Under The Sun

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Bach Phuong Thi Pham, international student from Vietnam, reading outside at the Miami-Dade College Kendall Campus, 1977./ Florida State Archives

In this episode of Under the Sun, we explore South Florida’s rich and varied literary terrain.

South Florida is the perfect breeding ground for the literary genre known as the “zany thriller.”  Listen in, as authors Elaine Viets and Jeff Lindsay, bookstore owner Joanne Sinchuk and hosts Dan Grech and Alicia Zuckerman talk about the genre.  And hear readings from the winners of our Write South Florida unpublished writers contest.  These emerging writers include fourth-grader Lindsay Lonano (”The Swamp”), college student Lorelei Ramirez (”Flagler Street”), and legislative analyst Jeremy Glazer (”Home”).

Also in Episode 3, hear what it’s like to have to flee your country because of something you wrote.  Cities like Las Vegas and Pittsburgh offer safe haven to persecuted foreign writers as part of the Cities of Refuge program.  Now, Miami is poised to become a member city too.  In our studio, Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books, interviews novelist Edwidge Danticat about her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, and about her life in Haiti, New York, and Miami.  Also in the line-up, poet Campbell McGrath takes his inspiration from history, nature, and everyday life in South Florida.  Listen to some of his Florida Poems.

So, how does a poet actually make a living? Alicia Zuckerman talks to those who aspire to rhyme about how they make a dime in “Young Poets.”   Then, to close it out, Kenny Malone tracks down the story behind the viral photo of an “Inglish Gratis” sign outside of Hialeah High in our latest installment of “What’s Up with South Florida?”

It’s our best episode yet.  Take a listen by clicking on the player at the top of the post!

Funding for this episode provided by a grant from The Florida Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.