Projects

Letters About Literature

Each year the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation with affiliate state centers for the book, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest.

To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre– fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author’s work changed the student’s way of thinking about the world or themselves. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 – 12.

In 2004, 38,000 young readers across the country wrote letters for the contest. Over 1,200 letters were submitted from South Carolina. National winners as well as state level winners receive cash prizes.

To find out more about the program and how your school or individual child can get involved, please visit the contest website.

Speaker at the Center Lunchtime Programs

In Summer 2007, the SC Center for the Book initiated a Speaker at the Center lunchtime series.  The SCCFTB will host at least one speaker per quarter to give a self-contained, one hour talk on the area of his or her academic expertise, latest publication, or other book-related topic of interest to the general population.  The program is free and open to the public and attendees should feel free to bring a bag lunch. List of 2011 Speakers:

  • Thursday, January 27, 2011: Patricia Moore-Pastides shared her recently published book Greek Revival: Cooking for Life.  She discussed her fresh and exciting approach to Greek culinary tradition, lively stories of her days living in Greece and Cyprus, and the health benefits of the Mediterranean lifestyle. 
  • Thursday, February 10, 2011: Eric Emerson discussed his book, Faith, Valor, and Devotion: The Civil War Letters of William Porcher DuBose.  Emerson, director of the SC Dept. of Archives and History, shared the powerful stories and the wartime correspondence of a South Carolina native who later became a leading Episcopal theologian.
  • Thursday, March 3, 2011: James R. Cothran discussed his book Charleston Gardens and the Landscape Legacy of Loutrel Briggs.  Cothran shared a fascinating account of the life and career of renowned landscape architect Loutrel Briggs. 
  • Thursday, April 7, 2011: William Starr, Whiskey, Kilts, and the Lochness Monster: Traveling through Scotland with Boswell and Johnson. Starr shared his memoir of a twenty-first-century literary pilgrimage to retrace the famous eighteenth-century Scottish journey of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson.
  • Thursday, May 12, 2011: Mary Whyte, Working South: Paintings and Sketches by Mary Whyte.  Whyte shared her book of paintings and sketches, capturing the essence of vanishing blue-collar professions from across ten states in the American South.
  • Thursday, August 25, 2011: Philip Grose, Looking for Utopia: The Life and Times of John C. West.  Grose shared the first biography of this visionary South Carolina governor and stalwart ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
  • Thursday, September 8, 2011: Robert M. Weir: Captured at Kings Mountain: The Diary of Uzal Johnson, a Loyalist Surgeon.  Weir gave the audience the loyalist’s perspective on social, medical, and military aspects of the American Revolution.
  • Tuesday, October 25, 2011: Tara Mitchell Mielnik, New Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps and South Carolina’s State Parks.  Mielnik discussed the history of the New Deal program that led to the creation of South Carolina’s first sixteen state parks. 
  • Thursday, November 3, 2011: Allen H. Stokes, The Kohn-Hennig Library: A Catolog.  Stokes shared this newly published guide of the monumental collection of South Caroliniana and a tribute to devoted collectors.
  • Thursday, December 8, 2011: Walter Edgar, South Carolina in the Modern Age.  Edgar presented his nuanced view of the Palmetto State in the twentieth century.  

River of Words

The South Carolina Center for the Book is proud to promote the River of Words Contest to South Carolina students, in partnership with the Library of Congress and the River of Words organization.

River of Words is a free, international poetry and art contest for youth on the theme of watersheds. The contest is designed to help youth explore the natural and cultural history of the place they live, and to express, through poetry and art, what they discover.

The contest is open to any child in South Carolina (and the world!), from 5-19 years of age. Students may enter on their own or as part of a group (classroom, Scout troop, 4-H, etc.) The deadline for entries for the 2008 contest is February 15th, 2008. For more information about the contest and how to enter, please see the Web site at www.riverofwords.org. South Carolina student winners in each age category will be honored at a ceremony in Columbia, SC in late April.

For questions, please contact Frances Kablick or visit the River of Words website.

South Carolina Literary Map

Managed by the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science, the SC Literary Map is a comprehensive guide to Palmetto State Writers – past and present, popular and unsung.  The map’s Web site features county-by-county listings of these writers, with biographical information and extensive bibliographies. The Literary Tour of South Carolina map is available at no charge at public libraries throughout the state or, by request, from the South Carolina State Library.  For corrections or additions, please contact Elizabeth Qunell at equnell@sc.edu.