Environmental writers put focus on resiliency, conservation at Word of South

Environmental conservation will take the stage April 23 at the 2023 Word of South literary and music festival. Hosted by the nonprofit Sunshine State Biodiversity Group, an afternoon of events will feature writers such as Amy Brady, Alexandra Kleeman, Annamarie Simoldoni, Vanessa Villareal, and Brian Evenson on what landscapes, resilience and biodiversity mean in our contemporary lives.

The events are sponsored by the newly-formed Sunshine State Biodiversity Group, which is headed by internationally acclaimed fiction author Jeff VanderMeer, award-winning journalist CD Davidson-Hiers and Dr. Alison Sperling, environmental writing professor of the Florida State University English department. The nonprofit focuses on the preservation of wild spaces and educating the public on the importance and delights of native plants and wildlife.

Festival: An uplifting afternoon of gospel music shines at Word of South

Jazz: Tribute to the Women in Jazz brings in top names to Word of South

Foodies: Recipe for fun: Word of South blends cookbook authors, chefs and music

"We're excited to bring to Tallahassee a wealth of diverse voices who have been influential in the past few years in how we think about the environment and our relationship to it,” VanderMeer said. “These are going to be entertaining, fun events mixing performance, readings, and lively discussions."

Festival attendees can enjoy these conversations, readings, and musical collaborations on the Midtown Reader stage Sunday afternoon.

The series will include Villareal, author of the collection "Beast Meridian," a 2019 Whiting Award recipient and a Kate Tufts Discovery Award finalist. She will be appearing with Grammy award-winning musician Larry Mitchell, one of “those musicians you cannot stop listening to.” Sperling will MC the event.

“Both Vanessa Angélica Villareal and Larry Mitchell are such talented writers and artists; I can’t wait to hear their respective contributions as well as to see how a collaboration between them might unfold on stage,” Sperling said.

Villareal and Mitchell’s collaboration will be followed by a reading by Evenson and conversation between fiction writer Evenson and VanderMeer, which will showcase the uses of landscape and the nonhuman in their works, followed by questions from the audience.

“What's so exciting to me about it is the range of approaches to writing about the environment, some realistic, others fantastical, some hopeful, others less so,” Evenson said. “It's wonderful to have such different writers together talking about something we all care deeply about.”

Following this discussion will be a conversation on landscape, resiliency, and biodiversity with Brady, Kleeman, and Simoldoni moderated by the SSBG’s vice president, Davidson-Hiers.

“I’m really looking forward to being back at Word of South,” Davidson-Hiers said. “This festival has always brought together artists — writers and musicians — who inspire and engage. And I’m very much looking forward to speaking with Amy and Alexandra about their work, and the wild spaces we love.”

Brady is the executive director of environmental publication Orion Magazine, author of the forthcoming "Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks-a Cool History of a Hot Commodity," a contributing editor to Scientific American and co-editor of The World as We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate.

“I can’t wait to join in conversation with other writers and thinkers who care deeply about the environment,” Brady said. “Joining the Sunshine State Biodiversity Group at Word of South is an incredible opportunity to spread awareness of the importance of promoting and protecting biodiversity, while discussing the power of art and storytelling to inspire people to think more expansively about the cause, and hopefully, to take action.”

Kleeman is the author of "Something New Under the Sun" and "Intimations," a short story collection. She also authored the novel "You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine," which was awarded the 2016 Bard Fiction Prize and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

“I'm most excited to have a discussion about biodiversity and climate change in a place whose ecology I really fell in love with on a trip a few years ago,” Kleeman said. “Northern Florida is such a special place, with a landscape unlike any other that I've seen, and the conversations started by the Sunshine State Biodiversity Group are a powerful reminder that for most of us, local issues and local ecosystems are the place where we can have the most impact.”

Simoldoni is a recent graduate from Florida State University and a member of the Biodiversity Group’s Florida Student News Watch student journalism program. Her research has appeared in publications such as The Nation.

“In the wake of Hurricane Ian, I have been focused on taking a critical look at climate change resilience,” Simoldoni said. “I fondly anticipate an engaging conversation regarding environmental policy.”

An effort started by Davidson-Hiers in 2020, the News Watch has grown to serve students and young writers and works to connect them with mentors from across the state — professional writers and journalists — to grow stories that focus on the environment, climate change, public health and social equality.

“What’s most wonderful about a festival like Word of South is the way in which you can be exposed to such a wide range of excellent writers so quickly, getting to hear their work in their own voices,” Evenson said. “I always come away from such events with a solid list of beautifully-written books that I didn’t know about before.”

All of the authors’ books will be on sale at the festival, with Midtown Reader hosting a display showcasing the writers’ picks of favorite environmental books curated for Tallahasseeans to enjoy.

About Word of South

What: Nationally-renowned artists and musicians perform

When: 7 p.m. April 21; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. April 22; 12:30-5:30 p.m. April 23

Where: Eight stages within Cascades Park in downtown Tallahassee

Cost: Ben Folds event is ticketed ($27-$50), the remainder of events will be free

Details: View the full 2023 artist lineup at wordofsouthfestival.com/

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Environmental writers talk resiliency at Word of South festival