image credit: University of South Florida-St. Petersburg

Creative Nonfiction

The Thing about Florida (University Press of Florida, April 13, 2021)

From the publisher: Gillespie meets eclectic and unconventional Floridians who have been misrepresented in news stories. A fresh and engaging voice, Gillespie captivates with a snappy pace, sly wit, and crisp observations.

"The Thing about Florida will change your mind about the Sunshine State.”—Salon

“His writing is witty, but never mean; he’s looking for the human beings behind the headlines, and he finds them.”—Tampa Bay Times

"Tyler Gillespie is ready to be a voice and face for a state he was once embarrassed to call home." -- Creative Loafing

“A personalized, amusing book about what makes the Sunshine State so unique.”—Foreword Reviews

“The collected interviews and observations give us some insight, perspective and, even better, welcome levity and wit.”—Orlando Weekly

“Ripe with history, packed with fascinating information about the interior of the state, The Thing about Florida is a a necessary read.”— Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things

“In this engaging, humorous, compassionate, and meticulous portrait, ‘the flamingo in the coal mine’ of America emerges as a gorgeously complex character, itself full of characters”—Sarah Gerard, author of Sunshine State: Essays and True Love

“Gillespie’s book is hilarious, candid, and insightful, a great addition to the growing body of lit Florida literature.”— Craig Pittman, author of Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country

Poetry

Florida Man:Poems (Red Flag Poetry, 2018)

From the Publisher: In the tradition of C.D. Wright, Gillespie -- a reporter for national publications -- utilizes journalistic techniques in an innovative nonfiction hybrid that merges poetic sound and form in pieces

“Tyler Gillespie has published an emphatic book of poems.” – The Washington Post

“Florida Man conveys the scope of Florida beyond the flattened punchlines associated with the collection’s eponymous character.” – The Millions

“Like all good literature about Florida, the strange is familiar and the familiar is strange.” – Burrow Press

“All of it drips with Floridiana.” – Tampa Bay Times

“Finishing Tyler Gillespie’s Florida Man, I felt a sense of having just consumed a layer of the future fossil record of Florida, so simultaneously precise and wide-ranging was Gillespie’s natural history of his home.” – Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment

Self-published Zines



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For more information, please email: TylerMGillespie@gmail.com

Tyler Gillespie created this website. Work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0