Jessica Handler and Ginger Pinholster In Conversation

Tombolo Books welcomes award-winning authors Jessica Handler and Ginger Pinholster to discuss their latest novels, The World To See and The Train To Santa Fe!

Handler's The World To See is "a fascinating look at how sexual identity, visibility, and women’s issues changed during the turbulent 1950s to 1970s in America." (Vanessa Briscoe Hay, singer, Pylon, Supercluster, and Pylon Reenactment Society, “One of the 25 Best Frontwomen of All Time”)

Inspired by historical accounts, Pinholster's The Train to Santa Fe imagines the impact of the railroad’ s arrival in northern New Mexico, tracing one family’ s story across generations. It’ s a powerful tale of cultural loss, love, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

More about The World We See

When teenager Nadine Harvey helps her best friend hide a disturbing secret, she’ s also concealing her own deepest truth: she’ ll do almost anything to be wanted. Five years and three thousand miles later, Nadine is thrilled when her idol, Celeste— a rock singer known as “ the oracle” — befriends her.

As Celeste’ s career begins to falter, she launches a bold program encouraging women to speak their truths. Nadine eagerly becomes her business partner, but as their ambitions clash, their alliance starts to unravel. Determined to hide their growing rift, Celeste and Nadine invite their mothers to a high-profile awards gala. When painful histories resurface, each woman must confront how she sees herself— and how the world sees her.

More about The Train to Santa Fe

In the 1880s, sixteen-year-old Chenoa, a gifted Tewa potter, boards one of the first trains from Españ ola to Santa Fe, desperate to save her family from a bitter winter. Her journey sets in motion a legacy shaped by survival, sacrifice, and silence. Generations later, her granddaughter Rose, now elderly and ailing, pleads with Jonah— a kind-hearted nursing home orderly— to help uncover the truth of her stolen Native heritage before it’ s lost forever.

As Jonah searches for answers, he grapples with his own struggles: raising his young son and falling for Jemi, a wounded veteran who longs to return to Bluebird Mountain. As their lives intersect, long-buried truths rise to the surface, revealing the enduring scars of colonization— and the strength required to heal.

Jessica Handler's novel The Magnetic Girl was awarded the 2020 Southern Book Prize. She is the author of the memoir, Invisible Sisters, and the craft guide, Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss. Her writing has appeared on NPR, in Tin House, The Bitter Southerner, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, the Washington Post, Oldster, and elsewhere. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, author Mickey Dubrow. www.jessicahandler.com.

Pushcart Prize nominee Ginger Pinholster— an avid volunteer with Florida’ s Volusia Turtle Patrol and the Marine Science Center— earned her M.F.A. degree from Queens University of Charlotte. Her second novel, Snakes of St. Augustine, was called “ relentlessly beautiful and compelling.” In 2024, Pinholster received a first-place fiction prize from Prime Number Magazine. City in a Forest, her first novel, won a gold Florida Writers Association award. A science writer for nearly four decades, she is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.