Notable Past Speakers

In two short years, the Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival has hosted educated, thoughtful, celebrated, internationally renowned speakers, including:

• Lauded American novelist Joyce Carol Oates

• Academy Award Nominated Screenwriter and Novelist William Nicholson

• Former Director of the Globe Theatre Dominic Dromgoole

• Bestselling Author Bernard Cornwell

• Booker Prize-winning Author and Poet Ben Okri

• Internationally Acclaimed Artist Jonathan Green

• Bestselling LGBTQ+ Author Jeanette Winterson

• Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David W. Blight

• Social Historian and Granddaughter to Vanessa Bell Virginia Nicholson

• Preeminent British Political Playwright Sir David Hare

• Chinese biographer Jung Chang

• Daily Beast World News Editor Christopher Dickey

• Social Historian and Author Margo Jefferson

• Bestselling Author Madeline Miller

• CNN’s Senior Political Analyst John Avlon

• Former NY Times Editor Jill Abramson

• Pulitzer Prize-winning Photographer Lynsey Addario

• Legendary Editor Tina Brown

• Literary Scholar and Author Stephen Greenblatt

• Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn

• British Nobleman and Historian Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer

• Historian and Activist Deborah Lipstadt

• United States Federal Court Judge Richard Gergel

• Short story master Deborah Eisenberg

• Best selling novelist Lionel Shriver

Who will grace our stages in the future? That remains to be seen, but you can guarantee the caliber and quality of our speakers will be second to none.