The Southern Gothic Festival is coming back to the cozy Broad Street of Camden, SC this October. For the fans of the spooky and esoteric, and anyone with a sense of morbid curiosity, this festival runs from the night of Friday October 10 through all of Saturday, October 11. A variety of panels featuring discussions of literature, history, and the occasional ghost tour await audiences either for free or for a nominal fee. Authors and journalists make up many of the headliners, and here are some highlights.
USC and Columbia’s own Julia Elliott, the author of beloved short story collection Hellions, novel The New and Improved Romie Futch, and the short story collection The Wilds, is participating in the panel Haunted Landscapes: The Supernatural in Southern Gothic Fiction on Saturday, October 11 at 11 a.m. in the Historic Camden Education Center, alongside other authors Nathan Ballingrud (North American Lake Monsters and Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell) and Lee Mandelo (Summer Sons and The Woods All Black). Topics of this panel will include subverting genre expectations, blending psychological depth with speculative elements, and drawing on regional mythology to create narratives that are as emotionally resonant as they are chilling.
At 2 p.m. on the 11th, award-winning novelist David Joy joins the festival for a conversation on the complexities of modern Southern identity through the lens of his most recent work, Those We Thought We Knew, and his earlier novel, When These Mountains Burn. Known for his stark, lyrical prose and deeply human characters, Joy explores themes of race, rural poverty, family, morality, and place–capturing the contradictions and weight of life in the contemporary South.
And for those more intrigued in the realm of true crime, two of the biggest cases in South Carolina’s history will receive their fair share of attention. Valerie Bauerlein, a Wall Street Journal Reporter and Writer, is conducting a panel about her book The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty at 12 p.m. on the 11th, and at 4 p.m., catch Dick Harpootlian, a veteran of the Columbia courtroom, discuss his experience prosecuting Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins and Harpootlian’s upcoming memoir about the ordeal, Dig Me a Grave.
For a full schedule of events for the two-day festival, visit the festival website at SouthernGothicFestival.com. The majority of the events are free to the public, including an opening street concert with Valentine Wolfe and Wasted Wine on the 10th at 7 p.m.