2025 Sunshine State Book Festival

Keynote Speaker: Cynthia Barnett

Cynthia Barnett is an award-winning environmental journalist and the author of four books including her latest, The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans, named one of the best science books of the year by NPR’s Science Friday. Her previous books include Rain: A Natural and Cultural History, longlisted for the National Book Award, and Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, which calls for a water ethic. Her journalism appears in National Geographic, the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Tampa Bay Times and other publications. Cynthia is a fifth-generation Floridian and the director of Climate and Environment Reporting Initiatives at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville.

Panel Discussion: “Perspectives of Climate Change in Literature”