…Winner, Gilbert King was an honored guest and speaker at our Bookworm Book Club meeting yesterday at the Bacall Rec. Center.  What a wonderful opportunity it was to meet him less than 24 hours after finding out he had won this coveted award.  His humble excitement really lit up the room, and you would have thought all of us attending had won the prize too.  It had been planned for many months that he would attend our April meeting and discuss his new book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a new America.  It is a chronicle of racial injustice that took place in 1949 Lake County, our back yard, a case of four black citrus workers accused of raping a 17 year old girl.  It was a very violent and sad story, but also a story about the bravery of a young NAACP Attorney from New York,  Thurgood Marshall, who despite horrific threats took the case to the Supreme Court. This was long before he himself became a Supreme Court Justice.   Our tireless Chairwoman Kathy always goes the extra mile to make our meetings interesting, but yesterday she provided a meeting with a cherry on top.  Kathy had reached out to Gilbert King many months ago and had numerous conversations with him.  He said he would be attending the Book Fair at the University of Central Florida in April and perhaps could come then. Once he said yes, she then asked him if he could stay and do another meeting at night, which he agreed to do.   On Monday, as many of us were finishing up reading the book, Gilbert King said he was having lunch with a friend he had had since 7th grade, when he got a text…Dude Pulitzer Prize.  He continued to read the text about his friend who had won for Non-fiction, and in his excitement for his friend did not realize his name was also there.  When he saw his name he thought this has to be a joke.  But it wasn’t.  As I mentioned earlier he was speaking to us less than 24 hours after learning this life changing news, and you could feel that he still was reeling from it.  He was asked what does it mean to you to win the Pulitzer, and he said he was not sure, but said he was reminded of a comment an actor made after winning the Oscar, and that was…maybe now I can get a job.  Congratulations Gilbert King, and congratulations Kathy, what a thrill it must have been for you to learn you had garnered a Pulitzer Prize winner for all of us to meet, and even have lunch with.   If there were Pulitzer Prizes for Book Club Chairwoman, Kathy would win hands down.  What a gift you gave us..thank you so much.