Episode 25: Susana Darwin

On our Season One finale our guest is Craig Pittman. Craig is a native Floridian, a best-selling author, a podcaster and an award-winning reporter. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him "the most destructive force on campus." In 40 years as a newspaper reporter, he covered a variety of beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature. After 31 years at the Tampa Bay Times, he now writes a weekly column on environmental issues for the Florida Phoenix and is co-host of the popular podcast "Welcome to Florida." He's the author of six non-fiction books about what he calls "The Most Interesting State," including the New York Times bestseller Oh, Florida: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country. He's also the author of Cat Tale: The Wild Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther, which Garden & Gun magazine named one of the 20 best books of 2020. His most recent one, published in 2021, is The State You're In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife. The Florida Heritage Book Festival named him a Florida Literary Legend in 2020. In 2022 he was given the Rachel Carson Award by the Sierra Club. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and two children. His work can be found at craigpittman.com

This week our guest is Gale Massey. Gale is an award-winning author drawn to stories exploring coming-of-age questions, the search for redemption, social justice issues, and complex character relationships. Her work illuminates the complexities of blood family and chosen family bonds. She is a member of the LGBTQ community living in the south and a seventh-generation Floridian;  these life experiences inform her work and her public image. In addition to her debut novel The Girl from Blind River, winner of a 2018 Florida Book Award and a finalist for the Clara Johnson award, Gale has published a story collection Rising and Other Stories (Bronzeville, 2021) and contributed a story to Akashic Books' Tampa Bay Noir; her works have also appeared in Salon, Writer's Digest, Lambda Literary, CutBank, CrimeReads,and the Tampa Bay Times. Gale was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference, a fellow at Writers in Paradise, and has served as a panel judge for the Lambda Literary Award. Her work can be found at galemassey.com

This week our guest is L.L. Kirchner. L.L. is an author and award-winning screenwriter whose life and work as an expat in Asia became the basis of two memoirs, including Blissful Thinking: A Memoir of Overcoming the Wellness Revolution, and her previous title, American Lady Creature: (My) Change in the Middle East. A Qatar Memoir., named one of Bustle’s “11 Books to Battle the Blues.” A book critic, essayist and reporter, Kirchner was once simultaneously the religion editor for an LGBTQ+ paper, dating columnist for an alt newsweekly, and bridal editor for a society rag. Her writing has appeared in Shondaland, The Rumpus, and The Washington Post among numerous others. Based in Florida, she's now a guest host for the Home Shopping Network, runs the monthly storytelling show, True Stories, and a brand new grandma. Her work can be found at llkirchner.com

This week our guest is Bill DeYoung. Bill was born in St. Petersburg, FL where he spent the first 21 years of his life. After a long time living in other cities, working at newspapers and learning how to write on a deadline, he came back to his hometown in 2014 and now spends most of his time wondering where the city he loved so much disappeared to. He is Senior Writer and Editor of the St. Pete Catalyst and has written six books, the most recent of which is Vintage St. Pete & Pinellas Volume 3.

This week our guest is Yuki Jackson. Yuki is a Black and Japanese poet and educator. Her poetry has been published in literary journals such as Four Way Review and Cream City Review, for which she was nominated for a 2021 Best of the Net Award and the 2020 Summer Poetry Prize. Yuki is a regular contributor for the "Poet's Notebook" column of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay and her work has been featured by NPR Next Gen, Spady Cultural Heritage Museum and the Goodwin-Procter law firm. She was also featured as a playwright for The Straz Center’s BIPOC Play-Reading Series, showcasing her cross-cultural writing through an interdisciplinary and collaborative performance. For more, her website is YukiJackson.com.

This week our guest is Lenore Myka. Lenore is the author of a prize-winning short story collection and the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in American Scholar, The Normal School, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poets & Writers, Quartz, New England Review, Five Points, and others. Her work can be found at lenoremyka.com

This week our guest is Susana Darwin. A Southerner by birth and a Chicagoan by temperament, Susana took a detour into politics, the law, and book publishing before returning to her early passion for film. Her award-winning narrative short “Hatboxes” (2013) appeared in 15 film festivals and conferences worldwide, and the musical short "Longer" (2020) appeared in 26 festivals, COVID be damned. Her 2023 short “Flag Act” is now on the film festival circuit. Susana now lives with her wife in St. Petersburg, Florida, and is currently working on several short and feature-length screenplays and a novel, in addition to other forms of visual art. Her other passions include aloha shirts, fat novels, political organizing, and outdoor music festivals. Learn more at burmesetigertrapproductions.com

This week our guest is Curtis Davis. Curtis was born and raised in Tampa, FL. He has been writing and performing poetry since a youth in high school and has since traveled all over the states competing in international, national, and regional poetry slam competitions. In 2018 he was ranked the 8th poet in the world after becoming a finalist in the Individual World Poetry Slam held in San Diego, CA. He is the Creative Director of the Non-Profit, Heard ‘Em Say Youth Arts Collective and Curtis is the Co-Founder of GrowHouse, an artist collective dedicated to growing community, growing culture, and growing creatives through poetry and hip-hop. He can be found at www.growhousetampa.com

This week our guest is Alia Luria. Alia holds an MFA in Fiction from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She writes a mix of science fiction fantasy novels, personal essays, and haiku. Her first novel, Compendium, won the Indie Excellence Award in fantasy, was a silver medalist in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards in fantasy, was a gold medalist in the eLit Awards for science fiction/fantasy, and was an Independent Author Network Book of the Year finalist in the science fiction, fantasy, and first novel categories. Her personal essay about being stalked by an ex-boyfriend, “You Might Eat Organic, but You’re Full of Baloney,” was a finalist for the Open Season Award in CNF and was published by Northwest Review.  She has also had short work published in Toho Journal and Wingless Dreamer. Her second novel, Ocularum, is forthcoming in 2024 with Something Or Other Publishing, and her first collection of personal essays and haiku, working title Geri o Shimasu, will be published in 2025 by Unsolicited Press. You can visit her blog at Still Not a Robot stillnotarobot.com or her author site at alialuria.com.

This week our guest is Jarret Keene. Jarret earned his PhD in creative writing at Florida State University. A beloved and highly sought after professor, Dr. Keene is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he teaches American literature and the graphic novel.  He has written a travel guide, a rock-band biography, poetry collections and edited short-fiction anthologies including Las Vegas Noir and Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas. His newest book Hammer of the Dogs is a YA dystopian thriller set in the wasteland of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. His work can be found at jarretkeene.net