Award-winning journalist reads, signs his ‘Hot Off the Presses’ at Outwrite tonight

Gay scandal during Atlanta Olympic Games a theme for new fiction novel

Elliott Mackle, Atlanta journalist and an award-winning food critic for Creative Loafing, reads and signs his book “Hot Off the Presses” at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse at 7:30 p.m.

This is Mackle’s second novel and tells the story of Henry Thompson, editor of Outlines, Atlanta’s gay and lesbian newsweekly, who has an affair with a local gymnast that is favored to win the gold medal in the Olympics as they come to Atlanta in 1996. Scandal hits the Olympics when NBC finds out about a locker room rendezvous between Thompson, the gymnast, a body worker and a rival coach, forcing Thompson to confront his beliefs.

“Should he report the ill-advised behavior of his buddies and stay true to his ideals – or give in to world-class pressure? This is but the first of a series of ethical challenges from the morally compromised Atlanta establishment,” states a press release about the book.

The book also takes on the issue of an evangelist who denies African-American men are at risk for HIV/AIDS and denies federal funding for safer sex education. Thompson must also deal with this pressure — he lost his lover to AIDS and sees first-hand the dangerous and casual sexual encounters in the community, believing them to be almost criminal as well as deadly.

Mackle covered the 1996 Olympic Games for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has written for Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, the Los Angeles Times, and public television, and was a long-time columnist for Creative Loafing. His first novel, “It Takes Two,” was a Lambda Award finalist.

Best selling gay novelist Felice Picano said about Mackle’s book, “This is the way gay novels used to be written: big, smart, sexy, funny – with important themes, great characters, and the tainted heart of a big city at its core.”

Elliott Mackle reads ‘Hot Off the Presses’
7:30 p.m.
Outwrite Bookstore
991 Piedmont Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30309
www.outwritebooks.com