2023 Artists – Word of South

Leon C. Brunson

admin — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 17:32:08 +0000

Leon C. Brunson, a private chef & owner of Leon’s at Lake Ella based in Tallahassee, Florida, immerses guests in a southern hospitality-style experience surrounded by food influenced by international techniques and flavors worldwide. His cooking style is inspired by techniques and flavors inspired by international cuisine—he’s found passion in the emotion food brings to others and himself. Chef Brunson will be preparing several dishes that are featured in the cookbooks of the chef/cookbook authors Ronni Lundy and Kenny Gilbert for audience sampling at this year’s Word of South.

John Nogowski

admin — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 22:31:18 +0000

John Nogowski grew up in New Hampshire, worked in the newspaper business for 25 years in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Florida and Georgia. He taught as an adjunct professor at Florida State University, Tallahassee Community College and Bainbridge State College before settling in at Gadsden County High School in Havana, Florida for a dozen years, retiring in 2022. His student newspaper, the Gadsden County Gazette was a two-time National Scholastic First-Place Winner in high school competition. “Last Time Out” and “Bob Dylan: A Descriptive, Annotated Discography 1961-2022” are updated editions of earlier books. “Last Time Out” originally appeared in 2005. This updated edition includes 18 new chapters, including a final chapter about his son’s first MLB game. “Bob Dylan” is the third edition of a comprehensive work done for McFarland and Co., covering Dylan’s long career. John will be leading our panel of Florida Book Award non-fiction winners at this year’s Word of South.

Gary Mormino

admin — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 18:44:12 +0000

Inspired by the experience of his Sicilian grandparents who settled in the sugarcane fields of Louisiana, Gary R. Mormino wrote his doctoral dissertation at UNC-Chapel Hill about a famous Italian immigrant community in St. Louis, Missouri, known as “The Hill.” As a history professor at University of South Florida in Tampa in 1977, he fell in love with another immigrant enclave, Ybor City. Once or twice a week he visited the neighborhood’s immigrant social clubs and conducted hundreds of interviews. In 1987 he and a former classmate published The Immigrant World of Ybor City, whichreceived the Howard Marraro prize as the year’s best study in Italian history.

While reading Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling, Dr Mormino realized that the next great story he needed to tell was occurring every single day in Florida: scrub forests bulldozed to build a shopping center while another thousand transplants arrived. In 2005, he wrote Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida. His new book, Dreams in the New Century, represents a sequel and explores one of the most transformational decades in state history, 2000-2010. He’ll be appearing at Word of South as part of our panel of non-fiction Florida Book Award winners.

David Sanchez

admin — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:07:52 +0000

David Sanchez is a graduate of the University of South Florida and the University of Miami. His debut novel, All Day Is a Long Time, has won the Mary Frances Hobson Prize, Florida Book Award Gold Medal, and an International Latino Book Award for Best Popular Fiction. He lives in Tampa, Florida where he works in residential [...]

Dr. Tim Chapin

admin — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:06:46 +0000

Dr. Tim Chapin is Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy and a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. As part of the leadership team in the Institute of Politics at FSU, Chapin has promoted a marketplace of ideas and a diversity of worldviews within FSU. Trained as a land use planner, he has analyzed the state’s development patterns and demographic trends to support sustainable development and community resilience.

He’ll be overseeing a Q&A session with historian Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham at Word of South.

Annamarie Simoldoni

admin — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:04:22 +0000

Annamarie Simoldoni is a journalist and researcher based in South Florida. She graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Editing, Writing, and Media. While a student, she joined the Society for Collegiate Journalists and worked as a staff writer for Strike magazine. She is currently working with the News Watch to research environmental policy [...]

Ronald Gruner

admin — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:03:41 +0000

Ronald Gruner is the author of We The Presidents: How American Presidents Shaped the Last Century, which discusses a century of presidents from Warren G. Harding to Donald J. Trump, and how their presidencies have contributed to what America is today. A first-time author, Gruner wrote the non-partisan We The Presidents to help Americans better understand the historical context of today’s divisive issues. A former technology CEO, over his forty-year career Gruner founded and managed three successful companies. Raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Gruner moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1969 where he spent his career. Since 2010, Gruner, and his wife Nancy, happily reside in sunny Naples, Florida. He’ll be appearing at Word of South as part of the panel of 2022 non-fiction Florida Book Award winners.

Kim Bradley

admin — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:49:36 +0000

Kim Bradley grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, and studied journalism at Auburn University. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Orleans. Her short-story collection, Spillway, was published by Stephen F Austin State University Press in March 2022. Her short fiction has also appeared in Natural Bridge, Bayou, Southern Indiana Review, Real South Magazine, Needle: A Magazine of Noir, The Louisville Review, and The Southern Humanities Review. She teaches creative writing and composition at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, and will be appearing at Word of South as part of our panel of Florida Book Award fiction winners.

Noemí Figueroa Soulet

admin — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:45:37 +0000

Noemí Figueroa Soulet was born in Puerto Rico but raised in New York City and currently resides in Kissimmee, Florida. She wrote, directed and produced the PBS documentary film “The Borinqueneers,” about the history of the only Hispanic-segregated unit in Army history. The film won the Military Channel Award at the GI Film Festival and the Audience Award Winner at the Orlando Hispanic Film Festival, amongst other awards. For more than 24 years, she has been speaking as an authority on the regiment at corporations, universities, military facilities and community organizations; recorded veteran interviews and preserved archival photographs. Noemi also self-published a directory of veteran photographs from the regiment. She is a graduate of New York University and has a Certificate in Digital Filmmaking from CUNY-Westchester Community College. She’ll appearing at Word of South as part of our panel of non-fiction Florida Book Award winners.

Gunhild Carling

admin — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:31:00 +0000

Gunhild Carling is a world-famous musician, singer, songwriter and entertainer, with millions of views on the Internet. She sings and plays more than ten instruments, including the trumpet, trombone, bagpipes, harp, harmonica, recorder and ukulele, and has appeared with big bands, symphonies, chamber orchestras and more. She began playing at the age of seven with the Carling family in Sweden, and she’ll be appearing at Word of South as part of the Tribute to the Women in Jazz Sunday on the Florida Jazz & Blues/Marriott AC Hotel Ballroom stage.