If you think about an event during which an author gives a talk about a book, you may think it will be an interesting but dry one-way explanation of words that fill 250 or 300 pages.
With the coming Charleston Literary Festival (CLF), however, don’t make that kind of assumption. A better bet is you will have your mind blown by what you hear in any of the 34 conversations from Nov. 3 to Nov. 12 at downtown venues.
This year’s theme for the 10-day festival is “embrace the conversation.” It’s an intentional effort by the festival’s organizers to provide authors and panel discussions who will engage with audiences, answer questions and get beyond normal literary fare.
“‘Embrace the conversation’ is at the heart of the festival,” said new director Sarah Moriarty. “We increasingly see people with differing points of view turning away from each other and avoiding difficult conversations.
“As a festival of books and ideas, we are in a unique position to bring people with divergent viewpoints together and encourage and celebrate lively debate. This commitment to conversation allows us to come together and make sense of the cultural landscape we’re living in, and increase understanding and empathy as a community.”
Organizers are seeking to steer attendees to ask probing, provocative questions and have conversations about issues of public importance with smart people who write books about everything from power, secrecy, morality, politics and grief to the perils of climate change, race, a crisis in reading and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Is Charleston in peril?
Austin-based author Jeff Goodell is part of a Nov. 10 panel discussion that probes how Charleston is especially vulnerable to rising global temperatures and seas.
“The longer we burn fossil fuels, the hotter it will be, and what we’ve seen this last summer will get worse,” said Goodell, who explored the impact of rising air temperatures in The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.
Summer — particularly the summers experience in Charleston — will last longer and become more severe, he said. “Heat changes how we think about what summer means,” he said. “Summer becomes this time where we all live more like a vampire — you’re indoors in the day” in the air-conditioning.
Summer heat is already changing behaviors — from roads being built at nights to people exercising before sunrise or after sunset. Goodell emphasized that heat is an immediate risk to people’s lives and it can kill quickly. Rising seas are a longer-term issue that cause more impact to infrastructure, he said.
Dale Morris, chief resilience officer for the city of Charleston, said that too often, people don’t consider the crippling impact of water in a low area like Charleston. There’s a ”recency bias” in that people often forget about flooded streets when there’s a new Chamber of Commerce day of good weather.
“People think storm surge isn’t a problem in Charleston,” he said. “It is, in fact, the highest risk we face.”
That’s why it’s important to “embrace the conversation” about the Lowcountry’s changing weather with a continuing focus on educating, warning, talking and reminding people that we’re facing some real issues, Morris said.
He pointed to recent flooding of city streets during Tropical Storm Idalia, which hit Charleston during a king tide.
“That type of disruption happens four or five times a year — it used to happen once every five years,” he said, adding that by 2050 it could happen 16 to 25 times a year if nothing changes.
Also joining the Nov. 10 discussion will be Harvard professor Susan Crawford, author of Charleston: Race, Water and the Coming Storm and the Coastal Conservation League Executive Director Faith Rivers James. Charleston attorney Henry Smythe will moderate the discussion at the Dock Street Theatre.
Are we in a reading crisis?
If there’s one thing that writers want, it’s readers. So any rise in talk about book bans or censorship automatically gets the attention of writers.
According to a recent study by PEN, book bans in the United States rose 28% in the second half of 2022 compared to the first six months of the year. And this year, it hasn’t slowed down either. In nearby Berkeley County, for example, the school district is considering the fate of 93 titles challenged by one parent.
In the face of these trends, New York Times critic A.O. Scott has been thinking a lot about reading. In a Nov. 4 discussion with CLF board member Wenda Harris Millard, Scott will share his conclusions and ask for input from the audience.
“Reading is one of these things in human life that always causes a certain amount of unease and panic and anxiety,” Scott said in a telephone interview. “It’s hard to control.” And it can scare you, disturb you and change you. “That’s part of the power of this activity.”
And while right-wing groups recently have been amping up their action to keep some books away from readers, Scott says he believes the books and ideas will win.
“Censorship is not something I take lightly,” he said. “But the impulse to read and the power of reading ends up being stronger in the long run than ever in the shorter run.”
Scott says he is worried more about a loss of a culture of reading in a society that seeks maximum efficiency — because reading for pleasure or knowledge isn’t necessarily an efficient activity. “It’s not going to leave room for the imagination — room and freedom and the inventiveness that reading makes possible and gives to everyone.”
Scott observes that critics often worry about some kind of cultural extinction on the horizon. But he has more optimism that people will continue to read — although it may take shape in new ways, such as on phones, tablets or other devices.
“I have a pretty strong faith in human creativity and human imagination. We need to tell stories. We need to hear stories. We need to have some kind of way to think about and understand and represent to ourselves our own experiences of being human. And that’s something that doesn’t go away and is never satisfied.”
There will always be a need for new forms of escape, pleasure and beauty, despite whatever comes from governments or corporations “trying to colonize our imagination.
“That impulse that gets a young person to pick up a book and start reading it and feel opened up and liberated by it. that doesn’t go away. I think that’s a very durable and powerful part of where we are.”
More ways to embrace conversations
Artificial Intelligence: Friend of Foe? Three people with concerns about how artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting our culture will explore everything how authors publish and whether AI will put writers out of work or cause a new era of creativity. The Nov. 9 forum by noted authors André Aciman and James Barrat, and publishing executive Karl Bakeman will take on the impact of this new technology. The session will be moderated by Maria Pallante, president and C.E.O. of the Association of American Publishers.
Forum on race and racism. British professor and former journalist Gary Younge will talk with local nonprofit fellow Kerri Forrest about his latest book, Dispatches from the Diaspora. In a Nov. 12 event held at the International African American Museum in coordination with The Guardian newspaper, Younge’s former employer, participants will learn about and discuss defining moments involving leaders like Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama to events such as Hurricane Katrina and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Forum on slave trade.Also on Nov. 12, the festival will offer an IAAM panel discussion on The Guardian’s links to the transatlantic slave trade as reported in its Cotton Capital series. The conversation will include the legacy and continuing impact of slavery and how to make reparations. College of Charleston Center for the Study of Slavery director Bernard Powers, a member of the IAAM board, will lead the discussion.
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