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The literature of South Carolina, United States, includes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Representative authors include Dorothy Allison, Daniel Payne and William Gilmore Simms. [1] [2]
A printing press began operating in Charleston in 1731. [3]
Literary figures of the antebellum period included Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886), James Matthews Legaré (1823-1859), William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), Henry Timrod (1829-1867). [4] The Southern Review was published in Charleston from 1828 through 1832. [5] The Carolina Housewife cookbook was published in Charleston in 1847. [6]
In the 1920s Julia Peterkin (1880-1961) wrote about the Gullah. [7] DuBose Heyward's (1885-1940) 1925 novel Porgy "explored interactions among the black residents of Charleston's Catfish Row." [7]
The South Carolina Review literary journal was founded at Furman University in Greenville in 1968, later moving to Clemson University. [8]
The Upstate (or Upcountry) includes the mountains of Oconee and Pickens Counties, the Greenville-Spartanburg metro area, and the many mill communities in the triangle between Charlotte, Columbia, and the Georgia border. The region is best encapsulated by Ben Robertson's memoir Red Hills and Cotton, which describes life in the New South mill culture in the South Carolina "backcountry."
In the late 20th and 21st centuries, literature in this region flourished. Notable books include Dori Sanders' Clover, Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, and the short stories of George Singleton. Oconee, Pickens and Anderson counties have been referred to as the "dark corner," allegedly because it took so long for the region to get electricity. [9] Novelists Ron Rash, Mark Powell and others have explored the region's isolation and history of lawlessness.
The Upstate is also home to a thriving literary arts community, including Spartanburg's Hub City Writers Project. Another literary group is Wits End Poetry, established in 2002.
The South Carolina Lowcountry includes Charleston, Beaufort, Hilton Head and sea islands. Novelists Dorothea Benton Frank, Josephine Humphreys, and the late Pat Conroy captured the flavor of the Lowcountry, the rhythms of the coast, Charleston's changing society, and the romantic myth of the region. Other notable works from the region include Padgett Powell's novel Edisto.
The Poetry Society of South Carolina began in Charleston in 1920. [8] The Spartanburg Hub City Writers Project launched in 1995. [8] Wits End Poetry was launched in 2002.
South Carolina is a state in the coastal Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southwest by Georgia across the Savannah River. South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and 23rd most populous U.S. state with a recorded population of 5,124,712 according to the 2020 census. In 2019, its GDP was $213.45 billion. South Carolina is composed of 46 counties. The capital is Columbia with a population of 137,300 in 2020; while its largest city is Charleston with a 2020 population of 150,277. The Greenville–Spartanburg-Anderson metropolitan area is the most populous in the state, with a 2020 population estimate of 1,455,892.
Scouting in South Carolina has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.
Greenville is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-most populous city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway between Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, along Interstate 85. Its metropolitan area also includes Interstates 185 and 385. Greenville is the anchor city of the Upstate, a combined statistical area with a population of 1,487,610 at the 2020 census. Greenville was the fourth fastest-growing city in the United States between 2015 and 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Seneca is a city in Oconee County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 8,102 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Seneca Micropolitan Statistical Area, an (MSA) that includes all of Oconee County, and that is included within the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, South Carolina Combined Statistical Area. Seneca was named for the nearby Cherokee town of Isunigu, which English colonists knew as "Seneca Town".
Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city had a population 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) grouped Spartanburg and Union Counties together as the Spartanburg metropolitan statistical area, but the OMB now defines the Spartanburg MSA as only Spartanburg County.
Greer is a city in Greenville and Spartanburg counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 35,308 as of the 2020 census. Greer is a principal city in the Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is additionally part of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area in Upstate South Carolina.
Paul Hamilton Hayne was a Southern American poet, critic, and editor.
William Gilmore Simms was a poet, novelist, politician and historian from the American South. His writings achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced. He is still known among literary scholars as a major force in antebellum Southern literature. He is also remembered for his strong support of slavery and for his opposition to Uncle Tom's Cabin, in response to which he wrote reviews and a pro-slavery novel. During his literary career he served as editor of several journals and newspapers and he also served in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
The Upstate is the region in the westernmost part of South Carolina, United States, also known as the Upcountry, which is the historical term. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerce-rich I-85 corridor in the northwest corner of South Carolina. This definition coincided with the Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson, SC combined statistical area, as first defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2015. In 2023, the OMB issued its most updated definition of the CSA that coincides again with the 10-county region.
Southern United States literature consists of American literature written about the Southern United States or by writers from the region. Literature written about the American South first began during the colonial era, and developed significantly during and after the period of slavery in the United States. Traditional historiography of Southern United States literature emphasized a unifying history of the region; the significance of family in the South's culture, a sense of community and the role of the individual, justice, the dominance of Christianity and the positive and negative impacts of religion, racial tensions, social class and the usage of local dialects. However, in recent decades, the scholarship of the New Southern Studies has decentralized these conventional tropes in favor of a more geographically, politically, and ideologically expansive "South" or "Souths".
The 2008 South Carolina Senate elections were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The primary elections were held on June 10 and the runoff elections were held two weeks later on June 24. The current composition of the state delegation is 27 Republicans and 19 Democrats. Senators are elected for four-year terms, all in the same year.
The economy of South Carolina was ranked the 25th largest in the United States based on gross domestic product in 2022. Tourism, centered around Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Head Island, is the state's largest industry. The state's other major economic sector is advanced manufacturing located primarily in the Upstate and the Lowcountry.
The Hub City Writers Project is a nonprofit organization in Spartanburg, South Carolina, dedicated to cultivating readers and nurturing writers through its independent small press, community bookstore, and diverse literary programming. The independent press publishes books of literature and culture with an emphasis on the southern experience by new and established authors. Now in its twenty-fifth year, Hub City is the winner of four IPPY awards from Independent Publisher magazine; the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award for contribution to the arts in South Carolina; and the South Carolina Governor's Award for the Humanities.
Northeast Georgia is a region of Georgia in the United States. The northern part is also in the north Georgia mountains, while the southern part is still hilly but much flatter in topography. Northeast Georgia is also served by the Asheville/Spartanburg/Greenville/Anderson market.
William James Rivers was a famous and important Southern writer, educator, and a published author before, during, and after the Confederate States of America. He has recently been re-published, his novel "Eunice: A Tale of Reconstruction Times in South Carolina" having been published as recently as 2006 by the University of South Carolina and his unpublished manuscripts forming an important part of the permanent manuscript collection of USC. Tara Courtney McKinney, editor of the 2006 republication of "Eunice", has done a great deal of biographical research as well.
Marjory Heath Wentworth is an American poet. She was named by Governor Mark Sanford as the sixth South Carolina Poet Laureate in 2003.
Bennie Lee Sinclair was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She was named by Governor Richard Wilson Riley as the fifth South Carolina Poet Laureate from 1986 to 2000.
Beatrice Witte Ravenel was an American poet associated with the Charleston Renaissance in South Carolina.
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