Florida lives in the headlines. It’s a magnet for memes about the “weird and wacky,” the kinds of stories that often go viral. Beyond its notoriety, it’s also seen as a paradise for tourists, retirees, and billionaires.
But caught up in the mix of it all are the people who actually live here: Floridians.
In her debut memoir, Anywhere Else: Essays on Florida, author and Florida native Rachel Knox discusses what it’s like to grow up in the Sunshine State through her own stories, pop culture, true crime, and history. In the book, she goes beyond what people “know” about Florida and explores the deep and complicated relationship she has with her home state.
Knox recently spoke with WLRN's All Things Considered host Helen Acevedo about why she wrote the book and what she learned about herself in the process.
The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Rachel Knox: I think [the book] came from my own kind of wish to tell my story, which I think a lot of people can relate to, but also because the books that I was reading didn't really capture my own experience as a Floridian — and not in any bad way. I grew up absolutely loving the work of Florida writers like Carl Hiassen and Craig Pittman and people who write a lot about the kinda wacky parts of Florida.
But I didn't really know that I had seen a person who grew up here tell their own story about it, especially not a woman. So I really wanted to try to see if I could capture that in a way that felt universal for Floridians, but also for people who might not know what that was like. So yeah, I think I really wanted to write this book because I wanted other Floridians to see themselves in a different light that maybe didn't exist quite yet.
When did you realize that you wanted to put all of this into writing?
I started out actually maybe from a more cynical perspective, where I wanted to write about how bad things had gotten and how upset I was. But what I realized was no one wants to read that. And also, my feelings had changed. I developed this real soft spot for Florida in the time that passed since I had left [to New York], and I felt really defensive and protective over Florida. And I think I really just wanted to find a place where I could put all my love for the state… and to express, like, yes, I understand this place is complicated, but, like, don’t you love it? It is also beautiful. We have so many amazing places and our history. Florida’s so much more diverse than people give us credit for. And I loved growing up here for the most part. I feel very lucky to have had a Floridian childhood before luxury condos and high rises and all of this stuff. So yeah, I really just wanted to try to capture that really complicated love and hate at the same time.
I also really wanted to emphasize that there are people here who are actively staying put and trying to make it a better place, and kind of pushing against all of these changes because they love Florida and wanna protect it.
Was there a specific part of the book where you thought That's exactly where I hit the mark when trying to capture the Florida experience?
I think talking specifically about tourism and how there's a big divide between growing up here and visiting here. A lot of people are familiar with Florida, or when you talk about it, they go, “Oh, I'm there all the time. I'm visiting my grandparents in Boca,” or whatever the case may be. But it's very different when you live here, right? I know why people wanna be here. We have great food and culture and art and music and all this stuff, and year-round sunshine. But my problem is when they then go back to wherever they're from and make fun of us. That doesn't feel fair to me. It's like you can't have it both ways. There's a defensiveness and a pride that comes with being a Floridian that I think people can relate to, and that I was really happy to try to capture in the book. I felt pretty good about that.
What do you hope readers discover about the state that they might not expect
I just hope they realize that there are people here, real people who are not part of these headlines or jokes or things to be dismissed. I think when we dismiss things or make a joke of them, it's really easy for the next step to then be dehumanizing them and forgetting the kind of real lived experience of people. So I really hoped that Floridians would feel seen, but I also hoped that non-Floridians would be like, “Okay, maybe my perception is actually not based in reality. Maybe I need to do some more digging and change the way I think about a complicated place,” just like any other place that has a complicated history.
Anywhere Else: Essays on Florida is on sale now. Knox will be at Books and Books in Coral Gables at 11 a.m. on April 19. For more information, click here.
