27/05/2026
Cune Press proudly announces the release of Dizzier Than Gillespie, a vibrant and genre‑blending debut novel by acclaimed poet Sibyl James, available June 23, 2026.
Set in Tunis on the eve of the First Gulf War, Dizzier Than Gillespie follows Delilah, an American writer and visiting professor navigating the complexities of expatriate life in North Africa. Through vivid encounters with local culture, friendships with a bold Tunisian guide and a politically engaged American poet, and the unexpected guidance of a rebellious 13th‑century female saint, Delilah embarks on a journey of transformation, identity, and belonging.
About the Book
Part travelogue, part novel, and part poetic meditation, Dizzier Than Gillespie offers an immersive portrait of Tunisia—its streets, markets, traditions, and contradictions—seen through a feminist lens. At its heart lies a powerful story of sisterhood as women challenge societal norms, from occupying male-only cafés to redefining freedom on their own terms.
Rich in humor, lyrical prose, and cultural insight, the book explores themes of nomadism, spirituality, storytelling, and the search for “home,” all while blending everyday life with mythic elements embodied by the enigmatic saint Saida Manoubia.
About the Author
Sibyl James is an American writer, poet, and educator whose work spans poetry, fiction, and travel writing. A Fulbright professor who has taught and lived in countries including Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, China, and Mexico, James brings a deeply informed, cross-cultural perspective to her storytelling. Her writing reflects a lifelong commitment to exploring identity, place, and the human connections that transcend borders.
Why Readers Should Pick Up This Book
• A transportive reading experience: Step into the sights, sounds, and flavors of Tunisia through lush, evocative prose.
• A feminist, fearless voice: The novel celebrates women’s resilience, rebellion, and solidarity in the face of cultural and political constraints.
• A unique blend of genres: Combining fiction, memoir-like realism, poetry, and myth, the book offers a fresh and unforgettable narrative style.
• Timely and timeless themes: Questions of identity, belonging, cultural difference, and political tension resonate just as strongly today.
Above all, Dizzier Than Gillespie invites readers to embrace life’s unpredictability—to find meaning in movement, connection in difference, and home wherever you dare to create it.
What Others Have to Say
“In her debut novel, Dizzier Than Gillespie, Sibyl James has created a character, Delilah, a visiting professor in Tunis, who comes to terms with the nomadic life she has chosen, who embraces both its uncertainties and its rewards. And for the reader, the rewards are, thanks to James' vivid chronicle of an outsider's view of an ancient culture, abundant and richly satisfying.”
“I *really* like Dizzier than Gillespie! It's a thing of many elements: a novel, travelogue, a cultural chronicle, a history lesson, a critique of the countries that launch wars, a feminist fable, an intro to the Arabic language. At times, reading the pages of dialogue, I could picture your book being a potential screenplay. In Saida, you even blend in a dash of magic realism. What a cool character! And there's the occasional letter from Delilah that makes me think of the time-honored form of the epistemological novel. Wonderful book!”
—Ed Harkness, Author of Creek Water: New & Selected Poems
“Dizzier Than Gillespie starts right out with voices of this world and not quite of this world. The writing shimmers with precision and keen observations in what could be taken for a record of an extended stay in North Africa, but actually becomes a vision of a richer world full of simple and complex beauties, constructed mainly by women gathered across time and geography, assembled from the commonest day by day but sometimes necessarily traveling in mind and body to the places of war. Like a dream but too vivid, too tactile, too full of flavor.”
—Edward Mast, Playwright, Author of The Million Bells of Ocean.
"Dizzier Than Gillespie, is the story of a farm girl from Kansas, named Delilah, now in her forties, a university lecturer, who is nudged by a 13th-century Sufi saint, named Saida Manoubia to travel to Tunisia. Delilah frequently “wonders what tale she has fallen into.” James utilizes the Arab storytelling tradition of a Thousand and One Nights to tell the tale of an American traveler. Delilah navigates her way through Tunisia, despite the confusing intertwining of the French colonial tradition with its Arabic roots. Like “a sleight of hand,” the Sufi saint, Saida Manoubia appears when she is most confused and offers advice as well as humorous banter. But her other guide is Melina, a secular Tunisian. Delilah adjusts to the different rhythm and melody of life in Tunis, like leisurely lunches of fresh fish with an eclectic circle of expatriate friends, or the tolerant Tunisian shopkeepers who tell her “We all hate war” when the U.S. starts carpet-bombing Baghdad in 1991 during Desert Storm. When Delilah hears shots in her neighborhood, she discovers that the assassination of PLO leaders in a nearby safe house is not big enough for the American mainstream news. Sibyl James creates engaging characters, in a landscape poetically described. But she also shows how cultural ambiguities and the complexity of a culture cannot be understood easily from the American news."
—Gretchen McCullough, author of The Wondrous Springs of Balmorhea
Availability: June 23, 2026
Publisher: Cune Press
Format: Paperback
ISBN 9781951082987
For review copies, interviews, or more information, please contact Cune Press ([email protected]) or visit our website (www.cunepress.com).
