The theme for the 41st annual Key West Literary Seminar — Florida: The State We’re In — is attracting lots of attention.
The seminar is scheduled for Jan. 11-14, 2024.
The Sunshine State has fascinated global audiences since myths of Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth began bubbling out of its pristine springs 500 years ago. But today’s eyeballs, for better and worse, are focused on two contemporary Floridian myth-makers, as they pursue the most powerful elected office in the world. One famously promised to “drain the swamp” — a phrase that distills the very bad idea that wetlands (the source of all life in Florida and everywhere else) are somehow better when reduced to dry ground. The other has adopted the toothiest of swamp creatures, an alligator, as his sometime mascot for a campaign to “make America Florida.”
When the political going gets tough, Floridians know where to turn. Carl Hiaasen’s celebrated career began as an investigative journalist at the Miami Herald and continues as the author of a bestselling oeuvre of novels featuring sun-blasted characters in deeply Floridian contexts of political corruption and environmental abuse. In the October issue of Vanity Fair, Hiaasen offers up his view of this current political rivalry, with a quintessential mix of humor and sharp critique:
“Here in guilt-free Florida we’re often asked if Ron DeSantis is really worse than Donald Trump…
“Although critics say DeSantis is Trump Lite, the two differ sharply. … Some claim Trump has a better sense of humor, but it was DeSantis who appointed a January 6 rioter to the state board that oversees massage parlors.”
Hiaasen proposes that DeSantis “is a more agile swamp dweller than Trump,” but one whose unforced errors, particularly in the courts (where one might expect a Yale Law grad to do better), are many:
“Abetted by zombie supermajorities in the state House and Senate, DeSantis has spearheaded so many defective laws that this year nearly $16 million was budgeted for legal expenses, much of it to keep pace with the growing torrent of litigation.”
There’s lots more to enjoy in this classic piece from a master of political satire, including Hiaasen’s own take on the zombie legislation that overturned the Key West cruise ship referendums of 2020. You can read the full essay from Hiaasen here in Vanity Fair.
Register now for “Florida: The State We’re In.” The deadline for the advance registration package is Sept. 30.
Hiaasen is just one of the many celebrated writers who will gather in Key West this January for a literary exploration of Florida, including Sunshine State legend and “funniest man in America” Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Gilbert King (“Devil in the Grove”) and Jack E. Davis (“The Gulf: Making of an American Sea”), and bestselling science fiction writer Jeff VanderMeer, author of the award-winning Southern Reach trilogy. They’ll be joined onstage by two-time U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, two-time National Book Award nominee Lauren Groff, Pulitzer finalist Karen Russell, former Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, MacArthur “Genius” Award winner Campbell McGrath, Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner Patricia Engel, NAACP Image Award winner Tananarive Due, and many more.
