Over the course of a year, Gabrielle Calise set out to put together an illustrated book of all the wonderful and weird things you can find in Florida.
It took her nearly 600 pages.
When she was done, Gabrielle had curated something uniquely beautiful. It’s called Florida!: A hyper-local guide to the Flora, Fauna and Fantasy of the most Far-out State in America. It’s all wrapped up in a puffy, pink cover — like it's actually bursting with information.
You can learn how to fight off a shark and the strange history of Coral Castle. How to roll a cigar and the importance of the Florida A&M’s marching band. And no matter which part of the state you’re in, Gabrielle found locals to tell us how to have the perfect Florida day.
It’s part-travel guide, part-history book, part-field guide about how to survive and thrive in our state. Gabrielle worked with the film company that produced award-winning movies like Moonlight and The Florida Project.
So it’s not a Florida Man book. It’s a useful tribute. Loving, authentic, hilarious, mystifying. And it’s written, illustrated and photographed by natives and longtime Floridians.
How to wrangle all these things into one book? Well, it took someone raised in our state, a culture and nostalgia reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. That’s her actual title.
In short, a real Florida Woman.
On the August 1 episode of Sundial, Calise joined us to talk about her book and her research on how to fight off sharks, hotdog girls and long-lost theme parks.
On Sundial's previous episode, we got David Anasagasti out of the heat and brought him into our studio to talk about his project, 'Geographies of Trash,' and his journey as an artist.
Listen to Sundial Monday through Thursday on WLRN, 91.3 FM, live at 1 p.m., rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Missed a show? Find every episode of Sundial on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
