An Evening with Gregg Shapiro and Rick Karlin

Tombolo Books welcomes authors Gregg Shapiro and Rick Karlin to the bookstore for a celebration of their books: Speaking in Italics and Last Call South Florida! Shapiro and Karlin will be joined by local author Tyler Gillespie!

In Speaking in Italics, Shapiro gives readers, "a lively, unflinching collection where humor and heartbreak sit side by side. Moving from Boston's North End stairwells to late-night insomnia, from love affairs to cockroach-infested apartments, these poems capture the eccentricities of queer life with wit, candor, and tenderness." (Aaron Smith)

And in Last Call South Florida Karlin, along with co-author/editor Fred Fejes, provides a fascinating history lesson with detailed information about the bars, nightclubs, events, performers, and the progression of the gay community through the years. From the early days of underground parties, raids, and arrests to a more accepting time that we now live in, Last Call South Florida takes us along a tumultuous journey through time.

Gregg Shapiro is the author of 10 books including Speaking in Italics (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2026). Recent/forthcoming lit-mag publications include Pleiades, Bronze Bird Review, Oatleaf Poetry Magazine, Gargoyle, and BarBar, and anthologies White Winged Doves: A Stevie Nicks Poetry Anthology, America's Future: Poetry & Prose in Response To Tomorrow, and Visiting Joni: Poems and Short Prose Inspired by the Life and Work of Joni Mitchell. An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBTQ+ and mainstream publications and websites, as well as an anchor on Queer News Tonight, Shapiro lives in South Florida with his husband Rick, and their dog Coco.

Rick Karlin has been a freelance journalist and editor for over 40 years. He is currently the Arts & Culture editor for Out South Florida and a contributing writer for "The Bay Area Reporter" and "Grab Magazine Chicago."His last book, "Last Call Chicago: 1001 LGBT-Friendly Taverns, Hangouts, and Haunts," co-written with Sukie de la Croix, was published in 2022 and ranked number one in Amazon's LGBT Studies category. His memoir "Paper Cuts: My Life in Chicago's Volatile LGBT Press," published in 2019, was about his life over several decades working in the Chicago LGBTQ press.He has also written three novels: "Show Biz Kids," "Tales of the Second City," and "Death on the Rocks." His musicals "Witches Among Us," "Scrapbook, Ladies at Large," "Musical," "and Spin Cycle" have been produced in Chicago. His plays "Turning Tables," "Gregg Shapiro '77," and "Patient B: A Case Study," based on the poetry of Denise Duhamel, have all had staged readings in Fort Lauderdale. He has also written numerous children's musicals.Recognizing his years as an LGBT community activist and writer, he was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1997. He wrote for nearly every LGBT publication in Chicago, starting with "GayLife" in the 1970s, followed by "Gay Chicago Magazine" (entertainment editor), "Outlines"/"Nightlines" (now "Windy City Times"), "Chicago Free Press," ChicagoPride.com, and "Boi Magazine." He was also an on-air personality for "LesBiGay Radio."His son Adam is a Cook County sheriff. After too many Chicago winters, he retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he lives with his husband, poet and journalist Gregg Shapiro, and their fur baby, Miss Coco.

Tyler Gillespie, a fifth-generation Floridian, is a poet and award-winning journalist. He has written for GQ, the Guardian, the Nation, VICE, and Salon. He is the author of Florida Man: Poems and coeditor of The Awkward Phase: The Uplifting Tales of Those Weird Kids You Went to School With.

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