James Carville came to the Miami Book Fair on Monday night, and he was, as you might imagine, fighting mad. A longtime Democratic political consultant close to the Clintons, he did not look like or talk like a man willing to give President-elect Donald Trump a chance. “This country is going to get the best ninth-grade civics education ever,” Carville said. “We are in … [Read more...]
Trevor Noah discusses South Africa, but not election, at Miami Book Fair
Trevor Noah, best known as the host of The Daily Show, opened the 33rd edition of the Miami Book Fair with a surprisingly somber appearance Sunday evening that included almost no direct comment on the shocking and bruising results of the recent U.S. presidential election. Yet his anecdotes and observations of growing up during the last years of South African apartheid held … [Read more...]
2016-17 Season Preview: Books
If you want to see Trevor Noah, or Alan Cumming, or any of the celebrities at this year’s star-studded Miami Book Fair International, now is the time to make your plans and get your tickets. Because they are going fast. Really though, Hollywood and literary glitterati notwithstanding, the biggest star at the fair is sure to be Bernie Sanders. In post-election mode, Sanders … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in books
The best way to gauge the temperature of South Florida’s robust literary life is not so much through its mature and established festivals and seminars, but by some of the smaller, newer events and venues. Just last year, for example, the Palm Beach Book Festival’s inaugural celebration was more than successful enough to ensure a sophomore event, while in Miami, a … [Read more...]
Editor unearths ‘new’ F. Scott Fitzgerald story
In 1999, a 21-year-old upstart never suspected that resurrecting a classic mystery magazine would turn him into a sleuth. No, Andrew Gulli does not solve murders, like some young, male Jessica Fletcher. Instead, his work as the founding editor of the revived Strand magazine has led him to become adept at locating and publishing lost stories by famous writers. His latest … [Read more...]
For James Grippando, the ideas keep coming
James Grippando, the Miami lawyer-turned-bestselling crime writer, used to be able to produce books faster than publishers could publish them. That’s no longer true, thanks to digital technology. But that doesn’t mean he’s slowed the pace. “It’s been more than a book a year for a while now,” says Grippando, who has two novels scheduled for the first half of this year, and an … [Read more...]
At the Festival of the Arts Boca: Michael Grunwald on the unfinished business of the Everglades
Almost 10 years have passed since the publication of Michael Grunwald’s groundbreaking first book, The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise, which was greeted as the most important — and readable — book on the subject since Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s classic, River of Grass. But today Grunwald has one regret: Climate change. “There is climate change … [Read more...]
At Festival of the Arts Boca: Richard Ford returns with Frank, thanks to Sandy
The novelist and short story writer Richard Ford lives in Maine, with a small apartment in Harlem for the two days a week he teaches at Columbia University. So of course he’s looking forward to his visit to Boca Raton on Sunday — but not for the reasons you might expect. He’s more interested in spring training baseball than in escaping the brutal weather in the Northeast. “I’m … [Read more...]
2014-15 arts preview: The season in books
After all these years, the literary events season in South Florida has long reached its maturity. No more jokes about “cultural wastelands,” and publishers still send writers here on the few publicity tours they pay for each year. Why? Because so many people here read books, talk about books, and attend literary festivities. It would be understandable if organizers of, say, … [Read more...]
T.D. Allman: Looking feistily at Florida, past and future
T. D. Allman, a raconteur of rare qualities, begins a telephone interview with a story about his dad. An officer in the Coast Guard sailing patrols out of Tampa during World War II, Allman’s father captured an Italian tanker on its way north from Venezuela. “Of course, the Italians were delighted to surrender,” Allman says. “He let them keep their sidearms, but he took the … [Read more...]