St. Petersburg Press is hosting their 4th Annual State of the Word" event May 13 6pm @The Palladium. The 6:30 p.m. event will include music, additional speakers, light food and a cash bar. Tickets are free, with a suggested donation to support literacy efforts in Tampa Bay. Reservations – at this link – are recommended. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/state-of-the-word-4th-annual-st-pete-press-literary-event-and-awards-tickets-1323923323299?aff=oddtdtcreator
One of the nominees we know well is Andi Pignato, the Events Director at Book + Bottle. She talks about the importance of reading, especially with children; Mother's Day and her Mom's influence on her to be a passionate booklover and why she loves her job. After getting a Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of Louisville in 2021, she joined Book + Bottle's team as a Bookseller. During her time as Director, she has built a community-centric events program from the ground up. She coined the term "Book + Bottle Magic"—a philosophy that centers Book + Bottle as a safe space for people to escape, much like within the pages of a good book. She is a writer of fiction, a voracious reader, a fledgling comedian, and can do 4-6 pull-ups (on a good day). She lives in St. Petersburg, FL with her cat, Clove.
St. Petersburg Press will host an evening of music, mingling, and manuscripts. Special guests will present their literary year in review from retail, publishing, writing, and journalism perspectives. Find out which of finalists will win the Roy Peter Clark Award. The Roy Peter Clark Award – sponsored annually by the St. Petersburg Press – celebrates outstanding contributions to the St. Petersburg story and is presented in recognition of the recipient’s outstanding contribution to the greater St. Petersburg literary community.
The highlight of the annual event, at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Cabaret, is the presentation of the annual Roy Peter Clark Award. Clark, a venerated author and longtime writing coach at the Poynter Institute, will present the honor to one of these finalists:
--Novelist Gord Hume, a Canada-born writer and local resident whose humorous works are full of bay area color. “I am proud to show love to a Canadian author,” says Clark. “Our friends from the North can read and write too!”
-- “Your Real Stories” co-founder and executive director Lillian Dunlap, Ph.D. The program collects compelling authentic stories of real people through dramatic narratives, often involving music, art and photography.
--Streetcorner poet Giovanni Cerro. Clark: “Armed with an old-school typewriter, he takes requests like a literary busker. Who knows - there may be a battle of the typewriters in our future.”
--St. Pete Catalyst news reporter Mark Parker. Reporters, Clark says, have lately had a trial by fire. “The last five years have seen the city work through a global pandemic, lengthy negotiations to redevelop the Gas Plant district, and three destructive hurricanes.” And Parker was out in front of it all.
--Book + Bottle events coordinator Andi Pignato. “Our booksellers are champions of literacy and democracy,” says Clark. “Andi is like a town crier who gathers us together, face to face, to share our experience of the word.”
--Tampa Bay Times news reporter Colleen Wright. Another hard-working news reporter who had plenty to write about during “an extraordinary time in the history of St. Petersburg.” Wright, Clark says, was “a calm, steady, reliable voice writing in the most important way possible: in the public interest.”
--Director of secondary Language Arts education in Pinellas County schools Britt Moseley. “Britt,” Clark maintains, “is not just an English teacher. She is a teacher of teachers. And even a teacher of teachers of teachers.”
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