Tonn Pastore has lived at the beach for twenty-three years because that is where they keep the ocean. This time has allowed him to witness many changes. The influx of culture and the migration of people energized the slow pace of Jacksonville. The ocean breezes thinned not just the air around him but also the barriers around his heart. He married a third generation native who showed him the joys of Jacksonville and the love of a new family. His poems pull from the pain and the joy of life and loss.

Tonn’s new book, Mark My Words, will be available when he reads at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival on Saturday, October 13th.

We are tickled tangerine-pink to have Laura Hoffman read her poetry to us at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival on Saturday, Oct 13th.  Please join us!

Laura Hoffman is a United States Marine Corps Veteran and graduate student attending The University of Tampa’s MFA in Creative Writing program. Hoffman’s most recent work is forthcoming or appears in: 2River, The Ibis Head Review, The Talon, Atomic Style Society Magazine, Left Hooks, Wowsdom: The Girl’s Guide to The Positive and The Possible by Donna Orender, and Flypaper Magazine. Hoffman is also the winner of The University of North Florida’s 2018 Wainright Award for Poetry.

Sohrab Homi Fracis‘s novel Go Home, featured in a cover story by Folio, has taken off since the last Jax by Jax. It was shortlisted by Stanford University Libraries for the 2018 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and brought him the SALA (South Asian Literary Association) Distinguished Achievement Award. He was the first Asian American to win the Iowa Short Fiction Award, juried by the legendary Iowa Writers’ Workshop, for Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America. He was an Artist in Residence at Yaddo and Visiting Writer in Residence at Augsburg College.

We are thrilled to have him reading with us on Saturday, October 13th at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival.