On Friday, Feb. 26, Best of the Bay winning Tombolo Bookstore is hosting Creative Loafing Tampa Bay contributor Thomas Hallock (pictured) and civil rights literature expert Julie Armstrong, who’ll discuss Hallock’s new book—”A Road Course in Early American Literature: Travel and Teaching from Atzlán to Amherst.
Both Hallock—a contributor to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay—and Armstrong are professors at University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and, yes, they are married to each other (adopt me, please).
“Road Course” explores this two-part question: What does travel teach us about literature, and how can reading guide us to a deeper understanding of place and identity? Regular readers of Hallock’s CL City Wilds column know that finding those answers is always a deeply insightful, and sometimes uncomfortable, process.
But that talk isn’t the only exciting chat on tap at Tombolo.
Two other virtual events celebrating new book releases of local authors Tenea D. Johnson, Tyler Gillespie and Gale Massey happen over the next two months.
On March 3, poet and fiction writer Tenea D. Johnson will celebrate her new short story collection “Broken Fevers.” Johnson, a current St. Petersburg resident by way of Kentucky, has already received praise from Publisher’s Weekly saying her “...work deserves a wide readership.”
The free event will be moderated by Michele Tracy Berger, Associate Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at the UNC Chapel Hill. The talk starts at 7 p.m.
On April 15, the bookstore is honoring another author, Gale Massey, whose debut short fiction collection “Rising and Other Stories” will be released two days prior. Massey, another St. Pete resident, received a Florida Book Award for her 2018 novel “The Girl from Blind River.”
Local poet and journalist Tyler Gillespie will also be on hand at the April 15 event to discuss his new book “The Thing About Florida: Exploring a Misunderstood State.” That virtual event begins at 6:30 p.m.
If these two events aren’t for you, Tombolo has weekly events, including an antiracist book club, that will definitely get your brain juices flowing.
All talks will be via Zoom. For event sign up and other information, visit tombolobooks.com.
Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.
