{"id":373663,"date":"2026-08-17T13:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373663\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:08:23","slug":"local-authors-to-convene-saturday-at-floridarama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373663\/","title":{"rendered":"Local authors to convene Saturday at FloridaRAMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirty bay area authors will be in the same room together Saturday, for the first-ever FloridaRAMA Literary Festival.<\/p>\n

The day (12-6 p.m.) includes signings, talks, general mingling and meet-and-greets. Books will be for sale, and the authors plan on being willing and able to sign, should you desire.<\/p>\n

Vendors including Art by Pena (handmade stained glass artworks), Michelle Lopez (build your own pens), Zenna Henna (henna art), Bomi Art Studio (handmade art), the BookMobile (mobile library van) and the Book Lounge (\u201cblind date with a book\u201d) will be on-site.<\/p>\n

According to event organizer Jessica Baird, FloridaRAMA\u2019s Business Development Manager, the initial idea was to gather together the small group of artists and illustrators whose books are sold in the venue\u2019s gift shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverwhelmingly, everyone said there was a such a need for it,\u201d Baird recalled. \u201cSo because there was that initial pique of interest, we just decided to go full-force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baird added that 30 authors was the pre-decided cutoff point. \u201cBut I\u2019ve had people reaching out to me, from seeing things on Instagram, for example, and wanting to be a part of the next one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is not going to stop here. It\u2019s going to evolve and be something that FloridaRAMA continually does, to support the authors in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s scheduled participants:<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Armstrong Gulfport novelist whose Asphalt Surfer is a 1960s coming of age story<\/p>\n

Bill Berry Professional sword swallower, juggler and yoga instructor, and author of Off Course on Purpose and Stories That Move: My Life in Many Allegories<\/p>\n

\"\"Jeannie Carlson Author of Aland A Land, Landmarks in the Sand <\/a>(speaking at 12 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Jesi Cason St. Pete Month of Photography: 2025 Photo Laureate book<\/p>\n

Carlene Cobb Author and contributing editor, Coastal Voices and Visions<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill DeYoung Journalist and author of Skyway: The True Story of Tampa Bay\u2019s Signature Bridge and the Man Who Brought it Down, Record Man, and Vintage St. Pete<\/a>, Volumes 1-4\u00a0(speaking at 1:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

\"\"Amanda Dugger Author of the memoir Finding Sparkle in the Sh*t Show: A Memoir of My Dad, My Cancer, and Ham in the Fridge<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharon Preston-Folta Author of Little Satchmo:\u00a0Living in the Shadow of my father Louis Daniel Armstrong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Chaim Freiberg Former concert pianist and author of short story volumes In C Sharp Minor: Women Between Two Worlds, Miss Flora & the Squirrel<\/a>, Lily Flowers Finds Love<\/p>\n

Linda Hansen Writer and illustrator of the children\u2019s book Otto The Otter<\/p>\n

Louise Harris Poet and novelist (books are The 1776 Scroll of Secrets, The 1776 Bed and Breakfast and The 1776 Musket)<\/p>\n

Emelie Hernandez Author of Handmade Heirloom Dolls: Beautiful Sewing Projects for Lovable Keepsakes (speaking at 2:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Apollo Infiniti Author of BloodMoney<\/p>\n

Kostar Illustrator, children\u2019s book Where the Florida Things Live (with Alice Absolutely) (speaking at 2 p.m.)<\/p>\n

\"\"Gail Lenhard Co-author (with Jeanne Mansfield) of the children\u2019s books The Mystical Magical Musical Bridge<\/a> and I Talk With My Hands<\/p>\n

Tamara Lush Ex-journalist and mystery writer (as Tara Lush) whose titles include Hungry Like the Hex, Grounds for Murder, A Bean to Die For, Gator Queen and many others<\/p>\n

Sally Pye Author of the children\u2019s book Mummy Eats a Gummy (speaking at 12:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Brittany Ranew Author of the novel Riley Jordan and the Fire Prophecies \u2013 Lion of Fire<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin Renken Theater educator whose books include Ballad of the Wayward Child<\/a>, Graphic: The Novel, Welcome to the Day<\/p>\n

\"\"Jessica Rios Pasco-area social worker whose bittersweet memoir is titled Grief, Hope, Baseball<\/a><\/p>\n

Julie Rocco Author of\u00a0What I Would Have Missed: Stories by Suicide Ideation, Attempt and Loss Survivors <\/a>(speaking at 3:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Cathy Salustri Owner and publisher of the Gabber newspaper, author of Backroads Florida and Florida Spectacular: Extraordinary Places and Exceptional Lives<\/a>\u00a0(speaking at 5 p.m.)<\/p>\n

\"\"Ric Savid Photographer whose books of B&W portraiture include Portraits From My Darkroom<\/p>\n

Mallory Silva Author of the children\u2019s book The Little Farmer<\/p>\n

Brandy Stark Author of Supernatural St. Petersburg<\/a> and Paranormal Pinellas Volumes 1 and 2\u00a0(speaking at 4 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Christopher Ward Teacher, documentary filmmaker and author of the graphic novel The Hottest Fires of Hell<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Paul Wilborn Former journalist, executive director of the Palladium Theater and author of the novels Florida Hustle and The Everlasting Life of Charlie Wall<\/a>\u00a0(speaking at 5:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Jon Wilson Former journalist whose titles include The Golden Era in St. Petersburg,\u00a0St. Petersburg\u2019s Historic African American Neighborhoods, Helpless at the Gates of Graceland<\/a>\u00a0and Days of Fear: A Lynching in St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

Tom Winchester Author of The Art Critter Method (speaking at 1 p.m.)<\/p>\n

\u201cFloridaRAMA,\u201d Baird said, \u201cis a really cool space because it\u2019s so flexible. Five days out of the week, we are this ticketed museum experience. It\u2019s also available for private events.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the third way that we operate is through partnered collaborative events with the community. Which is what the Literary Festival is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Literary Festival runs from 12 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22 at FloridaRAMA, 2606 Fairfield Avenue S., St. Petersburg. Tickets, which include admission to the museum\/art experience, are available at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FloridaRAMA website<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty bay area authors will be in the same room together Saturday, for the first-ever FloridaRAMA Literary Festival.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-373663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","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\/373663","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=373663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}