"North of the Grove" Book Chat with William A. Hobbs

Welcome book lovers! Join us for the North of the Grove Book Chat with William Ashanti Hobbs at Resist Booksellers on Friday, February 20, 2026 at 6:00 PM EST.

Hobbs will be in conversation with Faith Simms.

This evening will be full of inspiring conversations and connections.

Get ready for a night of great questions, book signings, and community! Mark your calendars and we'll see you there!

**FREE entry, RSVP required. Copies of North of the Grove will be available for purchase on site.

About The Book:

Reluctant father-to-be and avid jogger Howard Capelton, looks to stop running from his past by joining 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project. The organization assigns him to mentor and ultimately save the life of 9 year-old David Troy.

David is an angry third grader struggling with his damaged and beautiful mother among the rougher, desolate streets of West Grove, Howard's proud and forgotten hometown in Miami, Florida.

Will Howard be able to outrun his own trauma and selfishness to realize everything the boy, his mother and West Grove have to teach him? The story is a modernized version of an epistolary novel.

This literary form utilizes letters, diary entries, or other documents to convey the narrative, offering a unique perspective and potentially a more intimate portrayal of events. North of the Grove updates the form with the use of texts, emails and Facebook DMs and gives the feeling of hacking into someone's phone and watching their life unfold.

About The Author:

William Ashanti Hobbs, Ph.D., is an author of both fiction and nonfiction recognized for his ability to articulate the complexities of Black inner experiences, while negotiating narrative authority and safeguarding cultural memory. He is a novelist, essayist, and cultural critic, serving as an Associate Professor of Humanities and Director of the Writing Center at Virginia State University, where his endeavors integrate storytelling, mentorship, and public-facing scholarship. His writing examines Black masculinity, memory, community, and consequence. Hobbs is the author of North of the Grove, a novel set in South Florida that is incorporated into the Miami-Dade County Public Schools curriculum, and his writings have been featured in national media and literary publications. He persists in composing at the confluence of art, ethics, and real experience, regarding narrative not as embellishment, but as a form of reckoning.

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Host or Publisher Resist Booksellers