On Saturday, October 19, 2024, acclaimed author Donald Ray Pollock joined the Southern Gothic Festival for a rare conversation about violence, faith, and the dark undercurrents of rural America. Best known for his novels The Devil All the Time and The Heavenly Table, Pollock spoke to an audience of readers and writers at the Arts Center of Kershaw County, offering insight into the brutal beauty of his storytelling and the real-life landscapes that shape his work.
With a voice as unvarnished as his prose, Pollock discussed his late start as a writer, his years working in a paper mill, and the way his hometown of Knockemstiff, Ohio continues to haunt every page he writes. The conversation moved between craft and content—how to write violence without glorifying it, what it means to capture forgotten people in literature, and why the grotesque remains one of fiction’s most honest tools.
Audience members were struck by Pollock’s quiet intensity and unflinching honesty. He read from his work, answered questions with dry wit, and left a lasting impression on those in the room. It was a talk that stripped away pretense and revealed something raw and real—qualities that lie at the heart of the Southern Gothic tradition.