From the Editor

2022 Board of Directors

Frank Biafora ST. PETERSBURG

Kurt Browning Peggy Bulger Dan Denton Olympia Duhart Reginald Ellis Kerry Edwards Steve Goldman SAN ANTONIO FERNANDINA BEACH SARASOTA FORT LAUDERDALE TALLAHASSEE NAPLES ORLANDO

Maria Goldberg, Vice-Chair

PENSACOLA Alex Hamrick ALTAMONTE SPRINGS Joseph Harbaugh, Previous Past Chair HOLLYWOOD Matt Hudson TALLAHASSEE Sue Kim ORMOND BEACH George Lange, Treasurer TAMPA Thomas Luzier, Chair SARASOTA Linda Marcelli GULFPORT Jordan Marlowe NEWBERRY Randy Noles ORLANDO Susan Towler JACKSONVILLE Glenda Walters LYNN HAVEN

Florida Humanities

Nashid Madyun Stephanie Chill Lashonda Curry Lisa Lennox Lindsey Morrison April Myerscough Brenda O’Hara Sheila Plew Patricia Putman Andrew Quintanta

Mara Utterback EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GRANTS COORDINATOR COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER GRANTS DIRECTOR PROGRAMS COORDINATOR CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR

FORUM Magazine

Pam Daniel EDITOR Janet Scherberger COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT David Meek DESIGNER

To advertise in FORUM, contact nmadyun@flahum.org Florida Humanities FORUM/Vol. XLV, No. 2 Summer 2022 © 2022 Florida Humanities The magazine of Florida Humanities 599 Second Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701-5005 (727) 873-2000 Website: www.floridahumanities.org Florida Humanities is a nonprofit organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private contributors. FORUM is published three times a year and is a benefit of Florida Humanities membership. To become a member and receive FORUM, please visit floridahumanities.org/membership or see the membership envelope insert at the center of the magazine. Views expressed by contributors to FORUM are not necessarily those of Florida Humanities

Read Me a Story

When it comes to parenting, few rituals are more sacred than the bedtime story, which is why I was startled when my daughter-in-law Mara told me she’d downloaded a new app that was reading books to her 8-year-old son Ollie every night. Ollie, a night owl since birth, stays on high alert until way past 10 p.m., and for years an exhausted Mara, after getting her two other boys to bed, has struggled to stay awake as she reads him book after book until his big brown eyes finally flutter and close. I could understand the app’s appeal, but still—a robot reading stories to my precious grandson?

As it turns out, Mara had hit on a brilliant solution. Now, after she tucks Ollie in and begins to doze at his bedside, he selects one book after another, usually nonfiction, avidly listening to topics from U.S. presidents and China to bats and segregation. At the end of each book, he takes the app’s quiz on what he’s read, occasionally waking up Mara to check on an answer.

I’ve been thinking about Ollie as we worked on this issue, with its “Florida Reads” section about the Florida Book award winners, libraries and more. His method of consuming books may be new, but their mesmerizing magic is timeless. Florida has an especially rich literary tradition that reaches from long-ago tales from Indigenous people to such giants of modern literature as Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, John D. MacDonald and others. That tradition is only getting richer, as you’ll see in our interviews with four book award winners. Asked about their favorite contemporary Florida authors, they rattled off one name after another, inspiring me to add to my must-read list.

I needed that inspiration. At a time when so many of us (and that includes me), can lose hours trapped in our dark and divisive news feeds or speeding through the photos and fulminations of Facebook “friends” we barely know, it’s worth remembering the expansive power of books. While doom-scrolling leaves us depressed and depleted, books enlarge and elevate, introducing us to new characters, places and ideas that become cherished parts of our life. This issue (and Ollie) made me vow to disconnect from the urgent appeal of those ever-refreshing screens and dive into the best of Florida literature. I hope it does the same for you.