In-person Charleston Literary Festival coming back this November

Word is out. The first release of the leading global talent participating in the Charleston Literary Festival has been revealed.

This fall, a host of world-class creators and thinkers will descend upon the “perennial destination favorite” Charleston, South Carolina to explore today’s most pressing ideas with guests from near and far. Running from Nov. 4-13, 2022, the Charleston Literary Festival offers audiences more than the average experience with a choice of purposefully eclectic speakers carefully curated based on literary and artistic excellence, originality, and critical acclaim. In addition, leading topics will include racial injustice, challenges to democracy, generational trauma, and the survival story of a royal family, among many others. Festival subscribers will have the opportunity to visit unique venues set back along historic streets lined with flickering gas lanterns that make the Lowcountry such an appeal for fall travel.

“The festival offers a communal experience where all are welcome to share conversations, ideas, arguments, laughter, and tears. Above all, the festival symbolizes the power of books to reconnect us,” Artistic Director Diana Reich said.

Confirmed authors at Charleston Literary Festival

  • Sandy Hook, from New York Times writer Elizabeth Williamson, is a landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists.
  • The Palace Papers, Tina Brown, award-winning writer and editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, picks up where The Diana Chronicles left off, revealing how the royal family reinvented itself after the trau­matic years when Diana’s blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.
  • Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Today, Eddie S Glaude Jr., one of the nation’s most prominent scholars, is a passionate educator, author, political commentator, and public intellectual who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. Named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, Begin Again is where Glaude finds hope and guidance in James Baldwin as he mixes biography with history, memoir, and poignant analysis of our current moment to reveal the painful cycle of Black resistance and white retrenchment.
  • By Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, Horse is based on the true story of record-breaking 19th-century thoroughbred Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire. It is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, the bond between people and animals, and an unfinished reckoning with racial injustice throughout different American history periods.
  • The Latecomer, Jean Hanff Korelitz, New York Times bestselling author of The Plot, touches on grief and guilt, generational trauma, privilege and race, traditions and religion, and family dynamics. It is a profound and witty family story from an accomplished author known for the depth of her character studies, expertly woven storylines, and plot twists.

Charleston Literary Festival details

  • Programming: The festival, running November 4-13, 2022, will offer most of its events live with a small selection of online sessions. Programming revolves around intimate conversations between authors and interlocutors that include an opportunity for audience members to interact.
  • Ticket sales: Details for tickets and the complete programming list and schedule will be released in early September 2022.
  • Announcements: Sign up for the newsletter for up-to-date media alerts and participant lists.
  • Location: Charleston is the home of the festival, with live events presented in notable venues in the historic downtown area. All events will be held within easy walking distance of local amenities such as boutique hotels, great shopping, and plentiful restaurants.
  • Plan your trip: Charleston boasts a thriving art and music scene, award-winning food, pristine beaches, and sensational outdoor activities among its over 2,500 historic buildings.
  • Support the festival: festival donors make it possible to broaden event access to students and others through free and reduced-price tickets while also receiving exclusive access to events and tickets.

Click here for Charleston Literary Festival online.


Charleston Literary Festival was founded in 2017 as a result of an Anglo-American collaboration between the historic Charleston Library Society in the United States and the Charleston Trust in the United Kingdom – the former rural meeting place of the renowned Bloomsbury Group of writers, artists, and intellectuals. The Festival is now an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)3 enterprise that retains a strong transatlantic dimension. It takes place each November in Charleston, South Carolina. The program and activities are carefully curated to share and discuss innovative stories and ideas from recent and classical books and inform, enrich, and entertain.