Author Adam Johnson, who earned a Ph.D. in English at Florida State University, won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel The Orphan Master’s Son, which takes pace in North Korea, and the 2015 National Book Award for his story collection Fortune Smiles. He has also received the Whiting Writer’s Prize and a Guggenheim […]
Category: 2016 Artists
Jason Isbell
Recently named the “the New King of Americana Music” by GQ Magazine, Jason Isbell is rapidly gaining fans across all musical genres. On his albums, Isbell shares personal stories of struggle, addiction, and redemption through his craft. With his affecting lyrics and strong storytelling, his music “will seize your heart.” A singer-songwriter from Green Hill, […]
The Hub Chason Band
The Hub Chason Band is a blues and funk band from Tallahassee. It features 16-year-old guitarist Hub Chason III, who studies guitar with Luther Dickinson of The North Mississippi Allstars. The Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks has performed with the group. Chason’s musical influences range from Sly and the Family Stone and Duane Allman […]
Ravi Howard
Ravi Howard received the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence in 2008 for his novel LikeTrees, Walking, a fictionalized account of the true story of the 1981 lynching of a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama. His novel Driving the King is the story of Nat King Cole told through his driver, and explores race […]
Lonnie Holley
Lonnie Holley, sometimes known as “The Sand Man,” is a multi-faceted artist who started out as a sculptor and later added painting and music to his repertoire. Holley began his artistic career in his late twenties when he carved tombstones out of sandstone for his sister’s two children who were killed in a house fire. […]
Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff is the award-winning and bestselling author of the celebrated short story collections, Delicate Edible Birds and Florida, a finalist for the National Book Award, as well as five novels- The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, Arcadia, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, Fates and Furies, a […]
Brandi George
Brandi George grew up in rural Michigan. Her collection of poetry, Gog (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) won a Gold Medal in the 2015 Florida Book Awards. These poems chronicle her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness from a working-class family, investigating religious persecution and generational cycles of violence, while also exploring the fraught relationship between art-making […]
Paul Garfinkel
Folk singer/songwriter Paul Garfinkel of Jacksonville has released two Florida-themed albums and is working on a third. Garfinkel is an environmentalist and master naturalist who helped found the Florida Artist’s Water Alliance in an effort to bring the protection of Florida’s water resources to the attention of the public through the arts. A regular on […]
Tom Franklin
Southern writer Tom Franklin is the author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award. He has also won the Mystery Writers Association of America Edgar Awards for best short story and best novel. Franklin received a Guggenheim Fellowship for the Creative […]
Fatesealer
Fatesealer is a rock and roll band from Wilmington, N.C. With their unique blend of musical intensity and lyrical introspection, Fatesealer’s debut full length album, filled with songs built around prickly melodies and crushing guitars, has been turning heads and helping the band grow a dedicated following in the Southeast’s independent music scene. Often compared […]