This October, the Southern Gothic Festival is proud to welcome three of the South’s most compelling voices to Liberty Hall at the Revolutionary War Visitor Center for an afternoon that delves deep into power, crime, and the fragile architecture of truth.
Acclaimed Appalachian novelist David Joy, Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein, and criminal defense attorney Dick Harpootlian will each take the stage on Saturday, October 11 to explore the forces that shape Southern lives and narratives—from courtroom reckonings to generational violence to the haunting landscapes of rural fiction.
Bauerlein, whose reporting on the Murdaugh trial gripped national readers, will speak about her new book The Devil at His Elbow—a cinematic, deeply reported account of Alex Murdaugh’s downfall and the insular systems of power that long protected him. Harpootlian, who prosecuted serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins as Fifth Circuit Solicitor, brings his blunt legal insight and firsthand experience to the story behind Dig Me a Grave, a chilling chronicle of Gaskins’s crimes and the trial that followed.
Closing out the afternoon, novelist David Joy—known for Those We Thought We Knew and When These Mountains Burn—will speak on the themes that run through his work: poverty, place, family, race, and the dark moral tensions that define Southern life. His fiction is rooted in the Appalachian foothills but resonates far beyond, offering a lyrical, unflinching portrait of what it means to belong to a place that’s both beautiful and broken.
Each speaker brings a different lens—journalistic, legal, and literary—but all three confront the South as it is: layered, haunted, and often stranger than fiction.
This trio of featured speakers marks a defining moment in the 2025 festival lineup. Admission is free and open to the public, with seating available on a first come, first served basis.
Discover more events and explore the full festival schedule.