Piccolo's literary revival

Though not exactly the sort of revival accompanied by passionate exhortations and hymns, Piccolo Spoleto's Southern Literary Festival is a revival nonetheless, creating its own brand of "congregational" enthusiasm.

Designed to address what the organizers feel is an underrepresented art form at Piccolo, the 2009 fest is the second in a proposed annual series re-established last year by the Charleston Library Society after a brief hiatus.

Holding forth will be literary luminaries Bret Lott, Anne Rivers Siddons, Cassandra King, Nicole Seitz, Ron Daise and Janna McMahan.

Running Thursday through Saturday, all lectures (followed by book signings) will be held at the society's headquarters at 164 King St. Tickets are available for $15 per lecture through Ticketmaster or Piccolo Spoleto.

The slate:

--Thursday, 10 a.m.: Nicole Seitz on "Writing the Southern Family: A Legacy of Secrets, Silence and Spirituality." Charleston novelist Seitz assays the Southern family, what keeps it together and what tears it asunder.

She also examines the families in her novels, in terms of which facets are "Southern" and which are universal. Seitz is the author of three novels, most recently "A Hundred Years of Happiness."

--Thursday, 3 p.m.: Cassandra King on "You Can't Make This Stuff Up." Novelist King, of Fripp Island, takes a jocular look at the South as a bottomless well of inspiration for her stories. King is the author of four best-selling novels. Her latest, "Bridal Falls," will be released next year.

--Friday, 10 a.m.: Ron Daise on "Gullah/Geechee Rhythms." Author, historian and performer Daise grew up in the Cedar Grove community of St. Helena Island. He is the star of the TV series "Gullah Gullah Island," and will introduce attendees to music, pictures and personal reflections in tandem with stanzas of the Gullah coded message song, "Dats Right, I am a Gullah!"

--Friday, 3 p.m.: Janna McMahan on "The Modern South." In her new novel, "The Ocean Inside," McMahan surveys the panorama of contemporary Southern life, "where children grow up too fast, adults are preoccupied with their own dramas, and morals are sometimes deemed old-fashioned." McMahan, who also writes short fiction, will speak to the challenges of developing authentic, sympathetic characters.

--Saturday, 10 a.m.: Bret Lott on "Another Charleston." Writer-in-residence and professor of English at the College of Charleston, Lott writes novels and short stories that contemplate the fates of characters "with deep and abiding ties to the land, but who are at the same time outsiders looking in on the established order of things." Lott, whose most recent novel is "Ancient Highway," will discuss the inspiration for the characters and landscapes that haunt his fiction.

--Saturday, 3 p.m.: Anne Rivers Siddons on "South Toward Home." What happens to Southern literature when it goes calling outside the South, and vice versa? Charleston novelist Anne Rivers Siddons, with 18 books to her credit, explores the indispensable value of a sense of place in fiction. Her most recent book is "Off Season."

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.