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TRYON—The next Live@Lanier program will be held at the Tryon Fine Arts Center on Sunday, March 30, at 3 p.m. It will go behind the scenes of the Westminster Dog Show for a story of passion, glory, and slobbers as witnessed by Dogland author and columnist Tommy Tomlinson.

To write Dogland, Tomlinson traveled for three years to more than a hundred dog shows from Midwest fairgrounds to Madison Square Garden. Hear first hand of what he experienced. 

Like a real-life version of the mockumentary movie “Best in Show,” Tomlinson’s true story follows Striker, a champion Samoyed, and his handler, Laura King. The book also goes into the history of humans and dogs and how we created dogs and how they created us. 

After the program, walk next door to Lanier Library, located at 12 Chestnut Street, to meet the author and mingle with other dog lovers. Tomlinson is also the author of The Elephant in the Room, a memoir about being overweight in America. He has written for Esquire, ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Garden & Gun, and many others. As a reporter and columnist for the Charlotte Observer, he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary.

Lanier usually welcomes dogs, but, ironically, not this time. Refreshments will be served, so to avoid canine temptation and stress, no dogs are allowed. Public admission is free thanks to support from the Kirby Endowment Fund at the Polk County Community Foundation.

TFAC is located at 34 Melrose Avenue.