The Friends of the Library of Tampa-Hillsborough County welcome Sterling Watson, author of Fighting in the Shade, to the Four Seasons Author Series on Friday, August 5, 2011, at noon at the University Club of Tampa.
Fighting in the Shade is a riveting novel of ideas exploring the perils of hazing and feverish masculinity on a high school football team. “High school football mixes with Faust in this blitz of a novel from Watson. Billy Dyer is the new kid in town at his Florida high school during the mid-1960s. He's also a talented football player who brings an element of violence to the game, and during a perverse hazing ritual, Billy refuses to endure humiliation and busts his way out with the same force he brings to his football playing. The ensuing fight has dire consequences: Billy is kicked off the team, but, more significantly, during the melee, he badly hurts one of his teammates. With the team now shorthanded and losing, the school's boosters beg Billy to come back to the team, and out of concern for his mother- -recently divorced from Billy's alcoholic lawyer father, and none too well-off- -Billy negotiates a price and becomes a star, but at what cost? Meanwhile, Billy's father may be in on some dodgy dealings with a shady character who has an interest in the team, and, more pointedly, in Billy. The novel avoids slipping into morality tale excess as it spins out a big Dennis Lehane–like story of society, opportunity, and consequences, revealing Watson as an accomplished storyteller.“ --Publisher’s Weekly
Sterling Watson is the author of five novels, including The Calling, Sweet Dream Baby, and Weep No More My Brother, which was nominated for the Rosenthal Award given annually by the National Academy Institute of Arts and Letters. He is the director of the Creative Writing Program at Eckerd College and holder of the Peter Meinke Chair in Literature and Creative Writing.
The Four Seasons Author Series is presented by the Friends of the Library of Tampa-Hillsborough County, Inc. The subscription series offers four consecutive literary lunches at which guest authors are invited to speak on a variety of subjects, followed by a question and answer period, with a book signing for those who wish to purchase the featured book. Tickets are $30 for a one time event or a subscription for four consecutive luncheons is $100. Reservations are necessary to attend. To reserve your seat for the luncheon, call the Friends office at (813) 273-3616 by Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 or email fourseasonsluncheon@gmail.com.
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