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UID:7b80079c-3fd4-4f9f-bf56-169669fcff40@findlocal.community
DTSTAMP:20261015T125356Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261026T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261026T210000
SUMMARY:The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman - An Evening with Dees
 ha Philyaw
DESCRIPTION:To attend purchase a copy of The True Confessions of First La
 dy Freeman from Tombolo Books and your name will be added to the RSVP li
 st. If you would like to bring a guest\, you can grab a Guest Ticket her
 e! This ticket is for two guests and comes with one copy of the book! To
 mbolo Books is thrilled to welcome award-winning author of The Secret Li
 ves of Church Ladies\, Deesha Philyaw\, to celebrate her new novel The T
 rue Confessions of First Lady Freeman! Philyaw will be in conversation w
 ith local author and founder of Kitchen Table Literary Arts\, Sheree L. 
 Greer! Unflinchingly funny\, frank\, and splendidly unruly\, The True Co
 nfessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious\, messy pleasure 
 of finally feeling free. The event will take place at Coastal Creative l
 ocated across the street from the bookstore at 2201 1st Ave S\, St. Pete
 rsburg\, FL 33712. More about The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman
  From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married 
 a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior\, she’s been labeled too br
 ash and too “of the world” by church folks who grudgingly accepted her i
 nto their fold\, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. S
 char doesn’t have many allies\, but that hasn’t stopped her from buildin
 g an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded prod
 ucts\, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her. 
 On the eve of her 40th birthday\, Schar gets the final bit of validation
  she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the Firs
 t Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pasto
 rs’ wives—First Ladies—who are “like Jesus’ disciples if they had been a
  group of mean girls.” Finally\, blissfully\, the ice between Schar and 
 the other First Ladies begins to thaw. But as the pageant nears\, a sens
 ational scandal breaks with Schar at its center\, and her carefully cura
 ted life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her 
 childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church\, optics can ma
 tter more than the truth. Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection\
 , The Secret Lives of Church Ladies\, won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fic
 tion\, the Story Prize\, the LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Awa
 rd for First Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for 
 Fiction. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow\, a Baldwin for the Arts Fe
 llow\, a United States Artists Fellow\, and co-host of two podcasts\, Ur
 sa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kies
 e Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her sho
 rt fiction. Sheree L. Greer is a writer\, teacher\, and arts administrat
 or living in Tampa\, Florida. She is the author of two novels\, Let the 
 Lover Be (Bold Strokes Books 2014) and A Return to Arms (Bold Strokes Bo
 oks 2016). Her work has been published online and in print at the Bellev
 ue Literary Review\, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora
 \, Burrow Press Review\, LezTalk Anthology\, VerySmartBrothas\, Autostra
 ddle\, The Windy City Times\, Bleed Literary Journal\, Current: An Antho
 logy for Jackson\, Mississippi\, Windy City Queer Anthology: Dispatches 
 from the Third Coast\, and others. In 2014\, she founded Kitchen Table L
 iterary Arts to showcase and support the work of BIPOC women and femme-i
 dentified nonbinary writers and poets. Sheree holds an MFA at Columbia C
 ollege Chicago and is a VONA/VOICES alum\, Astraea Lesbian Foundation fo
 r Justice grantee\, Yaddo fellow\, and Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow
 . Her essay\, "Bars" published in Fourth Genre Magazine\, was nominated 
 for a Pushcart Prize and notably named in Best American Essays 2019\, an
 d her essay\, "None of this is Bullshit" was published at The Rumpus and
  featured in "Memoir Mondays.” Her latest Pushcart Prize nominated work\
 , “If You Scared Say You Scared\,” was published in Bellevue Literary Re
 view. A frequent collaborator with the 2nd Story Theatre Collective\, Sh
 eree teaches for several literary arts centers and organizations\, namel
 y The Porch in Nashville\, TN\, and Story Studio Chicago\, where she ser
 ves as core faculty in memoir and was voted “Instructor of the Year” for
  2023.\n\nTickets: https://tombolobooks.com/item/7gUxL-ZFiTFq2BM2k9EKBw\
 n\nhttps://findlocal.community/event/7b80079c-3fd4-4f9f-bf56-169669fcff4
 0
LOCATION:Bookstore (BKS)\, FL
URL:https://findlocal.community/event/7b80079c-3fd4-4f9f-bf56-169669fcff4
 0
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SEQUENCE:0
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