The Pulpwood Queen Announces Poet, Tim Conroy Will do a Special Presentation at our 2019 Girlfriend Weekend!

Actress and director Barbra Streisand, who met Pat Conroy (1945-2016) while making the film version of his novel The Prince of Tides, wrote to her longtime friend in 2016: “Your natural language is poetry. You write sentences that are like an incantation.” On Tuesday, September 25, Pat’s brother Tim will explore Pat’s lifelong connection with poetry as a devoted reader, as a self-described “failed poet,” and as an iconic bestselling novelist who wove the rhythms of poetry into his lyrical prose. Tim Conroy is a retired educator and founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, established in his brother’s honor.

The presentation reveals how Conroy’s passion to write blossomed from an early love of poetry. Even in his final hours, the famed author of such titles as The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Water Is Wide immersed himself in the beauty and power of verse.

Tim Conroy has delivered similar presentations on the centrality of poetry to his brother’s life and work, and says the experience is always emotional but uplifting: “Poetry was a driving force behind Pat’s writing and he was such an avid reader of poetry. I love to share with the audience some of Pat’s early poems. He didn’t think these were good. But he was able to translate that poetic voice brilliantly into his prose.” Tim also enjoys sharing with attendees excerpts from Pat’s last novel, unfinished at the time of his death: “To give you an idea of how important poetry was to my brother, the main character of his final novel wants to be a poet. Just like Pat himself always did.”

Dr. Catherine Seltzer, an associate professor of English and Women’s Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is engaged in the multi-year project of penning Pat Conroy’s official biography. Seltzer explains, “As a college student, Conroy was taken with the idea of being a poet, and it guided his sense of himself as a writer for several years. Long after he had abandoned the form, finding himself as a novelist and memoirist, a poetic sensibility always informed Conroy’s writing.” Seltzer adds that fellow South Carolina writer James Dickey, whose creative writing class Pat attended at the University of South Carolina in 1972, would later write Conroy a letter that affirmed this influence, noting “You and I are both creatures of the Word. We want this word, rather than this word’s second cousin twice removed. And that exclusivity will save us, I do believe.”

Pat Conroy believed that “the most powerful words in English are ‘Tell me a story.’” To tell a story most powerfully and memorably, he understood we need poetry and the incantatory power of its rhythms. Conroy’s lyrical phrases are signal fires to light our path through the hard, complicated truths we often confront in his novels. Tim’s presentation fosters a new appreciation for Pat’s dedication to the writing craft, revealing the myriad ways in which poetry emerges through Conroy’s storied prose.

Pat was well known for encouraging would-be writers and fostering their careers, a rare trait among established novelists. This extended to his brother’s desire to become a poet. As a result of Pat’s tireless prodding to “do something about it,” Tim kept at his poetry and, in 2017, Muddy Ford Press published Tim’s first book of poetry, Theologies of Terrain. His big brother would be proud. As Pat Conroy wrote, “the poets of the world occupy a place of high honor in my city of books.”