Literary Legends Reception

Friday, February 21, 2020 – 6 – 9 p.m.

The Renaissance Resort at World Golf Village

CRAIG PITTMAN is a Florida native and an award-winning journalist at the Tampa Bay Times. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Oh, Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country as well as three other books. His newspaper work has won the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida four times. Twice he has won the top investigative reporting award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, a national organization. He has twice won the top reporting award, the Charlie, from the Florida Magazine Assocation for freelance stories for Sarasota magazine. His book Oh, Florida! won the gold medal for Florida non-fiction from the Florida Book Awards. His fifth book, Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther comes out in January. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and two children.

St. Augustine Record article on his award.

BOOK LIST (all non-fiction):
Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss (co-written with Matthew Waite): University Press of Florida 2009
Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species: University Press of Florida, 2010
The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid, University Press of Florida, 2012
Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country: St. Martin’s Press, 2016
Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther: Hanover Square Press, 2020

SHORT FICTION:
“How to Handle a Shovel” published in Florida Happens: Tales of Mystery, Mayhem and Suspense from the Sunshine State, ed. by Greg Herren, 2018
“Off to the Races,” published in Saw Palm: Florida Literature & Art, Volume 13, Spring 2019
“The Toll,” published by Creative Pinellas magazine, 2019