Please join us for our July 21 porch party, featuring Lynn Waddell, author of Fringe Florida. She’ll discuss Florida’s kookier places and people, from furries to UFOologists (is too a thing!) and will happily sign books and answer questions. Fringe Florida available at the Museum. Lynn has chronicled a collection of odd bits of Florida — not necessarily weird Florida, but fringe cultures that exist in our wonderful state. She’s a gifted writer and a lot of fun to listen to, so we hope to see you there. Here’s some more information about her so by the time you meet her, she’ll feel like an old friend.
Waddell wrote Fringe Florida: Travels Among Mud Boggers, Furries, Ufologists, Nudists, and other Lovers of Unconventional Lifestyles. The book is a collection of essays that guides readers through the state’s eclectic and daring worlds. Her book is a national IndieFab award-winner. The Tampa Bay Times called it one of the best non-fiction books of 2013 and Creative Loafing awarded it the “Best Journey into the Underbelly of the Sunshine State.”
Lynn’s career has spanned many chapters and genres. She was a staff writer at the Birmingham News, the casino beat reporter at the Las Vegas SUN and a news scribe for Tampa’s Weekly Planet (now Creative Loafing). Her reporting and writing on Florida has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Newsweek, the Daily Beast and various other national and regional publications.
She’s penned investigative reports, travel articles, and economic profiles. She’s been a field producer for Paris’ TV5Monde, a journalism professor at the University of Tampa and a researcher for the major motion picture, ‘Showgirls.” She’s appeared on MSNBC, Oxygen Network and Discovery Channel shows related to her news articles.
A native of Alabama, Lynn graduated in journalism from the University of Alabama. She also holds a degree from the University of South Florida where she was a Poynter Institute fellow. She resides in St. Petersburg with her husband James and dog-daughter Sandy. A member of the Florida Humanities Council speaker’s bureau, Lynn speaks on the unusual subcultures that make Florida so Florida.
On July 21, the doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the talk starts at 7 p.m. Dogs and other furry things welcome; members get special benefits, so join today.