Each year, the Southern Author Expo offers the chance to meet and greet selected regional authors as well as listen to special featured speakers as they share information on their latest books, their writing process, and other literary themes.
Are you a local author interested in submitting your work for consideration for the next Southern Author Expo? See submission guidelines below and check back in late summer of 2023 for more information.
Requirements
- Authors must live in the Southeastern United States or write primarily about the Upstate of South Carolina.
- Authors must be published (including self-published).
- Authors must complete the Southern Author Expo application accompanied by writing samples (5,000 words maximum).
- Selected authors must be available to participate in the Southern Author Expo at the Hughes Main Library.
- Selected authors may sell their books at their display table during the Southern Author Expo.
Guidelines & Criteria
- Books for all ages will be considered (including children’s literature and young adult).
- Preference will be given for books that appeal to a wide general audience including:
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Graphic novels
- History, biographies, travelogues, fine arts, humor, folklore, home & garden, recreation & leisure, cookbooks, and true crime
- Epublished titles, audiobooks, textbooks, or professional/academic journals will not be considered.
- Applications will be reviewed by a committee of library staff.
- Not all applications will be accepted. Space is limited.
- Selections will reflect a diverse group of genres and writing styles that have the widest appeal to the community at large.
Important to Note
- Selected authors will not be offered compensation or a speaker’s fee.
- Authors will be expected to handle any sale of their book(s). Library staff will not assist with sales. Direct links to sale sites will not be included in Library publicity.
- Selected authors may submit a short sample (if different from the application sample) to be featured on the Library’s website (see examples from 2023 below). Selected authors must include copyright permissions for displayed excerpts.
- Authors who have participated in previous author events with Greenville County Library System need to re-apply for consideration.
- The Library will provide one 6’ table with a gray tablecloth and two chairs. Space assignments will be provided to authors upon check-in on the day of the event.
Featured Writers 2023
We were excited to welcome over two dozen local authors to our Southern Author Expo in 2023. Their works spanned an array of genres including children's literature, fantasy, romance, mystery, thriller, nonfiction, memoir, and more.
Featured Speakers 2023
Wiley Cash is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, including When Ghosts Come Home, and the founder of This Is Working, an online creative community. He’s been a fellow at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and he teaches fiction writing and literature at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. He lives in North Carolina with his wife, photographer Mallory Cash, and their daughters.
Phoebe Zerwick is an award-winning investigative journalist, narrative writer, and college professor. Her writing has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine; National Geographic; The Nation; and Glamour, among other publications. Her work has been recognized by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia University, and the North Carolina Press Association and featured in the HBO documentary "The Trials of Darryl Hunt." A graduate of the Journalism School at Columbia University, Zerwick is the director of the journalism program at Wake Forest University, where she teaches writing and journalism, including courses taught at the law school in collaboration with the director of Wake Forest's Innocence & Justice Clinic. She lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. with her husband, a dog and three cats. Between them, they have three grown children.
Scott Gould was born, raised and still lives in South Carolina. His first book, Strangers to Temptation—a linked story collection the Atlanta Journal Constitution called “a compulsive read” and Foreword Reviews dubbed “funny, often poignant, and not easily forgotten”—was published by Hub City Press in 2017. Of his debut novel, Whereabouts (Koehler Books), the Atlanta Journal Constitution said, the book is “distinctly Southern but gritty, without a whiff of moonlight and magnolias.” Gould’s memoir, Things That Crash, Things That Fly (Vine Leaves Press), was released in March of 2021, and a new novel, The Hammerhead Chronicles, will be published by the University of North Georgia Press in early 2022. He lives in Sans Souci, South Carolina with a cat and a dog, and teaches creative writing at the S.C. Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities.
Ashley Poston is the USA Today and New York Times best-selling author of romantic stories for both teens and adults. She studied English at the University of South Carolina, and now lives with her bossy cat and a mountain of books in her hometown. You can find her on Twitter at @ashposton and Instagram at @heyashposton.
Charlie Lovett is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller The Bookman’s Tale (Viking/Penguin, 2013). Lovett has also written or edited nine books about Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. For eleven years, Lovett served as Writer-in-Residence at Summit School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2022, Lovett published three new books: The Engima Affair, The Book of the Seven Spells, and Lewis Carroll: Formed by Faith. He lives in Winston-Salem with his wife, Janice. They have two grown children, Jordan and Jimmy.
Sponsors
This event was generously sponsored by the Friends of the Greenville County Library System!
