Author Event: Tommy Tomlinson for DOGLAND with UGA Narrative Nonfiction

Join Avid Bookshop and the UGA Narrative Nonfiction program in welcoming author Tommy Tomlinson for his new book Dogland. This event will be held Wednesday July 31 from 6:00pm-7:00pm. There will be a signing after the event.

For accessibility requests contact [email protected]. Please submit your request at least two weeks before the event.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tommy Tomlinson is the author of The Elephant in the Room a memoir about being overweight in America. He’s the host of the podcast SouthBound in partnership with WFAE Charlotte’s NPR station. He has written for publications including Esquire ESPN the Magazine Sports Illustrated Forbes Garden & Gun and many others. He spent twenty-three years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer where he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. His stories have been chosen twice for the Best American Sports Writing series (2012 and 2015) and he also appears in the anthology America’s Best Newspaper Writing. He teaches magazine writing at Wake Forest University and has taught at colleges workshops and conferences across the country. He also has a Substack called The Writing Shed. Tommy and his wife Alix Felsing live in Charlotte with Alix’s mom and a cat.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? How about pet dogs—are they happy? Those questions sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world in search of a deeper understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans that has endured for thousands of years. Dogland shares his surprising entertaining and moving adventures. Tomlinson spends three years on the road and goes behind the scenes at more than one hundred competitions across the country from Midwestern fairgrounds to Madison Square Garden. Along the way he is licked sniffed and rubbed up against by dogs of nearly every size shape and breed. Like a real-life version of the classic mockumentary Best in Show Dogland follows one champion show dog—a Samoyed named Striker—as well as his handler Laura King and his devoted entourage of breeders and owners as he competes in the 2022 Westminster Dog Show. Engaging charming and insightful Dogland is an irresistibly appealing read that invites us on a rollicking backstage tour through the rituals tricks and wonders of the dog-show world—and reveals what matters most for the happiness of dogs and dog lovers everywhere.

Host or Publisher rachel watkins