Houston-native author Reginald Gibbons, a national book award finalist whose Texas-set novel SWEETBITTER is forthcoming August 1. SWEETBITTER takes place in east Texas in 1910 during the time of white rule-not by law but by lynch mob. Amid the suffocating racism and fear, half-Choctaw, half-white Reuben Sweetbitter and Martha Clarke, a white woman, fall in love. This is an authentic, richly detailed novel with themes of sacrifice, fear, and the loss of one's identity, inspired by Gibbons' family -- whose paternal grandfather was half-Choktaw -- and his experiences growing up in protestant evangelical Texas.
Brad Gilmore:How did Houston and Texas in particular shape you as an author?
Reginald Gibbons:Well, it did a lot of shaping, I think because my father was a, was a salesman from his car. He sold small items to small, independent grocery stores. These don't even exist anymore. The chains killed all that, but I used to get to ride with him at work when I was a kid, for example. And we'd go out around outside the city limits. We'd go to a little, a little grocery store owned by a Chinese proprietor one owned by a Japanese proprietor, one owned by a black proprietor. And I would see all these different kinds of interactions and I, I learned a lot about how people live.
SOURCE: https://bookshop.org/p/books/sweetbitter-reginald-gibbons/19865347
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Brad Gilmore is a Houston-based multimedia personality, author, and producer who has built a career at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and storytelling. Known to fans as The BOAT (“Best of All Time”), Brad has hosted and produced programming across ESPN Radio, CW39 Houston, and Reality of Wrestling alongside WWE Hall of Famer Booker T.He is the creator and host of The Collection, a podcast where he sits down with some of the most influential figures in film, television, and music. Brad is also an accomplished author, with forthcoming titles including Why We Love Back to the Future: 40 Years of Fandom, Flux Capacitors, and Timeless Adventures (Mango Publishing, 2025). His interviews, live events, and media work reflect his passion for pop culture and his gift for making conversations both insightful and entertaining.Beyond the microphone, Brad is committed to building platforms that spotlight creativity, amplify voices, and connect communities through media.
