A Cappella Books and Georgia Center for the Book welcome author Stephen Hundley to discuss his highly-anticipated new novel, Bomb Island. The author will appear in conversation with Mickey Dubrow, award-winning author of American Judas. Part coming-of-age summer romance, part thriller, Bomb Island is a funny and fast-paced Southern novel exploring subculture communities, survival, and found family set on an island near an unexploded atomic bomb. This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue. Registration requested.

About the Book

Summer is in full swing on Bomb Island, Georgia. Fifteen-year-old Fish lives in a commune on the three-mile stretch of sand with his chosen family: their "mother-sage" Whistle and her white tiger, Sugar, a young man named Reef, and an old man named Nutzo, who is still missing. Fish and Whistle spend the days leading tours in their glass bottom boat out to the barrier island's namesake, an unexploded atomic bomb.

This is the summer when Fish meets Celia, the tattooed daughter of a troublesome local charter fisherman bent on exposing Whistle's commune—and their illegal tiger. When a party at her dad's place goes sour, Fish brings Celia back to Bomb Island in the hope that she'll stay there with him. But they still can't find Nutzo, the tiger's behavior has become increasingly erratic, and everyone's summer is about to take a strange, dark turn.

Narrated by an ensemble cast of uniquely independent outsiders who have chosen counter-culture lives informed by their desires and past traumas, "Bomb Island" takes a rollicking journey through the weirds and wilds of Coastal Georgia. Stephen Hundley has crafted a spirited, zany novel with a big heart that examines the strength it takes to live freely and without shame.

About the Author

Stephen Hundley is the author of: The Aliens Will Come to Georgia First (University of North Georgia Press, 2023) and Bomb Island (Hub City Press, 2024). He is a fiction editor at Driftwood Press, a book review editor at the Southeast Review, and his stories and poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Cream City Review, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. He holds an MA from Clemson, an MFA from the University of Mississippi, and is currently completing a PhD in English at Florida State University.

About the Conversation Partner

For over thirty years, Mickey Dubrow wrote television promos, marketing presentations, and scripts for various clients including Cartoon Network, TNT Latin America, and HGTV. His short stories and essays have appeared in Prime Number Magazine, The Good Men Project, The Signal Mountain Review, Full Grown People, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. His first novel, American Judas, was a Finalist for the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year Award in the category of First Novel. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, author Jessica Handler.