In the wake of Harvey Weinstein, #MeToo and the fight for pay equality, more and more people are recognizing and discussing sexism as the deeply prevalent issue it is. But for many, this issue is one they’ve experienced, investigated, and studied for years. Kelly J. Baker, PhD, the editor of the feminist newsletter Women in Higher Education, is one of those people. When I asked Baker, a Tallahassee resident who earned her doctorate in religious studies at Florida State University, which of her six books is her favorite, she didn’t hesitate. “It’s this one,” she said. “I’m pretty proud of it, and it needed to be written.” She’s talking about Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Academia.
Faith Eidse is a natural-born storyteller; spend just a few minutes in conversation with her and you’ll notice it, too. But what makes her even more special is the profound love and respect she has for the art of storytelling and the anthropological value of stories—the intrinsic need people have to tell and listen to stories. Her own story is unique: she spent her childhood in the Congo with her three sisters and her parents. Her mother was “the second Mother Teresa,” bringing the cure for leprosy to those remote regions, and her father was a linguist who translated the Bible into the local native tongue. And there were stories, like the time she and her sisters found a 12-foot python with
Cuba is a land that pulls you in, even if you’ve never been. Stories about the island’s culture blur fact and fiction; almost anything can be imagined without seeming too fantastic. All you need is somewhere to start. For Frank Foster, that starting point was growing up hearing his parents tell stories about their visits to Cuba in the 1950s. “They just loved it,” he said. “Their stories got me intrigued, and I’ve always been a tropical person…” Fresh from a week of bonefishing in the Bahamas, Foster is speaking to me about the genesis of his fourth novel, A Lady in Havana, written under the pseudonym Ashley Morgan. Using a pseudonym was a strategic decision for Foster—he believed no one wou
“People could probably find it listed under “primatology,” but it’s really a memoir that happens to have gorillas in it…” John Fowler’s description of his book’s categorization is delivered wryly; he knows most people don’t go looking for exciting primatology reads. He’s probably right; I would never even consider primatology as “must-read.” But Fowler’s book, A Forest In The Clouds, is hardly the stuff of dry research on primates. It’s just this side of scandalous—a tell-all account that candidly exposes the truth about famed primate researcher Dr. Dian Fossey and her “difficult” personality. It’s this truth-telling, said Fowler, who now lives in Tallahassee, that has made his book unpopula
