Uncanny Florida

Years ago, when I was still in my MFA, I drafted a flash story about a woman who was haunted by her late husband’s bleak and brutal thoughts, with trivia as her only coping mechanism. I’m pleased to say that “A Woman Possessed” was finally published by Passages North last Friday! It’s a particularly gloomy one, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

I often find myself writing about Florida—if it’s not the main setting, it lurks in the background, a strange place where our narrator came from, or where they might end up. Though I was born and raised in Illinois, I have lots of relatives in Florida. My mom spent her teenage years there, and she went to college there as well, so I spent lots of Christmases (not to mention other vacations) under the palm trees, swimming in my aunt and uncle’s pool.

I can’t say I’m much of a beach person—I burn easily, and I hate that the sand gets everywhere. But what I do enjoy about Florida is that it’s deeply weird. It’s the site of the oldest colonized settlement in the United States. It’s where old people go to die. It’s full of animals that will literally kill you. Its roadside attraction game is unparalleled. I think that’s why it so frequently ends up in my writing: Florida seems fictional. If you were to locate a friendly extraterrestrial and describe Florida to them, they’d think you were telling a tall tale. An ideal setting for the most uncanny stories.

Florida books you should read: Kristen Arnett’s collection Felt in the Jaw, Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!, Alissa Nutting’s Tampa

I didn’t include Hurston or Hemingway because, like, duh.