Walter Bennett will read from and sign his novel Leaving Tuscaloosa, set in the sultry summer of 1962 – the year before Bull Connor turned his fire hoses on civil rights protesters in Birmingham and the Klan bombed the 16^th Street Baptist Church. Two young men, one white, one black, stumble into their destinies amid the spreading fires of racial violence, as their paths converge in a terrible, riveting climax. Novelist Lee Smith has written that “Leaving Tuscaloosa is deeply moving, disturbing, haunting, and important. With vivid, muscular prose and great scene development, this fast-paced novel picks up speed until it truly embodies Bennett’s phrase: ‘Time’s freight train’ hurtling down the tracks.” This event is free and open to the public.