GUESTS OF HONOR

Mary Kay Andrews & Kristy Woodson Harvey

Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, and the reason an entire generation packs a hardback in the beach bag. A former reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she has been called the Queen of the Summer Read for books like Savannah Blues, The High Tide Club and Sunset Beach — and this year's Road Trip, her first novel in two years, went straight onto the bestseller lists.

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thirteen novels, among them The Summer of Songbirds and the beloved Peachtree Bluff series, and her newest, Falling for Peachtree Bluff, brings the Murphy women home again. Several of her books are now in development for the screen.

The two are friends first, and co-founders of Friends & Fiction, the book community and weekly show that turned a pandemic-era idea into a standing conversation with readers across the country. Both write the Southern coast the way people who actually live on it do: salt, family, secrets, and a table that always has room for one more.

We are bringing them together for two days in the Lowcountry — two storytellers, one table, and the kind of conversation that only happens when the authors know each other this well.

TWO AUTHORS, ONE TABLE

Not a book signing.

Mary Kay and Kristy have shared a great many stages, livestreams and festival tents. What they rarely get to share is unhurried time with a small group of readers, far from a signing line.

This is that time. Rather than a talk and a queue, these two days will be devoted entirely to the two of them and to the Lowcountry they write about: an afternoon of coffee, lemonade and Whimsical Wicks presented with Lilly Pulitzer, a professionally photographed individual portrait with both authors, dinner at Linnette’s with Mary Kay and Kristy as our guests of honor, and a farewell breakfast the next morning.

It is a rare chance to hear, firsthand and between friends, how two of the South's most beloved storytellers find their characters, their coastlines and their endings — and to be at the table when they start trading stories of their own.