All posts by Robin Wood

November Staff Pick: The Hypocrite

The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya (Pantheon), picked by bookseller Leslie

The country is Italy, specifically the island of Sicily.  To me, the opening conjured images of lazy afternoons, reading, Aperol spritzes, and warm, family togetherness, while exploring.  That’s not what this book is about.

The book takes place during present day London (during Covid) where the daughter, Sophia, has written a play, and about ten years earlier when Sophia is a teenager taking a holiday on Sicily with her father, a writer.  Coming from a divorced family, Sophia believes that their holiday will be a time to connect while her father treats her like an employee at times, dictating his new book to her.

Flash forward to London – her father sits down to see his daughter’s play; he is horrified to see it is about him.  Sophia is brutal in her characterization of her father and his old fashioned ways, and how he treated her during their holiday. The father can’t believe it!!

This book is about different generations, being uncomfortable, expectations, disappointment, love, all of it!

The book goes back and forth between Sicily and London, a format I love.  I was surprised and uncomfortable at times while reading this book.  There are no easy answers especially with family – I really thought a lot about that, and isn’t that what a good book should do?

~ Leslie

Gifts for Everyone!

We love books as gifts, they are easy to wrap, fun to unwrap, and there’s an option for every reader, but there’s much more to our shop than books! Come see what’s new and fabulous. We’re happy to help you find just the right thing.

Join us, Saturday, Nov. 30 for Small Business Saturday. We’ll be open early at 9am, with mimosas, while supplies last and our friends at The Studios of Key West will be hosting their annual Artisan Fair!

Here are a few of the things we’ll be giving our friends and family this year!

  • Signed and special editions: Do you know someone who loves sprayed edges? Try Jessica Warman’s Repeat After Me or the deluxe edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
  • Art books, celebrity cookbooks, and hot memoirs: Key West: Paradise Found by Ellen T. White, Ina Garten’s new memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens, or I Love You by Pamela Anderson, might fit the bill.
  • Plus, puzzles, games, plushies, books for kids of all ages, art supplies & much more!

Can’t decide? A gift card is always the right pick! Can’t find something on our website? Give us a call, we’ll be happy to help.

2024 Art Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our 8th Annual Art Contest!

Online Winners –
“Under the Sea” by Karen Maxey
“My Heart Lives in Key West” by Jennifer Stephens

In-Person Vote Winner –
“Climate Change” by Kevin Assam

And our Grand Prize Winner with the most combined votes is…
“Ernie on the Swing” by Mollie Petrinec

Mollie’s work will stay on display at the store through the end of the year.

Look for all 4 designs on limited edition store bookmarks in the near future!

Thank you to everyone who submitted art and everyone who voted.

Last year’s winners.

Coming Soon, Pre-order Now

As soon as you see upcoming books getting buzz, you can pre-order them. Buy it while you’re thinking about it and get a happy surprise later. Want something you don’t see here? Email us at booksandbooks@tskw.org or ask a bookseller!

Here are a few books we are looking forward to:

Modern Cuban: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Recipes by Ana Quincoces

Serving up a fresh take on Cuban food, Ana Quincoces reimagines traditional recipes for today’s home chefs in Modern Cuban. This cookbook unites generations by helping readers make timeless dishes that showcase the distinctive flavors of classic Cuban cuisine while crafting meals that are accessible to everyone.

Accompanied by beautiful photos that present iconic dishes in a new, modern light, the recipes in this cookbook include Ana Quincoces’s personal memories of her family and the food culture they passed down to her. Modern Cuban is perfect for beginners and advanced cooks alike who want to celebrate Cuban favorites in ways that honor the past and present. Above all, this cookbook is for anyone who enjoys gathering good company for great food that feeds the soul. Buen provecho.

Coming November 19, 2024. Pre-order now.


Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen

In this “unlikely romance for the ages” (Camryn Garrett), a ghostwriter is handed the gig of a lifetime, except there’s a catch: the client, a closeted A-list actor finally ready to come out in his memoir, is an actual ghost–and the sparks flying between the men are becoming a little too real . . .

Adam Gallagher has knocked on thousands of doors. An ex-Mormon and almost-famous memoirist, he is used to sharing his life story with strangers. But this day, this house, is different. For it belongs to none other than Roland Rogers: Hollywood Hunk, and soon to be author. Roland has a story to tell, a decades-old secret to spill, and he’s decided that Adam is just the guy to help him do it.

Except there’s a problem. Roland Rogers is dead. Not in the metaphysical realm–if he focuses, he can summon enough energy to communicate via the kitchen speaker–but certainly in the physical, and he needs Adam to pen his story before his body is found frozen beneath the avalanche of snow that squashed it. That means one month, a hundred thousand words, no breaks.

Ghostwriting is hard enough, let alone when you’re dealing with a real ghost, and so it isn’t long before Roland’s idea of what his book should be clashes with Adam’s vision for what it could be. But the clock is ticking, the ice melting. And as more truths are told, both men soon discover that this experience is less of a coming out, and more of a coming home . . .

The sophomore novel from the beloved author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet is a witty and electric new rom-com for fans of Ashley Poston and Casey McQuiston.

Coming December 3, 2024. Pre-order now.


Private Rites by Julia Armfield

It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and old rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father, an architect as cruel as he was revered, dies. His death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will.

The sisters are more estranged than ever, and their lives spin out of control: Irene’s relationship is straining at the seams, Isla’s ex-wife keeps calling, and cynical Agnes is falling in love for the first time. But something even more sinister might be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always seemed unusually interested in the sisters’ lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperiled world.

Coming December 3, 2024. Pre-order now.


Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

There’s power in a book…
 
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
 
Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
 
Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

Coming January 14, 2025. Pre-order now.


Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Preorder now and receive the stunning DELUXE LIMITED EDITION while supplies last―featuring a special alternate cover design on the hardcover case, gorgeous sprayed edges, and exclusive endpapers. This breathtaking edition is only available on a limited first print run.

(Please note in the order comments if you only want the special edition.)

In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve read before.

The future of storytelling is here.

Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.

When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey—one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.

A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it. 

Coming January 14, 2025. Pre-order now.


Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld

A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy

“[Sittenfeld’s] perfectly contained stories are a joy.”—Booklist, starred review

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.

In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.

Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.

Coming February 25, 2025. Pre-order now.


How to Love Better: The Path to Deeper Connection Through Growth, Kindness, and Compassion by Yung Pueblo

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lighter offers a blueprint for deepening your compassion, kindness, and gratitude so you can truly grow in harmony with another person and build stronger connections in all your relationships.

“Personal transformation that is grounded in self-love and has greater inner peace as the goal will naturally teach you how to love better. Seeing yourself clearly opens the door to compassion for yourself and for other people.”

Love enters our lives in many forms: friends, family, intimate partners. But all of these relationships are deeply influenced by the love we have for ourselves. If we see our relationships as opportunities to be fully present in our healing and learn to love one another better, then, Yung Pueblo assures us, we can transform and meet one another with compassion instead of judgment.

In How to Love Better, Yung Pueblo examines all aspects of relationships, from the rose-colored early days when you may be hesitant to show your full self, to the challenges that can arise without clear communication, to dealing with heartbreak and healing as you close a chapter of your life. The power of looking inward remains at the core of Yung Pueblo’s teachings. Ego and attachment can become barriers in a relationship, so the more self-aware you become, the more you can support both your partner and yourself.

Yung Pueblo’s insights on embracing change, building a foundation of honesty, and learning to listen selflessly will resonate regardless of where you are in your healing journey. And his unique combination of poetry, personal experience, and thoughtful advice will help you grow and strengthen all of your relationships.

Coming March 11, 2025. Pre-order now.


Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things, a sparkling and funny new novel of entertainment, ambition, art, and love.

Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers.

Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent—a much older lesbian magician—who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life, and has a slick, successful career to prove it. With Margot’s mentorship and industry connections, Cherry is sure to take her art to the next level. Plus, Margot is sexy as hell. It’s not long before Cherry must decide how much she’s willing to risk for Margot and for her own explosive new act—and what kind of clown she wants to be under her suit.  

Equal parts bravado, tenderness, and humor, and bursting with misfits, magicians, musicians, and mimes, STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE is a masterpiece of comedic fiction that asks big questions about art and performance, friendship and community, and the importance of timing in jokes and in life.

Coming March 18, 2025. Pre-order now.

What’s going on with book banning?

Our banned books display
Our banned books display

Updated Oct. 2024, find out more about Unite Against Book Bans.

Updated Sept. 2024: PEN American has released new information for Banned Books Week 2024. Read more at https://pen.org/banned-books-week-2024.

Though book censorship is a national concern (see graphic for national book ban numbers) – our display focuses on books that have been banned (removed from public schools and/or libraries) or challenged (targeted for removal) in Florida.

Book Ban stats from Unite Against Book Bans.

Number of unique titles challenged 2021-2023:
1,858 - 2021
2,571 - 2022
4,240 - 2023

According to PEN America Florida, “Florida now ranks first in the nation and accounts for more than 40% of all documented [book] bans.”

It might not seem like removing or restricting titles in schools or public libraries is a huge problem, after all you can purchase them here and from many other stores. But book censorship has real and significant effects on readers (many of them young people) who may only have access to these books via schools and libraries – places that are readily accessible and free.

And it’s important to consider whose stories are being restricted or removed. According to the American Library Association, “47% of the books targeted for censorship were titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals.”

Want to learn more?

PEN America Florida: https://pen.org/region/florida

National Coalition Against Censorship: https://ncac.org

The American Library Association’s Unite Against Book Bans Campaign: https://uniteagainstbookbans.org

Show off your style with our read banned books gear!

Vote for your favorites in our Summer Art Contest


It’s time to vote for winners in this year’s Books & Books @ The Studios Summer Art Contest. Vote for your favorite canvas online or in-person. The top three entries will be featured on special edition bookmarks.

See the work and vote in-person in the Zabar Project Gallery on the first floor of The Studios of Key West now through Oct. 31st.

Many of the canvases are available for purchase. Contact The Studios of Key West if you’re interested in purchasing one of the entries.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW

October Staff Pick: You Like It Darker

You Like It Darker by Stephen King (Scribner), picked by bookseller Lori

Twelve new short stories from the master of horror. Standouts for me: “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to 1981’s Cujo, and “The Answer Man,” my personal favorite, which asks us to ponder the meaning of our own lives and ask ourselves how we will approach the inevitable end of it. 

Beauty, horror, humor and humanity are all present in the pages from the true King of the genre.

~ Lori

Spooky & Witchy Autumn Reads

Do you like to be scared? Or perhaps your kids can’t wait until it’s time to break out the costumes. Pick up a spooky, witchy read for the season. Here are a few books we are enjoying or looking forward to. Browse the store or ask a bookseller for many more recommendations.

Killer House Party by Lily Anderson

Red Solo cups? Check. Snacks? Check. Abandoned mansion full of countless horrors that won’t let you leave? Check.

The Deinhart Manor has been a looming shadow over town for as long as anyone can remember, and it’s been abandoned for even longer. When the final Deinhart descendent passes, the huge gothic manor is up for sale for the first time ever. Which means Arden can steal the keys from her mom’s real estate office . . . It’s time for a graduation party that no one will ever forget.

Arden and her friends each have different reasons for wanting to throw the party to end all parties. But when the manor doors bar everyone inside and the walls begin to bleed, all anyone wants to do is make it out alive.

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.

Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks

Falling for the wrong person? Bury your feelings.

Painfully shy Callum Flannelly would rather dive into an open grave than take a stranger to dinner. But he can only inherit the family undertaking business under one condition: He must marry before his 35th birthday. Texan animator Lark Thompson moved to Galway, Ireland, to restart her life and career, not be reminded of losing her husband by moving in next to a funeral home.  

But when she learns of Callum’s dilemma, Lark’s certain she can help him find The One, even if she’s sworn off love herself. Though as the dating project progresses and Lark spends more time with straight-laced, sarcastic Callum, he starts to crack the ice around her grieving heart. And the more joy that vivacious Lark brings to Callum’s grey existence, the less he can imagine letting her return to Texas.

If they think they can ignore their connection, they’re dead wrong.

5 More Sleeps ‘til Halloween by Jimmy Fallon & illustrated by Rich Deas

It’s 5 more sleeps ‘til Halloween!
That spooky time of year.
Where all of the ghosts are wide awake
As nighttime’s drawing near.

The excitement leading up to spooky season has been enjoyed by so many for so long. Filled with costumes, candy, and big scares! But why not make the last few days before Halloween even more exciting by counting how many sleeps until trick-or-treat night?

Paired with the eerie artwork of Rich Deas, fans will enjoy the humor of Jimmy Fallon as he prepares readers for the most spinetingling week of the year—5 More Sleeps ‘til Halloween.

The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo (Oct. 8)

If you call to the witches, they will come.

1943, El Paso, Texas: teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena follows her across the borders of space and time. In colonial Mexico, Nena grows into her power, finding love and learning that magic always comes with a price.

In the present day, Nena’s grandniece, Marta, balances a struggling legal aid practice with motherhood and the care of the now ninety-three-year-old Nena. When Marta agrees to help search for a daughter Nena left in the past, the two forge a fierce connection. Marta’s own supernatural powers emerge, awakening her to new possibilities that threaten the life she has constructed.

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

The Nobel Prize winner’s latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas

September 1913. A young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen in the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone—or something—seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world. Little does the newcomer realize, as he tries to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target.
 
A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, with signature boldness, inventiveness, humor, and bravura.

All Hallows by Christopher Golden

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man.

There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them…and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

All Hallows. 
The one night when everything is a mask…

Hungry Bones by Louise Hung

A chilling middle grade novel about a girl haunted by a hungry ghost.

Molly Teng sees things no one else can.

By touching the belongings of people who have died, she gets brief glimpses into the lives they lived. Sometimes the “zaps” are funny or random, but often they leave her feeling sad, drained, and lonely.

The last thing Jade remembers from life is dying. That was over one hundred years ago. Ever since then she’s been trapped in the same house watching people move in and out. She’s a ‘hungry ghost’ reliant on the livings’ food scraps to survive. To most people she is only a shadow, a ghost story, a superstition.

Molly is not most people. When she moves into Jade’s house, nothing will ever be the same—for either of them. After over a century alone, Jade might finally have someone who can help her uncover the secrets of her past, and maybe even find a way out of the house—before her hunger destroys them both.

Enchanted to Meet You: A Witches of West Harbor Novel by Meg Cabot

A witchy rom-com from New York Times bestseller Meg Cabot about a plus size witch who must team up with a handsome stranger to help protect her village from an otherworldly force—but will she be able to protect her heart?

It’s Magic When You Meet Your Match

In her teenage years, lovelorn Jessica Gold cast a spell that went disastrously wrong, and brought her all the wrong kind of attention—as well as a lifetime ban from the World Council of Witches.

So no one is more surprised than Jess when, fifteen years later, tall, handsome WCW member Derrick Winters shows up in her quaint little village of West Harbor and claims that Jess is the Chosen One.

She’s the Chosen One

Not chosen by West Harbor’s snobby elite to style them for the town’s tricentennial ball—though Jess owns the chicest clothing boutique in town. And not chosen finally to be on the WCW, either—not that Jess would have said yes, anyway, since she’s done with any organization that tries to dictate what makes a “true” witch.

No, Jess has been chosen to help save West Harbor itself . . .

As Summer Ends, Her Power Grows

But just when Jess is beginning to think that she and Derrick might have a certain magic of their own—and not of the supernatural variety—Jess learns he may not be who she thought he was. 

And suddenly Jess finds herself having to make another kind of choice: trust Derrick and work with him to combat the sinister force battling to bring down West Harbor, or use her gift as she always has: to keep herself, and her heart, safe.

Can she work her magic in time?

A Q&A with David James Poissant

EVENT POSTPONED

David James Poissant, author of Lake Life and The Heaven of Animals, is coming to the Key West Library, (time and date TBD). Monroe County Public Library’s Acting Director of Libraries Michael Nelson asked Poissant a few questions, offering up a little preview of the planned event.

Check the library’s website for updates.

Q: Your debut novel, Lake Life, brings a complicated family (The Starlings) together at a lake house in North Carolina for one last vacation before the place is sold. What compelled you to write about this particular family?

A: When I was young, my parents rented a house for one week every summer. The house was a lake house on the shores of Lake Toxaway in Transylvania County, North Carolina. When I was in my late teens or early twenties, my parents bought a converted double wide trailer on Lake Oconee, not far from Milledgeville, Georgia and Andalusia Farm where Flannery O’Connor lived. Because I’m a person who falls in love with places, I fell in love with both houses, both lakes. And because I’m a writer who loves writing place, I wanted to capture the essence of both places in a single story. For the novel, I moved the Lake Oconee house to Lake Toxaway, then renamed the place Lake Christopher. I had a place, then, but no novel. Then, at a fourth of July event on Lake Oconee in 2009 or 2010, I saw a small boy very nearly fall from the back of a speeding boat. The boat was moving fast, and it was a miracle that no one was killed. The boy looked too young to swim, he wore no lifejacket, and the person piloting the boat was likely drunk. Fortunately, authorities intervened. For weeks, though, I had nightmares. What would have happened had the boy fallen into the water? Could I have saved him? I’m a fairly strong swimmer, but this was at night, and who knows? These dreams and questions haunted me until I knew that I had the opening chapter of my novel Lake Life.

Q: You’ve lived and worked as a writer in Florida for many years and received a Florida Book Award for your 2014 collection of stories, The Heaven of Animals. What appeals to you about Florida’s literary scene? What makes it different from other places in the country?

A: Florida is wild. Growing up in Georgia, I thought of Florida the way most tourists see Florida: beaches and Disney. When the job offer at the University of Central Florida brought me to Orlando thirteen years ago, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. What I found was a vibrant, sophisticated literary community with numerous reading series and open mics, small presses and literary magazines, indie bookstores, and more writers than I would ever have expected. So many literary luminaries call the Sunshine State home. And I love the atmosphere. The vibe of Florida’s literary scene, as my students would say, is “chill.” If you’ve ever hung out with Kristen Arnett or Lauren Groff or Laura van den Berg, you know that these are not pretentious people. They’re brilliant writers, but they’re also good hangs. And I need that. I’m not particularly comfortable in a recliner with a tie on. I’d rather perch on a barstool in a t-shirt and argue about which Lydia Millet book is best. (Answer: There isn’t a bad Lydia Millet book!)

Q: You teach in the MFA Creative Writing program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. What’s the best advice you give to new writers, or something you wished you knew when you started first writing?

A: Read. We can talk all day about craft, and I do. And we can talk about process, and I will. But the thing I find that students need most is more time to read. We’re all busy. We have families and jobs and classes, so time is a luxury, I know. But I strongly encourage them to carve as much time from devices, streaming platforms, and social media as they can manage. I encourage students to read at least a book a week beyond the books they read for class. I’m happiest at a rate of two books a week, in addition to the books I assign, student’s stories, and the dozens of submissions I read each week for The Florida Review, where I serve as Editor. To me, the math of fiction is pretty simple. If you want to be a writer, you need to read a lot of books. Every book is a toolbox. When you start reading like a writer, you see how many craft tools are at your disposal, which is why I encourage students and beginning writers to read widely from writers of diverse backgrounds and writing styles. Read things you wouldn’t think you’d like. Read as widely as you can. So much of learning arrives via this bookworm osmosis, and well read beginning writers make for the fastest learners.

Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?

A: I got a good bit of reading done this summer. I’ve been on a pandemic novel kick, and two reads that have stuck with me are The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez and Touch, by Olaf Olafsson, both set during the Covid-19 pandemic. I heard that a great film version of Touch was just released, but I haven’t seen it yet. I’m a longtime fan of Tove Jansson’s Moominbooks, all of which I read to my daughters when they were younger. This summer I finally read one of her adult novels, The Summer Book, reissued in 2008 by NYRB Classics. It’s the sad, gorgeous, episodic story of a grandmother and granddaughter set over the course of a summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland. We forget that children know and feel and grieve more than we think, and this novel captures that fact, and childhood, beautifully. Other books that brightened my summer include Joshua Cohen’s The Netanyahus, Paula Fox’s Desperate Characters, Hiroko Oyamada’s The Factory, and Max Porter’s Shy.

Q: Can you tell us anything about future projects?

A: Sure! I’ve finished a second collection of short stories, tentatively titled Sons & Daughters. As with The Heaven of Animals, I don’t think that I consciously set out to pen a collection. It was more that I looked back over ten years of story publications and saw that I had produced dozens of new stories, most of which address questions of childhood and parenthood. For years, my fiction has grappled with the question of what it means to be a child or a parent. I like to think about what we owe each other, as family members, if anything. Familial bonds can save us, but they’re also frequently abused. And the tension between those extremes, that gray area between salvation and degradation, that’s what I’m interested in. Where some people find their identities in family, some can’t thrive until they’ve freed themselves from their family of origin. I’m interested in both of those characters. Each of their stories will resonate with different readers. To that end, I’m also hard at work on a novel, my first to be set in the great state of Florida, about a very large, very isolated family, and about the dangers of such isolation.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, 2024

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the rich diversity of Hispanic and Hispanic American people. Here are a few books we are reading and recommending for Hispanic Heritage Month:

A collage of books for Hispanic Heritage Month 2024

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma (out in paperback, Oct. 1)

Finding Latinx by Paola Ramos

Pepe and the Parade: A Celebration of Hispanic Heritage by Tracey Kyle & Mirelle Ortega (Illustrator)

Crying in the Bathroom by Erika L. Sánchez

Sí, Se Puede: The Latino Heroes Who Changed the United States by Julio Anta & Yasmín Flores Montañez (Illustrator)

Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Lola Reyes Is So Not Worried by Cindy L. Rodriguez (out Sept. 17)