Southern Roots Inspire CofC Student to Publish Novel

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Writing a book is no easy feat, not to mention writing an entire novel while still in high school and having it published before graduating from college. But that is exactly what Derek Berry did. Berry, who hails from Aiken, S.C., and is a senior international studies and political science double major in the Honors College, used his insights as a South Carolina native to conjure a fictional Palmetto State town, its inhabitants, and their misadventures in his novel, Heathens and Liars of Lickskillet County.

The book tackles themes of Southern culture, personal identity, and racism. The main character, Declin Ostrander, moves to the town of Lickskillet with his father, who is the lawyer for the alleged murderer of the town’s first black mayor. Berry completed the novel the summer before entering his freshman year at the College and has been working on his second and third novels over the past couple years, each unrelated to Heathens and Liars.

Read more on The College Today!

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