CONROY CENTER HOSTS AUTHORS SUSAN BECKHAM ZURENDA AND NATHALIE DUPREE

JULY 20 & 28

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host novelist Susan Beckham Zurenda and award-winning cookbook author and celebrity chef Nathalie Dupree in separate events this July 20 and 28, 5:30 p.m. Free and open to the public, these events will be held at the Conroy Center (905 Port Republic St., Beaufort) with limited seating and live-streaming to Facebook. Both writers are visiting Beaufort to film interviews on season three of SCETV’s By the River, sponsored in part by the Conroy Center.

To be featured on July 20, Susan Beckham Zurenda is the author of the debut novel Bells for Eli. The story of first cousins Ellison (Eli) Winfield and Adeline (Delia) Green, Zurenda’s novel is a lyrical and tender exploration of the relationship between cousins drawn together through tragedy in a love forbidden by social constraints and a family whose secrets must stay hidden. Zurenda masterfully transports readers into a small Southern town where quiet, ordinary life becomes extraordinary. In this compelling coming of age story, culture, family, friends, bullies, and lovers propel two young people to unite to guard each other in a world where love, hope, and connectedness ultimately triumph.

“A stunning debut, Bells for Eli establishes Susan Beckham Zurenda as one of the most exciting new voices in Southern fiction,” says Cassandra King Conroy, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of five novels and the memoir Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy. “In this tender, beautifully-rendered novel, the powerful connection between cousins Delia and Eli takes them on a journey fraught with longing, desire, and heartbreak. Through loss, Delia comes to understand that the bonds of love can never truly be broken.”

Susan Beckham Zurenda taught English for thirty-three years and now works as a book publicist for Magic Time Literary Publicity. A recipient of several regional awards for her fiction, including The South Carolina Fiction Project, The Porter Fleming Literary Competition, and The Southern Writers Symposium, she has also published numerous stories and nonfiction pieces in literary journals. She lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The Conroy Center will host a lively conversation between the Queen of Southern Cuisine Nathalie Dupree and Beaufort’s own award-winning cookbook author Debbi Covington on Tuesday, July 28, as they discuss the recently published Nathalie Dupree’s Favorite Stories & Recipes.

“When we called Nathalie Dupree the ‘queen of Southern cuisine,’ we meant it,” praises Southern Living. “Dupree’s TV shows, cookbooks, and classes have been hugely influential among Southern home cooks. Her latest book takes you through her entire storied life in food, from serving as a one-woman school cafeteria for her college classmates to running one of the most popular cooking schools in the South. While her recipes are always worth making (don’t miss her biscuits), you’ll love reading this book too.”

Nathalie Dupree is the author of 14 cookbooks and the host of more than 300 national and international cooking shows. She is the winner of four James Beard Awards, three for cookbooks and one for Who’s Who in American Cooking. Dupree has been the president of the Atlanta chapter of the International Women’s Forum; founder and past president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP); founder and board member of Southern Foodways; and founder and co-president of two chapters of Les Dames d’Escoffier, by whom she was awarded the honor of “Grande Dame.” Dupree was the founding president of the Charleston Wine and Food Festival. She was named the 2013 Woman of the Year from the French Master Chefs of America and received Slow Food Charleston’s 2016 Snail Award. In 2018 she was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors, and in 2019, she received the IACP Lifetime Achievement Award. Her books New Southern Cooking and Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking are on the 2017 Southern Living 100 Best Cookbooks of All Time list.

Debbi Covington is an award-winning caterer, cookbook author and food columnist, and the author of the cookbooks Celebrate Beaufort, Celebrate Everything! and Dining Under the Carolina Moon.

Learn more about the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org or in person at 905 Port Republic Street, Thursday through Sunday, noon to 4:30 p.m.