Sunshine State Book Festival
January 31 – February 1, 2025
Best Western Gateway Grand
4200 NW 97th Blvd. Gainesville, Florida
Event Schedule
Friday, January 31
7:00 to 9:00 p.m
Opening-night reception. Readers, sponsors, and interested members of the public—come mingle with the authors!
Saturday, February 1
10:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m.
Author Showcase and Expo. Come and enjoy a day of browsing—and meet 200 local and regional authors who will talk about their writing, sell, and sign books.
10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Sunshine State Teen Lit Awards ceremony. Area middle school and high school student winners of the Sunshine State Teen Lit Short Story Contest will be awarded scholarships. Sponsored by Steve Spurrier’s HBC Foundation.
12:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Children’s Story Time
Six children’s book authors will read and entertain the little ones in half-hour intervals. Free activity worksheets to take home
1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
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.
3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Panel discussion
Perspectives of Climate Change in Literature
Four award-winning novelists will discuss the use of fiction to examine issues of climate change.
Terry Harpold will moderate the panel discussion. Mr. Harpold is an Associate Professor of English at The University of Florida and Director of Imagining Climate Change.
Pat Caren’s (writing as Marie Q Rogers) novel Season of the Dove, set in 2123, takes a dystopian look at the political and social changes brought about by rising ocean levels covering much of Florida and the East coast, after Category 6 hurricanes have become commonplace.
Richard Gartee’s Atlantis Dying is an analogy of present day climate change deniers set 5,500 years ago as Atlantean scientists warn of a coming dire change. The hero of Gartee’s Atlantis Obsession learns about present day misuse of natural springs, and the water needs of people in the Sahara desert.
Mallory O’Connor’s Epiphany’s Gift exposes the ramifications of fracking when an Ohio town experiences earthquakes and environmental disasters. Her other paranormal/cli-fi novels: Key to Eternity addresses species extinction, Xanadu’s Cavern, dwindling water resources, and Firehorse, drought and wildfires.
Bonnie T. Ogle brings environmental awareness to younger readers with her humorous Freaky Frogs, where two middle school children learn from a neighboring scientist how frogs are early sentinels of environmental hazards. For younger readers, her bi-lingual Miranda and the Golden Frogs is the true story of the plight of Golden frogs in Panama.
Accommodations
Best Western Gateway Grand is offering out-of-town authors and attendees rooms at a discounted rate. To receive the discount you must use this link and reserve your room before December 31, 2024.
Thank You to Our Community Partners
