Definitely getting swampy around here

In case you hadn’t heard, the upcoming (January 2024) Key West Literary Seminar will focus on Florida. And we have one hell of a lineup so it’s worth booking now. Hard to believe we were all trying to stay warm at the last one, with the “feels like” temperatures reaching the triple digits around here even before we officially reached summer.

On a recent roadtrip, my husband Mark and I did some prep by listening to Dave Barry’s new novel, Swamp Story. If you read and liked Big Trouble - or even just watched the excellent movie adaptation of it - this is one well worth a read. Or a listen - Dave reads it himself and does a fantastic job. It’s Florida absurdity in the best Elmore Leonard-Carl Hiaasen spirit and because it’s Dave Barry it’s funny as hell. He’s so funny he won a freaking Pulitzer, and I’ve always loved his work best when he’s taking a swipe at something serious. My all-time favorite of his columns was when he covered the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and he was good enough to keep that one on his website because God knows it would take Indiana Jones to unearth it from the Herald archives. In the new book, there is some nice, subtle shade thrown at the New York Times and its climate change reporting which doesn’t sound all that funny but it is. It really, really is.

This is an especially good book to listen to if you’re doing a Florida roadtrip, which we were - we even drove back on Tamiami Trail, where much of the action takes place, so that was a fun meta-moment. It’s so good that I enjoyed it even though I was experiencing a migraine. Really! It helped that Mark was driving and I could just shut my eyes to avoid the light and motion and whatever else was setting off the evil pulsing in my brain. But this story was definitely a helpful distraction. Thank you, Dave, and see you in January.

Back with the books

Key West Library branch in 1992. I took this photo for the Miami Herald. Now it’s part of the library’s Florida Keys History Center image archive.

Nine months ago, I returned to the Monroe County Public Library, this time in a new capacity. My job is Community Affairs Manager.

People ask me what that means and I say “information, outreach and engagement.”

If they still look blank, I tell them my mission is to let everyone who lives in the Keys know what the Monroe County Public Library can do for them (hint: it’s a lot more than books and movies).

I feel like I just started in some ways, but I’m having fun. One of my first projects was to get the Today In Keys History column online on the library website, as well as distributed daily on social media. (You can find it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.)

More recently, I’ve been working on email newsletters for each of our five branches plus the Florida Keys History Center. You can sign up here! We’ll never sell your email address and unsubscribing is quick one-click without any of the annoying oh, wait, won’t you consider staying or telling us why you’re leaving nonsense.

I love working at the library for a lot of reasons, not the least that being surrounded by books makes me happy. My co-workers are so cool and helping patrons get what they want or need is really satisfying.

People sometimes ask if I miss journalism. I really don’t. The relentless pressure to produce in a smallish newsroom that has 20+ newscasts a day, the anxiety about accuracy and fairness and everything else a story needs to be - it’s all a lot when you’re my age. And when I heard about big breaking news toward the end, instead of the adrenaline rush a journalist should feel, I would feel dread. So I knew it was time to get off the front lines.

I do miss writing, some, so I’m going to do some of that here when the spirit moves me. For the next few months, it will probably move me most often about the Key West Literary Seminar - I’m chairing our program for 2024 and our topic is Florida. We have an incredible lineup of writers coming - if you haven’t registered, I hope you’ll consider doing so.

What ties us together

When it comes to connecting the Florida Keys, the bridges get most of the attention. With good reason. But especially in this digital age, the transmission line that brings us electricity is essential, too. At WLRN, we think the Tieline is so important we named this newsletter after it. And if I didn't already know how important that was, being knocked offline after Hurricane Irma was a bracing reminder.

Read more here. You can sign up for The Tieline and other WLRN newsletters here.

The section of the old Seven Mile Bridge that leads from Knight’s Key, on the southwestern end of Marathon, to Pigeon Key recently re-opened after restoration. Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Service

The epic fame and endurance of the (not quite) Southernmost Point

On New Year's Eve, public attention in Key West is focused on the various things that drop at midnight. Sushi the drag queen in a giant ruby slipper. A conch shell at Sloppy Joe's. A "pirate wench" at Schooner Wharf Bar. At Sunset Pier, a giant key lime slice drops into a mock-margarita. At the First Flight restaurant a replica of an old Pan Am plane makes a mock-landing with a flight attendant inside.

Read more here

A webcam caught the two men setting a Christmas tree on fire next to the Southernmost Point, then taking selfies with it. Courtesy Two Oceans Digital

A Seminar Named Desire - 2022 opening night remarks

I promised a fellow board member I would post these where she could read them. So here they are:

Hello - and welcome to the Key West Literary Seminar. I’m Nancy Klingener, president of the Seminar board of directors. Even for those of us who have hardly left this island in the last couple years, it’s been quite a journey to get here.

First of all, huge thanks are in order. To our hardworking and endlessly flexible staff, led by executive director Arlo Haskell. To my fellow board members who have been so smart and generous and thoughtful as we navigated this unknown territory. To our patrons circle - without your generosity, we would not have been able to create this event in its new venue. To the writers who are joining us to share your work and ideas, despite the uncertainty of the moment. To the volunteers who make this thing run. And mostly thanks to you, our audience - our readers, people who love literature and join us to create this extraordinary community - ALMOST every year. Whether this is your first Seminar or your thirtieth, you are the most essential part this endeavor. Welcome and thank you.

The Key West Literary Seminar was in a new location this year, at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater. It was glorious. Photo by Nick Doll.

The first seminar I attended was the first year it was held at the San Carlos Institute - and it was the Seminar about Elizabeth Bishop. By the end of that weekend, the Seminar was my favorite Key West event and Bishop was my favorite Key West writer. Now my first Seminar as president is in another new venue - a new chapter in the history of this institution.

Speaking of history - just down the harborfront a bit, 200 years ago this March, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy raised the American flag over Key West for the first time. This of course was NOT the beginning of Key West’s human history - indigenous people lived here. Bahamians and Cubans knew about this island and its deepwater harbor.  And so did pirates - which is why that lieutenant commander was in these parts in 1822.

It wasn’t long before Key West became a settlement, and a city - eventually one of the richest cities in Florida. But I don’t think that piratical spirit was ever eradicated from our DNA. And that’s probably why the island has been home to so many writers, especially writers expressing desires that may not have gone over so well in St. Louis or Michigan. And what led a writer named David Kaufelt, almost 40 years ago, to defy those who said Florida had no literary culture. And start the journey that has led to this moment.

Over the next few days we’ll be adding to Key West’s literary history and, I am sure, adding some much-needed joy to the lives of all of us lucky enough to be here.

I have one more person to thank for MY being lucky enough to be here today - my great-grandfather, Gideon Sundback. A little more than 100 years ago, he patented a device we know today as the zipper. Without his work - and obviously desires - I wouldn’t exist today. And to all of you who have used that device in order to write about or execute your desires - on his behalf I’ll say, you’re welcome.