross Benjamin - Vera, or Faith
Wed, Nov 12 at 10am at Dock Street Theatre
James Geary - Aphorism at Play
Wed, Nov 12 at 12pm at Dock Street Theatre
Daniel Mendelsohn - The Odyssey
Wed, Nov 12 at 2pm at Dock Street Theatre
Edda Fields-Black with David Blight - Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War
Wed, Nov 12 at 4pm at Dock Street Theatre
Roxana Robinson & Elliot Ackerman with Lucas Wittman - Honor in Literature
Wed, Nov 12 at 6pm at Dock Street Theatre
Chris Pavone - The Doorman
Wed, Nov 12 at 8pm at Dock Street Theatre
Michael M. Grynbaum with Nancy Novogrod - Empire of the Elite
Thu, Nov 13 at 12pm at Dock Street Theatre
Ruha Benjamin with Benny Starr - Imagination: A Manifesto
Thu, Nov 13 at 2pm at Dock Street Theatre
Hunter Lewis with *Special Guest*
Thu, Nov 13 at 4pm at Dock Street Theatre
Aatish Taseer with Bilal Qureshi - A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile
Thu, Nov 13 at 6pm at Dock Street Theatre
Carl Zimmer with David Adams - Air-Borne
Fri, Nov 14 at 11am at Dock Street Theatre
Congressman Clyburn with Dr. Tonya Matthews - The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressman Who Shaped a Nation
Fri, Nov 14 at 1pm at Dock Street Theatre
Jake Tapper - Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War
Fri, Nov 14 at 3pm at Dock Street Theatre
Patricia Lockwood with Martha Rhodes McLendon - Will There Ever Be Another You
Fri, Nov 14 at 5pm at Dock Street Theatre
Peter Godwin with Autumn Phillips - Exit Wounds
Fri, Nov 14 at 7pm at Dock Street Theatre
Maggie Smith - Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
Sat, Nov 15 at 9am at Dock Street Theatre
Lindsay Schakenbach Regele with Kim Cliett Long - Flowers, Guns, and Money
Sat, Nov 15 at 11am at Dock Street Theatre
Andrey Kurkov - The Role of the Writer
Sat, Nov 15 at 1pm at Dock Street Theatre
Caryl Phillips with Bilal Qureshi - Another Man in the Street
Sat, Nov 15 at 3pm at Dock Street Theatre
Katie Kitamura with Regina Marler - Audition
Sat, Nov 15 at 5pm at Dock Street Theatre
Stephen Greenblatt with Geoffrey Harpham - Dark Renaissance
Sat, Nov 15 at 7pm at Dock Street Theatre
Theater Performance - Adam Gopnik in Talk Therapy
Sun, Nov 16 at 11am at Dock Street Theatre
Adam Gopnik & Stephen Greenblatt with Mena Mark Hanna - Make It New: Adapting The Swerve
Sun, Nov 16 at 1pm at Dock Street Theatre
Adam Haslett with Bill Goldstein - Mothers and Sons
Sun, Nov 16 at 3pm at Dock Street Theatre
Lola Lafon with Maurice Samuels - When You Listen to This Song: On Memory, Loss, and Writing
Official Book Launch
Sun, Nov 16 at 5pm at Dock Street Theatre
Viet Thanh Nguyen with Bilal Qureshi - To Save and to Destroy
Sun, Nov 16 at 7pm at Dock Street Theatre