CLASS
The Moveable Feast offers monthly luncheons featuring presenters on a broad range of cultural topics (music, art, drama, history, and some literature, mostly by local and CLASS-published authors). Each is individually priced. Email [email protected] or call 843-235-9600 for more information. Click here to register online!

CLASS

Thursday 03/28/2024 at 11:00 AM
Teri M. Brown
(Daughters of Green Mountain Gap) at Pawleys Tap House & Grill
An Appalachian granny woman. A daughter on a crusade. A granddaughter caught between the two. Maggie McCoury, a generational healer woman, relies on family traditions, folklore, and beliefs gleaned from a local Cherokee tribe. Her daughter, Carrie Ann, believes her university training holds the answers. As they clash over the use of roots, herbs, and a dash of mountain magic versus the medicine available in the town's apothecary, Josie Mae doesn’t know whom to follow. But what happens when neither family traditions nor science can save the ones you love most? "Daughters of Green Mountain Gap" weaves a compelling tale of Maggie, Carrie Ann, and Josie Mae, three generations of remarkable North Carolina women living at the turn of the twentieth century, shedding light on racism, fear of change, loss of traditions, and the intricate dynamics within a family. Award-winning author Teri M. Brown ("Sunflowers Beneath the Snow" and "An Enemy Like Me") skillfully navigates the complexities of their lives, revealing that some questions are not as easy to answer as one might think.
$35
CLASS
Wednesday 04/03/2024 at 11:00 AM
Henry Middleton Rutledge, Donald Middleton Rutledge & Jayson Sellers
(Archibald Rutledge's Days Off in Dixie) at DeBordieu Colony Clubhouse
CLASS Publishing has been entrusted to reprint several books by South Carolina's first poet laureate and beloved chronicler of life in this land in the 20th century. "Days Off in Dixie" features 25 short stories previously published individually in magazines of the day when Archibald Rutledge was teaching in the English Department at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. Published as a collection in 1921, the tales reveal the young author's love and longing for the world of Hampton Plantation, to which he traveled at every opportunity. This 1920s collection celebrates his sensitive appreciation of nature, knowledge of wild creatures, hunting traditions, and experiences with relatives and friends – none diminished by the passing of a century. Grandson Henry Middleton Rutledge, who penned the new foreword, and great-grandson Donald Middleton Rutledge join us to share memories and launch the effort by Hampton Plantation to renew our appreciation of one of South Carolina’s favorite sons.
$40
CLASS
Tuesday 04/09/2024 at 11:00 AM
Lin Stepp
(Light in the Dark) at Caffe Piccolo (note change of venue)
In the third novel in the beloved Lighthouse Sisters series, Celeste Deveaux struggles to find her way back to joy, love, and meaning after a painful relationship almost shatters her life. Celeste Deveaux, a bestselling country music singer with fans around the world, never planned or expected to come home again, battered and beaten, to her family’s oceanfront inn and historic lighthouse at Edisto Island on the South Carolina coast. With threats still following her, Celeste struggles to find peace, to decide on her direction, and to recover her life. Reid Beckett was stunned to see Celeste Deveaux make her way to the piano to sing one night at his Uncle Thurman's restaurant in Charleston. It had been at least eight years since she’d last performed here as a young girl, long before she left and became a well-known star. He doubted she even remembered him or would recognize him again, but he well remembered her. The Lighthouse Sisters Series follow the lives of four sisters who grew up in the shadow of the tall Deveaux Lighthouse at the Deveaux Inn on Watch Island. The Light Station, developed when the lighthouse was built in 1870 on Watch Island, at the far end of Edisto Island, has been in the Deveaux family since its origin. When the lighthouse was decommissioned, in the 1930s, the property reverted back to the family who remodeled the old keeper's home into a gracious inn for visitors. Although the island is often busy with tourists visiting the inn or coming to tour the historic lighthouse, the island is accessible only by boat—making this windswept spot a somewhat isolated place for the four Deveaux Sisters to grow up. Lin Stepp is the author of 23 novels in four series, plus guide books to North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee state parks, written with her husband, J.L.
$35
CLASS
Tuesday 04/16/2024 at 11:00 AM
Heather Frese
(The Saddest Girl on the Beach) at 21 Main, NMB
Grieving after her father's death, a young woman seeks solace in an Outer Banks beach town of North Carolina where her best friend's family runs a small inn. The family welcomes Charlotte with chowder dinners and a cozy room, but her friend Evie has a looming life change of her own, and soon Charlotte seeks other attractions to navigate her grief. Will she, like in some television movie, find her way back through a romance, or are there larger forces at play? Heather Frese, winner of the Lee Smith Novel Prize for her debut novel "The Baddest Girl on the Planet," sets Charlotte on a beautifully rendered course through human frailty, unrelenting science, and the awesome forces of the Carolina coast. In addition to the coveted Lee Smith Novel Prize, Frese was longlisted for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and was named one of the Women's National Book Association's Great Group Reads of 2021. She attended Ohio University for her M.A. followed by an M.F.A. in fiction from West Virginia University. A freelance writer, Heather worked with Outer Banks publications as well as publishing short fiction, essays, poetry, and interviews in various literary journals, including Michigan Quarterly Review, Los Angeles Review, Front Porch, Barely South Review, Switchback, and elsewhere. Coastal North Carolina is her longtime love and source of inspiration, her writing deeply influenced by the wild magic and history of the Outer Banks. She currently writes, edits, and teaches in Raleigh, North Carolina.
$35
CLASS
Tuesday 04/23/2024 at 11:00 AM
C. E. Smith
(A Pocket Wild: Notes from a Carolina Marsh) at Hot Fish Club
C.E. (Chip) Smith is "the voice" for the natural world in Murrells Inlet. Known and loved for his brilliant black-and-white photography and his piercing, evocative essays on what he calls this "pocket wild" – essays that grew from articles published in his weekly newspapers the "Inlet Image" and "Barefoot Messenger," and in the much-missed "Lowcountry Companion" – and respected by area scientists for his rational analysis of "the data" and its implications for our future, Chip doesn't just talk the talk. In post-Hugo 1992, he started the now-regionally recognized "Spring Tide" clean-up of the creek, when more than 600 Inlet enthusiasts brought in 75-150 tons of trash and hurricane debris. For the first decade the yearly haul ranged from 12-15 tons and, in recent years (under the auspices of Murrells Inlet 2020), between 300-400 volunteers annually harvest about 3-5 tons of flotsam and jetsam out of the marsh and from along the roadways – an improvement but a job without end. His lyrical, informative essays celebrate the natural workings of the Inlet marsh while soberly examining the effects of economic development. Reading Chip will send you marshside to explore for yourself . . . or get you googling to learn more. Whether you’re a "been-yere" or a "come-yere," you will find new knowledge, new understanding, and new feelings of protectiveness for this "pocket wild" from a prose poet who loves the place, learns all he can, and shares it with you.
$35
CLASS
Saturday 04/27/2024 at 11:00 AM
Billy Baldwin, Macon Rutledge & Hannah Marley
(Archibald Rutledge's How Wild Was My Village) at McClellanville Town Hall catered by Joe’s Catering/Buckshot's
The second CLASS Publishing reprint of Archibald Rutledge's work "How Wild Was My Village" (first published for brief circulation in 1969) has an interesting literary origin and history, which William (Billy) Baldwin (who should be the current SC poet laureate) recounts in his new Foreword to the book. The question posed to the village residents (all renamed to protect the guilty) is "what was the defining moment of your life," which some recount from beyond the grave while others from living memory. With bold illustrations by D.P. McGuire and set in free verse poetry, the tales told are filled with violence, longing, regret, fear, betrayal, redemption and love – all of the burdens of humanity, whether the stage is a metropolis or a tiny community like McClellanville.
$40
CLASS
Monday 05/06/2024 at 11:00 AM
Johnathon Scott Barrett
(Ship Watch) at Pawleys Tap House & Grill
Set around the renowned and historical homestead at the center of the drama, "Ship Watch" weaves together six intertwined relationships that extend from the gentrified city of Savannah and into the wealthy enclaves of Sea Island, Highlands, and Atlanta's Buckhead. The novel's characters are drawn in the loom by the family's elegantly formidable matriarch, Grand Martha, and form a multi-generational tapestry that includes the misfortunes of divorce and betrayal – but in more and even better measure opportunities for redemption, rediscovery, and the rarified gift of 'second love.' By combining an encompassing setting having a solid sense of place along with characters that are captivating and rather extraordinary, "Ship Watch" is a sometimes bittersweet, yet often comedic, Southern tour-de-force debut novel. Heretofore, Johnathon, a seventh-generation Georgian who has a deep appreciation for the history, foodways, and culture of the South, has been celebrated for his highly readable, highly eatable, and highly entertaining cookbooks – "Cook & Tell," "Rise & Shine," and "Cook & Celebrate!"
$35
CLASS
Wednesday 05/15/2024 at 11:00 AM
Roger Jones
(The Final Victory) at The Village House
Based on true events, "The Final Victory" is an exhilarating debut novel that acts as a "metaphor not only for the struggle to survive but also a pathway for redemption." After he is diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, Tripp Avery feels like all is lost. He finds himself coaching a team of twelve men and eight women with cancer diagnoses of their own, hoping to qualify for the Mixed Masters Dragon Boat national championship and defy their prognoses. If they win, they will represent the United States at the International Dragon Boat races in Hong Kong. But soon things get complicated, as four of Tripp's teammates struggle with physical limitations and the psychological weight of their conditions. Members of the team collapse under the pressure and one is hospitalized. Faced with confronting his own failings and struggling to find a way forward, Tripp begins to question his motives, wondering if the win is worth the trauma. Despite the odds, he resolves to rally the team toward a comeback that seems impossible, if only for one final victory. In author Jones' case, the businessman, philanthropist, humanitarian and avid athlete completed his first novel – a goal set during a 2012 trip to East Germany to receive an intensive radiation treatment for neuroendocrine cancer – after attending many writing classes and conferences and by following the oft-voiced advice: Write what you know. Pre-publication accolades from Mary Alice Monroe, Cassandra King, Bill Curry, Patti Henry and Jeffrey Blount ring with heartfelt praise for Roger Jones' debut.
$35
CLASS
Tuesday 05/21/2024 at 11:00 AM
Deb Richardson-Moore
(Through the Window) at Hot Fish Club
Riley Masterson has moved to the vibrant city of Greenbrier, SC, anxious to escape the chaos that has overwhelmed her life. Questioned in a murder in Alabama, she has spent eighteen months under suspicion by a sheriff's office unable to make an arrest. But things in gentrifying Greenbrier are not as they seem. Her cousin has an ulterior motive for inviting Riley into her home, and pieces of Riley's past shadow her. As she struggles to forge a new life, forces are gathering in the tension-plagued neighborhood where glitzy new homes rise alongside crumbling mill houses, and everyone, it seems, is able to peer into a neighbor's window. When murder explodes, someone unexpected is caught in the crossfire. Detectives are left to ponder: Are the deaths personal or the result of rich and poor living in such close proximity? And will Riley take the blame as someone so meticulously planned? Author of five fiction titles and a memoir, "The Weight of Mercy," about her early years as a pastor at the Triune Mercy Center in Greenville, S.C., Deb is a former national award-winning reporter for "The Greenville (SC) News" and a popular speaker at book clubs, universities and churches. She has won numerous awards for community involvement, including the 2020 Humanitarian Award by Upstate Housing Connections and the 2017 Leadership Greenville Distinguished Alumni Award.
$35
CLASS
Wednesday 05/29/2024 at 11:00 AM
C. Hope Clark
(Edisto Bullet) at Quigley’s Next Door
In Book Ten of this mystery series, when a storm blows out power to half the beach, all hell breaks loose on Edisto Beach. Police Chief Callie Morgan is called to investigate a break-in at El Marko's, the restaurant owned by the man who's unexpectedly become a real part of her life. Then she sees Mark slide an unspent .41 caliber bullet from the bar into his pocket. A bullet seemingly left as a calling card. A bullet he has no intention of mentioning to her. Before they got involved, Callie knew ex-SLED agent Mark Dupree had a past, one he kept carefully buttoned-up and private around her. She understood, but now that past has come calling and his secrets could get someone killed. Suddenly, the man she thought she knew so well is disappearing, lost in secrets he won’t share. Soon more bullets are left as warnings, all on the doorsteps of people in Mark's life. Adding to the uncertainty and chaos is a new-to-town physic, warning anyone who will listen that she sees danger around Mark, vowing that within six days someone will die. The hell of it is, Callie isn't certain the psychic is wrong. She's got six days to unearth a past Mark doesn't want her to know and to protect the town she loves from whatever blew in with the storm.
$35
CLASS
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