PRAISE & MEDIA COVERAGE FOR “AFTER VIRGINIA TECH”
“Well-researched and clearly written, [the] book's major accomplishment is the author's exploration of the healing process.... Too many accounts of murderous rampages fail to offer long-term insights into the trauma faced by survivors, but Kapsidelis provides useful information on the topic, including discussions of 'gun violence as a health issue.'... An important book for policymakers and those interested in the continuing, depressingly widespread instances of gun violence.”
“Kapsidelis tells the story of mass shootings unwaveringly from the perspective of survivors. His voice is quiet, empathetic, sensitive, trustworthy, accurate, and never overwrought, conveying empathy without pathos. Kapsidelis’s account of the actual day of the shooting, and the shooting itself, is brilliant. At a time when guns are posited as the only way to preserve life and safety, the events at Virginia Tech suggest that there are other means of survival and heroism.”
- Pamela Haag, author of The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture
"It's not a blood-soaked, minute-by-minute account of what many have called a massacre. Instead, Kapsidelis tells the story of the Virginia Tech shootings and their aftermath through the eyes and voices of the survivors."
“Former RTD editor looks at long, hard road of healing in ‘After Virginia Tech’”
Bill Lohmann, Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 15, 2019
“Journalist’s new book examines Virginia Tech”
Amy Friedenberger, The Roanoke Times, May 7, 2019
“Journalist Examines Life After Virginia Tech Shooting”
Jessica Wetzler, Daily News-Record, Oct. 9, 2019
“Remembering The VA Tech Tragedy”
Chris Boros, WMRA, Oct. 4, 2019
Marsha Mercer column, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 1, 2019
Wilford Kale column: “A saga worthy of the memory of those 27 students and five faculty”
The Virginia Gazette, July 5, 2019
WCVE-Richmond, May 15, 2019
A look back at Virginia’s one-gun-a-month law
Whittney Evans, WCVE, July 8, 2019
Q&A: After Virginia Tech, survivors advocated for tighter gun laws
Instead they’ve gotten looser.
The Virginia Mercury, June 7, 2019
UMD officials want to be ready for a campus shooting. Here’s what they’re doing.
The Diamondback, University of Maryland, May 20, 2019
Inside Higher ED Author Interview
April 18, 2019
“Journalist publishes new stories from Tech shooting in ‘After Virginia Tech’”
Collegiate Times, April 15, 2019
“Southern Discomfort: Journalist Explore Guns and Drugs”
Virginia Festival of the Book Panel
A video of a panel discussion with Tom Kapsidelis and Pam Kelley, author of Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South.
Above images (from left): Colin Goddard speaking at a gun safety rally at Richmond's Capitol Square in 2008 (Steve Helber, Associated Press); Virginia Tech's War Memorial Chapel offers a place for reflection on the university's Drillfield (photo by the author); Kristina Anderson at Virginia Tech's April 16 Memorial (photo by Samuel Granillo, Columbine survivor)