![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dothis-shelfcontrol-levradin-shutterstock-040926.jpg\")
Former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, also previously a NASA administrator, speaks at an event on September 24, 2024. Credit: Lev Radin \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\nFormer U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, also previously a NASA administrator, speaks at an event on September 24, 2024. Credit: Lev Radin \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Florida Studies Program Book Festival takes readers to the swamps, space, prison and more through the pages of its authors. <\/p>\n
The program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg hosts its annual festival this weekend, led by program director Chris Mindl. The lineup of a dozen writers includes Hilary Fowler, who recently published \u201cThe Kite and the Snail,\u201d and \u201cThe Florida Vegetarian Cookbook\u201d author Dalia Col\u00f3n<\/a>. <\/p>\n Former U.S Sen. Bill Nelson<\/a>, who was also a NASA astronaut, joins Gary Mormino<\/a> in a lunchtime discussion. The Miami-native and former astronaut wrote about his out-of-this-world experience in his 1988 book \u201cMission: An American Congressman\u2019s Voyage to Space.\u201d <\/p>\n Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King will discuss his 2025 book, \u201cBone Valley,\u201d a true-crime podcast turned nonfiction pageturner about a man wrongfully convicted for his wife\u2019s 1987 murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is no cover (RSVP requested) for the Florida Studies Book Festival, happening Saturday, April 11, in St. Petersburg.<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in Apr. 02 \u2013 08, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJasmin Parrado is a spring 2026 intern and News Editor at the Crow’s Nest with an interest in local and state politics as well as arts and life. When she isn\u2019t digging into government topics, she indulges…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fl-book-studies-postcard-720x525__1_.png\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Jasmin Parrado\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, also previously a NASA administrator, speaks at an event on September 24, 2024.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[101043,101044,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-223261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-bill-nelson","tag-florida-studies-program","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}