Schedule:

12:00 p.m
Dock Street Theatre - $30
Attica Locke With Tamara Butler
Guide Me Home
Attica Locke, award-winning author and screenwriter, discusses her third and final book in the Highway 59 trilogy. Texas Ranger Darren Mathews is back to investigate a Black college student who goes missing from an all-white sorority. Described as "timely and evocative" by NPR, Guide Me Home is a searing portrait of political and racial tensions in contemporary America. This mystery book is for readers who appreciate excellent writing and storytelling, not just mystery readers. Locke’s screenwriter credits include the Emmy-nominated Little Fires Everywhere, for which she won an NAACP Image award for television writing. She will discuss her writing career with Dr. Tamara Butler, Executive Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.

2:00 p.m
Dock Street Theatre - $30
Angela Saini With Jennet Robinson Alterman
The Patriarchs
For centuries, societies have treated male domination as a natural state. Join Angela Saini, award-winning science journalist and lecturer in science writing at MIT, as she debunks this idea by exploring the roots and various iterations of patriarchy and shows how more equal societies are structured and flourish. Analyzing the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and tracing cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, she discusses why ideas about patriarchy are so difficult to dismantle with Jennet Robinson Alterman, women’s rights advocate.

4:00 p.m
Dock Street Theatre - $30
Ross Benjamin And Mark Harman With Scott Denham
A Kafka Centenary Celebration
Charleston Literary Festival is honored to be featured as part of Kafka2024, a global Festival marking the centenary of Franz Kafka’s death.

"A hundred insane years have passed since Franz succumbed to his suffering. Nevertheless, the fascination with what he created remains to this day. Explore his work with our help – regardless of whether you are already closely familiar with him or are still looking to get more familiar. Here we bridge the boundaries of space and time together." - Kafka2024

A century from the author’s death, ‘Kafkaesque’ is an adjective, a meme, and a Simpson gag. International fascination with him shows no signs of abating: new translations of his Diaries and Short Stories just published in English, a TV serialization of his life produced in Germany, and a Polish director working on a biopic. Ross Benjamin, translator of The Diaries of Franz Kafka, and Mark Harman, translator of Kafka’s Selected Stories, will discuss Kafka’s surreal worlds and lasting impact.  
In collaboration with Kafka2024 (coordinated by the Adalbert Stifter Association and the Prague City Library)

6:00 p.m
Dock Street Theatre - $30
Michael J. Sandel With Geoffrey Harpham
Democracy's Discontent
Harvard political philosopher Michael J. Sandel explores themes from his recent works, Democracy's Discontent: A New Edition for Our Perilous Times and The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good? Sandel has been described as “a rock star moralist" (Newsweek) and “The world’s most influential living philosopher" (New Statesman). He analyzes the challenges to democracy and the pursuit of common good following the 2024 US election, and the turbulent international times in which we live, with Geoffrey Harpham, Emeritus Director of the National Humanities Center.