Crooked Steeple Literary Festival welcomes author Jeffrey Dale Lofton to close their season

Join the Crooked Steeple Literary Festival at Falls Church Presbyterian for the last event of their 2025-2026 season, featuring local author Jeffrey Dale Lofton!

Lofton will discuss his 2023 debut novel Red Clay Suzie, a coming-of-age story inspired by his own childhood in Georgia. It follows a gay, disabled boy named Philbet as he navigates life on the margins of his Deep South community, facing prejudice as well as self-doubt.

A book signing will follow the talk, with Bards Alley providing copies on site for purchase, and attendees can enjoy light refreshments. Registration is free with an optional donation to support future seasons of the Crooked Steeple Literary Festival.

RSVP here: fcpc.breezechms.com/form/CrookedSteepleJeffreyDaleLofton04252026

ABOUT THE BOOK

Fueled by tomato sandwiches and green milkshakes, and obsessed with cars, Philbet struggles with life and love as a gay boy in rural Georgia. He’s happiest when helping Grandaddy dig potatoes from the vegetable garden that connects their houses. But Philbet’s world is shattered and his resilience shaken by events that crush his innocence and sense of security; expose his misshapen chest skillfully hidden behind shirts Mama makes at home; and convince him that he’s not fit to be loved by Knox, the older boy he idolizes to distraction. Over time, Philbet finds refuge in unexpected places and inner strength in unexpected ways, leading to a resolution from beyond the grave.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Roosevelt’s Little White House. He calls the nation’s capital home now and has for over three decades. He is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress where he is surrounded by books and people who love books—in short, paradise. He is a contributing editor for WELL READ Magazine and co-host of the Inside Voices podcast alongside author Robert Gwaltney.

Red Clay Suzie is his first novel, a fictionalized memoir written through his personal lens as an outsider—gay and living with a disability in a conservative family and community in the Deep South. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Red Clay Suzie go to support the important work of The Trevor Project and the Born This Way Foundation.

He was the Pat Conroy Literary Center Spring 2024 Writer-in-Residence. Red Clay Suzie was Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize, named an Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association, and was awarded the Seven Hills Literary Prize for Fiction.

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