Word of South

Mary Jane Ryals

opartridge — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:16:57 +0000

Mary Jane Ryals received a Ph.D. from Florida State University in English and Creative Writing. She’s been the Poet Laureate of the Big Bend of Florida, and has won the Florida Chapbook Award, a Florida Arts Council Award, and a Florida Book Award in Fiction.

Her published books include the novel Cookie & Me, the poetry collection The Moving Waters, the textbook Getting into the Intercultural Groove, and the short story collection A Messy Job.

Currently, she is the publisher of Apalachee Press in Tallahassee.

She’s lived in Florida all her life, from Miami to Tallahassee, and comes from five generations of Floridians. She’ll be appearing at this year’s Word of South in conversation with Mary Ann Lindley.

David Gillespie

opartridge — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:13:13 +0000

David began his professional career after earning his commission in the United States Air Force through Florida State University’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He went on to serve in a wide range of executive and operational intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles around the world from 1987 to 2007. During his distinguished military career, David deployed in six major operational conflicts and campaigns, including Operation DESERT STORM; the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) peacekeeping mission in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Operation NORTHERN WATCH in Turkey; the Republic of Korea campaign; Operation IRAQI FREEDOM; and service as a senior intelligence advisor in Kabul, Afghanistan, supporting NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

David currently serves as Executive Vice President of The Integrity Group, based in Tallahassee, Florida. Immediately prior to joining The Integrity Group, David served as Executive Vice President of the Florida Chamber Foundation, where he led efforts to secure Florida’s long-term economic success.

Following his retirement from the U.S. Air Force, David and his family returned to his hometown of Tallahassee. It was there that he embarked on a new creative journey—authoring his first children’s picture book inspired by the imagination of his two daughters, Hunter and Sarah. His award-winning debut title, Floo Flocky Doo to the Rescue!, is a joyful, read-aloud story featuring playful rhythm, gentle humor, and heartfelt moments that emphasize themes of love, responsibility, and problem-solving.

David will be joining Word of South’s Literacy Lane. You can visit his website here www.FlooFlockyDoo.com.

Mary Paramore

opartridge — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:11:19 +0000

Mary Davis Paramore is a 6th generation Floridian “on both sides” who followed her husband’s Army career and raised three sons — each born in a different state — through his deployments. After starting and leaving jobs in each of those states, she now documents the couple’s travels as an over-the-road truck driver on social media. Her career has focused on writing and document design for newspapers, magazines, businesses and government agencies. Her most recent endeavor is a children’s book, Atlas the Trucker Dog. The accurately illustrated book teaches geography, trucking careers, and the supply chain, and is the first in a planned series. In addition to her four-year trucking ride-along, she holds a Master of Arts in Technical Communication and earned a Child Development Associate while operating an accredited home daycare at Ft. Irwin, CA.

Mary Paramore will be joining Word of South’s Literacy Lane.

Victor Goines

opartridge — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:07:45 +0000

Victor Goines is an internationally acclaimed saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, and educator with a career that spans over four decades at the highest levels of jazz performance and education. A native of New Orleans, Goines began his musical journey at a young age and has become one of the most respected figures in jazz. During his lengthy tenure as a member of both the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet, he has performed on major stages around the world and contributed to numerous recordings, including Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Blood on the Fields” and Ted Nash’s Grammy-winning “Presidential Suite.”

Goines is also a prolific composer, having created more than 400 original works. Many of these compositions have been commissioned by prestigious institutions such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, the Woodlawn Cemetery and Conservancy, the Music Institute of Chicago, and the ASCAP Foundation. His extensive discography includes performances as both a leader and a sideman, collaborating with legends like Eric Clapton, Dianne Reeves, Ellis Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Wycliffe Gordon, and Ruth Brown, among others.

In addition to his performance career, Goines has made a significant impact in the field of music education. He served as the Director of Jazz Studies at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music for 14 years, during which time he elevated the program to national recognition. Prior to that, he was the founding Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, where he shaped the curriculum that established Juilliard as a premier institution for jazz education. Goines has mentored notable artists including Jon Batiste, Aaron Diehl, Brian Blade, and Yasushi Nakamura. He has also held teaching positions at Florida A&M University, the University of New Orleans, Loyola University New Orleans, and Xavier University.

His last appointment was as the President and CEO of Jazz St. Louis from 2022 until his departure in 2026.

We are pleased to welcome Victor Goines back to Tallahassee as part of the 2026 jazz lineup at Word of South!

Ace Robertson

opartridge — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:36:44 +0000

Ace Robertson is the author of Battling Mr. Bossy – a book focused on helping kids knock out anxiety. He is an athletic, kind, and courageous kid who has been fighting Mr. Bossy since he was little. He likes playing sports, drawing, and having fun with his brother and sister in their backyard. Ace lives in Tallahassee, Florida, and will forever love Florida State. He wrote this book in elementary school (second grade to be exact!) to help other kids who are battling Mr. Bossy. He hopes it helps them feel stronger.

Food Glorious Food

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:54:58 +0000

[...]

Shane Hinton

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:12:51 +0000

Shane Hinton is the author of three books: Pinkies (CLMP Firecracker Award Finalist), Radio Dark, and Other Shane Hintons (Florida Book Award Bronze Medalist). He is the editor of the anthology We Can’t Help It If We’re From Florida, a fiction editor for Tampa Review, and he teaches writing at The University of Tampa.

Shane Hinton will be joining Word of South as part of the fiction panel of Florida Book Award winners!

Daniel Rivero

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:56:40 +0000

Daniel Rivero is an investigative reporter with WLRN Public Radio in Miami. His work has been featured in the Miami Herald, NPR, the Guardian, ABC News and other outlets. His first book, Just Freedom: Inside Florida’s Decades-Long Voting Rights Battle, was published in 2025 and won a Florida Book Award. Daniel will be joining Word [...]

Kati Schardl

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:21:56 +0000

Kati Schardl first heard the call of the wild as a scabby-kneed kid exploring Jackson County’s woods and waters in the Florida Panhandle. She learned her craft as a journalist in Tallahassee at the rabble-rousing independent daily newspaper the Florida Flambeau. For nigh on 20 years, she served as music columnist, theater critic and arts and features writer and editor at the Tallahassee Democrat. She has written for Local Palate, Tallahassee Magazine and Flamingo Magazine, among other publications. Kati recently earned an MFA in narrative non-fiction from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She currently works as an editor for the Florida Senate’s bill drafting office and lives in Tallahassee with an ornery house panther named Bonnie Prince Charlie. When the world gets to be too much, Kati restores her soul in the cypress bogs of the Apalachicola National Forest and the salt marsh and pine flatwoods of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

Kati Schardl will be joining us at Word of South in conversation with author Richard Powers.

Artis Henderson

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:17:06 +0000

Artis Henderson’s work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, Reader’s Digest and Sierra, among others. Her first book, Unremarried Widow, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice named to more than 10 Best of the Year lists. Her second book, No Ordinary Bird, was named a best new book of 2025 by Oprah as well as People magazine. Artis has an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a graduate degree from the Columbia School of Journalism and an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She was a 2025 Fulbright-National Geographic Award recipient. A certified master naturalist and advanced open water diver, she splits her time between Florida and Australia.

Artis Henderson will be joining Word of South as part of the Florida Book Awards winners panel in the category of nonfiction.