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Arts Alive! podcast: Alsace Walentine, Tombolo Books
Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day across the country, and 2,000 or so non-corporate retailers will celebrate their blissful indie-hood with celebrations and specials.
There are nearly a dozen such shops in Pinellas County alone. Since 2020, when venerable Haslam’s closed (perhaps never to return), the most prosperous spot on the St. Pete map has been Tombolo Books. It began around 2017 as a series of test-the-waters pop-ups, before settling into its current location on 1st Avenue S.
Today’s guest on Arts Alive! is Alsace Walentine, the founder and co-owner of Tombolo. She discusses the phenomenal nationwide rise of small, “curated” independent community booksellers (the antithesis of those big box national retailers that seemed to rule the roost in the not-too-distant past) and how maybe, just maybe, tiny Tombolo might expand to a bigger building. Someday.
Much of this conversation is devoted to the ongiong Bay Area Book Crawl, as well as Saturday’s expansive activities. Also discussed is Tombolo’s impressive and ever-growing calendar of in-store author events, with both local and national writers, of which Walentine is justifiably proud.
Today (7-8 p.m.) brings former St. Pete resident Maureen McDole to Tombolo, with the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Helen French interviewing about her latest book of poetry, Mending the Nets.
Click on the arrow to listen to the conversation.
