Across Church Street from the Dock Street Theatre stands the French Huguenot Church at 136 Church Street. Around the corner sits the Queen Street Playhouse at 20 Queen Street. From Nov. 6 to 15, both buildings are part of the Charleston Literary Festival. They aren't stand-ins for the theater. They are where the festival puts people once the main room is full.
The festival is in its tenth year. Live 5 News reported that Mayor William S. Cogswell Jr. and executive director Sarah Moriarty announced more than 80 authors and 52 events on Sept. 10. Tickets went on sale that same day. Moultrie News reported "record demand," with 16 live events sold out and 36 still available at the time. The best-known names went first. The sessions with seats left tend to be the ones built from Charleston's own people, history and stages.
Where the sold-out names went
As of mid-October 2026, the festival's ticket page listed these sessions at Dock Street as sold out:
- Salman Rushdie's "Knife" screening and talkback on Nov. 6
- Tayari Jones on Nov. 6
- Steven Pinker on Nov. 8
- Virginia Evans and Lily King on Nov. 8
- Daniel Kraus and Hernan Diaz on Nov. 12
- Curtis Sittenfeld on Nov. 13
- Barbara Kingsolver on Nov. 13
- Eric Ripert and Nigel Parry on Nov. 14
- Jenna Bush Hager and Lucy Tan on Nov. 15
The festival added two more ways to attend. For a few of the biggest sessions, overflow tickets put you in the French Huguenot Church or the Queen Street Playhouse to watch a livestream. Afterward, festival staff walk the group to Dock Street Theatre for the book signing. For a wider set of sold-out sessions, an at-home livestream link arrives one hour before the event.
| Way in | Where | Price on the ticket page |
|---|---|---|
| Most author events; special sessions cost more | Dock Street Theatre | $30 + $2.33 fee |
| Overflow livestream with signing | French Huguenot Church or Queen Street Playhouse | $20 + $1.98 fee |
| At-home livestream | Your living room | $10 + $1.63 fee |
| Fellows showcase, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. | Festival program | Free |
The overflow rooms are filling too. In mid-October, the Huguenot Church room for Tayari Jones showed 51 seats remaining. The Evans and King room was sold out. The Queen Street Playhouse room for Belle Burden's Nov. 9 session showed 155 remaining. In the Jones session, the author talks with Kevin Sack, whose book "Mother Emanuel" was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. A viewer in the church watches that conversation on a screen less than a street's width from where it is happening.
Some sessions have no second room. Moultrie News reported that the Rushdie screening can't be livestreamed because of licensing, and the ticket page lists no livestream for it. Kingsolver's evening comes with a pianist and includes a copy of "Partita" with each ticket. It sold out at $50 plus fees, and it has an at-home stream only.
The events still open are the Charleston ones
Once you take out the headliners, the open part of the schedule leans toward this city.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m., "DAWN: A Charleston Legend" opens the festival's new Revenance Series. The program describes Charleston icon Dawn Langley Simmons being "brought to life" to talk about her career as a biographer and memoirist. John "Lypsinka" Epperson stars and Dominic Dromgoole directs. In mid-October it had seats at $30 plus the fee. The Post and Courier listed the Revenance Series among the new things the festival is adding for its tenth year, along with more film, dance, music and family programming.
The finale on Sunday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. is a staged reading of Virginia Woolf's only play, "Freshwater: A Comedy." Literary biographer Dame Hermione Lee and novelist Bernard Cornwell perform with Charleston comedy troupe Nameless Numberhead. In mid-October, the closing night, with a hometown troupe on the bill, still had tickets at $30 plus the fee.
Several daytime sessions also connect to the city:
- Monday, Nov. 9, 10 a.m. Photographer Virginia McGee Richards and historian Sarah Lewis discuss "The Inner Passage" and "If Emmett Till Lived," books that trace histories and Black legacies across the Southern landscape.
- Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1 p.m. The free Fellows showcase. The 2026 Wayland and Marion Cato Fellow, an emerging writer from the Carolinas, reads first. Then comes the first Fiederowicz International Fellow, Ukrainian writer and PEN Ukraine member Kateryna Yehorushkina, who will talk about literature in wartime.
- Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2 p.m. Roxane Gay, presented in collaboration with the International African American Museum and moderated by Malika Pryor.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, 5 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger on "The Imperfect City," a book about urban design and chance, in conversation with Vishaan Chakrabarti. On a peninsula where people argue about every block, that is a natural fit.
The Post and Courier also reported that Yehorushkina, who has written more than 20 books for adults and children, will lead workshops with local students while she is here. Part of the festival's local programming happens in schools and never goes on sale.
Where the open seats run low
The open part of the schedule is shrinking. In mid-October, several sessions that weren't sold out showed small counts:
- Tim Berners-Lee, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m.: 8 seats remaining
- Nelio Biedermann, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m.: 12 remaining
- Scott Anderson, Nov. 10 at 11 a.m.: 26 remaining
- David George Haskell, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m.: 55 remaining
Ticket counts change every day, so the live ticket page is the place to check before planning an afternoon around any of these. The quietest stretch is the middle of the festival. Both three-day VIP weekend packages are marked sold out. The Nov. 10 to 12 midweek package was listed at $1,500 per person or $2,750 for two. Tuesday, Nov. 10 is the most open day. In mid-October, every session on Tuesday's schedule had seats: Anderson, the free showcase, Julie Orringer at 3 p.m., Ben Markovits and Joseph O'Neill at 5 p.m., and Gaël Faye at 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 14 adds more stages
The second Saturday takes the festival beyond Dock Street. At 9:30 a.m., chef Kwame Onwuachi talks with Food & Wine editor in chief Hunter Lewis about his cookbook "All Hours." That event is at the Charleston Gaillard Center, not Dock Street, and costs $35 plus a fee. The same morning, YALL Fest is on the Charleston Music Hall calendar for 10 a.m. The Music Hall's event page says general admission needs no ticket and is free, while its three headliner events are ticketed.
At Dock Street, that morning starts with Eric Litwin's interactive "Pete the Cat" show at 9 a.m., for ages 5 to 12. The listing says children 12 and under get in free with ticket registration, and it marks the event sold out. The Post and Courier reported that Litwin is also doing pop-up programs at three Charleston County School District Title I schools before the festival show. Dame Hermione Lee on novelist Anita Brookner at 11 a.m. and Jeanette Winterson at 7 p.m. both had seats in mid-October. That gives Dock Street a full Saturday even with Ripert and Michael Cunningham sold out.
The festival also reached outside downtown. ABC News 4 reported on a Charleston County Public Library partnership that ran October book discussions of festival titles at branches around the county, with limited free books, free-ticket giveaways and a Lit Fest Bingo prize drawing. Bingo cards were due Oct. 23.
For peninsula residents, a sold-out author can be a short walk away, watched on a livestream in the French Huguenot Church with a signing at Dock Street afterward. You might be planning a Tuesday at Dock Street, or saving the free Nov. 10 showcase for a friend visiting that week. If you'd like to talk through how November on the peninsula fits the way you live, The Tipple Team would be glad to schedule a personalized consultation.
