Tyler M. T. Gillespie

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Tyler Gillespie is a poet and award-winning journalist published in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, GQ, Salon, Playboy, and elsewhere. He is the author of The Thing About Florida: Exploring a Misunderstood State (UPF, 2021), Florida Man: Poems (Red Flag Poetry, 2018) and is the co-editor of The Awkward Phase: The Uplifting Tales of Those Weird Kids You Went to School With (Skyhorse, 2016). His humor writing can be found in the New Yorker, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and the anthology LGBTQ Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny. He currently teaches writing at the University of Mississippi. 

email: [email protected]

selected interviews:  Tampa Bay’s Morning Blend and 88.5 WMNF’s “Art in Your Ear” (interview around the 9 min mark) 

Also: Salon, Tampa Bay Times, Entropy Lit, Deep South Magazine, and Craft. 

This website serves as an author website and professional/creative writing portfolio. A full teaching and scholarly research portfolio can be found at this link. 

(photo credit: Elizabeth Lynch)

event registration info: https://tylermtg.com/events

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“In Florida Man: Poems, Tyler Gillespie uses poetry to reveal the heart and humanity that Florida possesses. He shows us that there’s more to Florida than just theme parks and swamps.” – Deep South Magazine 

“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 

“The shape of Gillespie’s poetry matches the cadence of the world he exposes and allows him to arrive at a thesis at once deeply affecting and ineffable.”  -- Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment

“Forget oranges. Florida produces enough chaos to feed the country. Yet Florida Man brings serious scrutiny to America’s favorite court jester.” – Entropy

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Buy!: https://www.redflagpoetry.com/store/p19/Tyler_Gillespie_-_Florida_Man%3A_Poems.html

“Forget oranges. Florida produces enough chaos to feed the country. Yet Florida Man brings serious scrutiny to America’s favorite court jester.” – Entropy

“[Gillespie] utilizes journalistic techniques in an innovative nonfiction hybrid that merges poetic sound and form in pieces. Like all good literature about Florida, the strange is familiar and the familiar is strange.” – Burrow Press

“Florida Man conveys the scope of Florida beyond the flattened punchlines associated with the collection’s eponymous character… [and] explores queerness, youth, maturation, identity, and parenthood.” – The Millions

Upcoming Events

Weds, Sept. 5 | Time TK | USFSP Nelson Poynter Memorial Library (140 7th Ave S, St. St. Petersburg, FL, 33701)

Weds, Oct. 22 | 6:30 PM | Largo Library (120 Central Park Dr, Largo, FL 33771)

Sat, Nov. 17 | Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading | USFSP (140 7th Ave S, St. St. Petersburg, FL, 33701)

March 23 – 25 | Saints and Sinners Literary Festival | New Orleans, Louisiana

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Pulse Was More Than Just a Gay Club

I wrote about Orlando, Pulse, and chosen family. 

On a normal Saturday night in Orlando, four men, in their 20s and early 30s, hopped in an Uber to a night club called Pulse, one of their regular spots. Three of them lived in the same apartment complex, and going out together felt natural—a ritual they needed to escape the rote monotony of daily bullshit. On the way there, they laughed and talked and argued about the merits of veggie dogs. Upon entering Pulse, the friends joined their chosen "family," a term members of the LGBT community often use to describe ourselves.

Read full text at GQ

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The Book Lady and Her Colorful Van, More than "White Boys and Dogs"

Laurence Copel founded the Lower Ninth Ward’s free library and currently operates the city’s only functional book mobile. According to a 2015 report by the

Radio segment I did on NOLA’s Book Lady for WWNO. 

“Copel says some children in New Orleans face extreme disadvantages because of limited access to books.” 

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Visit Original Link

I interviewed Brad Richard and Jean Redmann about NOLA’s Saints & Sinners Literary Festival for WWNO. Check it!

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One of the largest LGBT literary events in the country, Saints and Sinners with a smaller goal.  Along with director Paul Willis, founding member Jean Readmann says the earliest days were mostly focused on creating a safe space for gay people of all ages to meet each other.

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At the Tennessee Williams Festival in #NOLA with two of my favorite writers Dorothy Allison and (one of my besties) Dahlia El-Shafei. 

I also love the painting in the background!

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Florida Instagram Essay pt. 1

I started writing Instagram essays/doing some insta reporting. Check it out!

“The ships wait out there all night,” says Marek, my Ft. Lauderdale cab driver (there’s a free service for tourists on the main strip). “It’s too dangerous for them to navigate the port at night.” Marek fills his vape & tells me he’s from Poland. I’m here for work. // FtL is a quick jaunt from Miami & S FL, w/ its ports & geo location near S America, has one of the most diverse demographics in the country. / A waitress I talked to told me she’s learning Spanish by way of an app to make her job easier. // I want to ask Marek why he moved to FL but instead we talk abt birds. “You know, the small, common kind,” he asks. “A sparrow,” I say.

read the rest on Instagram

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Why Florida needs your help to hunt pythons down

I wrote about the Everglades and the #PythonChallenge for The Guardian.

”As the north-eastern part of the United States dealt with blizzard weather, a stork cut through a clear blue Everglades sky. Leo Sanchez and Tim Meyer walked near a canal lined by mangroves, fending off a swarm of gnats. By Floridian standards, this January morning was still pretty chilly, which meant it held potential for the two hunters to catch a sunning Burmese python.

The two men were participating in this year’s Great Python Challenge and were hoping to break the record for longest ever caught in Florida (to date, that’s 18ft 8in). Sanchez stopped, then jutted into the brush holding a 40in snake hook (think golf club meets dental pick), but usually grabs pythons with his bare hands.

“Usually I find snakes that are so friggin’ big,” he said, “that I have to use an extra big bag to put them in.”

Full Text

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in my neighborhood, 2015

photo: Elizabeth Lynch

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My 14 yr old brother John is in eighth grade. He’s the coach’s manager for the middle school bball team. He’s the first ever guy w Down syndrome to be on the school’s team. / Mom worried the boys would make fun of him, that he wouldn’t listen, that his spirit would get broken b/c he could only watch

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Coloring with my brother. I call this one Bruiser Stardust.

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Awkward Phase Book + Launch Party

Almost three years to the day since we started The Awkward Phase, and the IRL book will be here Feb. 2nd (via Skyhorse Publishing)!!! It’s a collection of our fav Awkward Tumblr stories + new stuff from across the country. You can pre-order now at Amazon. 

Also, also, also, we’re having a post-Valentine’s Day book launch and story-telling show in Chicago at The Annoyance Theatre [851 W. Belmont Avenue] on Feb. 15th at 7:30PM. We’ll have plenty of hilarious performers, tears, and balloons – lots and lots of balloons. We’ll also be doing a talk-back, Q&A afterward about our Tumblr journey.

Book contributors (+ links to their Tumblrs) include:  Gaby Dunn, Wes Perry,  Suzy X (The MallGoth Chronicles), Irene Marquette, Dawn Luebbe (whose My 1992 Diary we spotted on the Tumblr 2015 Year in Review) + MANY more. 

We <3 you all soooo much & hope to see you soon. 

xoxo Tyler & Claire

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Portrait of the Tumblr-er as a still young man on His Birthday.

Photo credit: #MyMom

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Florida Instagram Essay pt. 1

I started writing Instagram essays/doing some insta reporting. Check it out!

"The ships wait out there all night," says Marek, my Ft. Lauderdale cab driver (there's a free service for tourists on the main strip). "It's too dangerous for them to navigate the port at night." Marek fills his vape & tells me he's from Poland. I'm here for work. // FtL is a quick jaunt from Miami & S FL, w/ its ports & geo location near S America, has one of the most diverse demographics in the country. / A waitress I talked to told me she's learning Spanish by way of an app to make her job easier. // I want to ask Marek why he moved to FL but instead we talk abt birds. "You know, the small, common kind," he asks. "A sparrow," I say.

read the rest on Instagram