Squawk Box Author Talks
Join us for monthly chats with authors at Union Hall in the Dixieland area of Lakeland!
Enjoy lovely cocktails and mocktails at a private bar in a beautiful location while mingling and raising money for local organizations.
Each talk will feature at least one author chatting with a local friend of Dead Swan Society, chances to win raffle prizes, and a few other surprises.
July 8th with Lil Miss Hot Mess
Lil Miss Hot Mess is a renowned storyteller and board member of Drag Story Hour. She is the author of The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish and If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It, and has written for Wired, Salon, and The Guardian. She’s performed at venues from Stanford to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to Saturday Night Live.
She will be chatting with Tyreisha Jones of Rose Dynasty Foundation. She’s not just any queen—she’s a Broadway Disney diva with a voice as bright as her highlighter and a heart big enough to fill the Magic Kingdom. Whether she’s singing showtunes or reading tales to tiny humans, Tyreisha brings theatrical sparkle and fierce kindness to everything she touches.
We’ll be coloring and playing literary bingo!
Tickets are $10 each with the proceeds going to Rose Dynasty Foundation. Rose Dynasty Foundation Inc. is a 501(c)(3), whose mission is to provide a safe and family friendly atmosphere for all people no matter their gender, race, sexual orientation, and/or religion, through mentoring, fundraising, fostering community, and promoting awareness of resources. Rose Dynasty embodies the message that you are
“Loved, Accepted, and Wanted.”
Tickets can be purchased here on Eventbrite.
Copies of the book can be purchased here:
August 14th with John Henry Fleming
John Henry Fleming was born in Detroit, grew up in Michigan and Florida, and lived in six other states before returning to Florida in 2001. He now lives in Temple Terrace, Florida, with his wife and two children, along with two cats, one blind and one angry. In his spare hours, he plays disc golf and bangs on instruments.
His first book, The Legend of the Barefoot Mailman, was published in 1996, and has been re-released as an ebook and in a limited print run. In 2009, he published Fearsome Creatures of Florida, an eco-minded bestiary of legendary Florida creatures, with illustrations by David Hazouri. In 2012-13, over the course of eight months, he published The Book I Will Write, a serial novel-in-emails, on the Atticus Books website. The Book I Will Write is now available as an ebook, too. Also in 2012, he edited 15 Views of Tampa Bay, a linked collection of stories set in Tampa Bay, written by local writers. 15 Views of Tampa Bay, along with 15 Views of Orlando, formed the two parts of Burrow Press’s two-sided book, 15 Views Volume II: Corridor. In 2014, Burrow Press released his first story collection, Songs for the Deaf, which gathers twenty years’ worth of stories published in literary journals such as McSweeney’s, The North American Review, Mississippi Review, Fourteen Hills, Atticus Review, Kugelmass, and Carve, among others.
He graduated with a B.A. in psychology from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He has taught creative writing and other subjects at the University of Southern Mississippi (as a grad student), Indian River Community College, Cape Fear Community College, UNC-Wilmington, Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp, Saint Mary’s College of California, and the University of South Florida, where he is now. At USF, he is the founder and advisory editor of Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art.
He will be chatting with Ryan Walsh. Ryan is the Associate Dean of Student Engagement at Florida Southern College. He has been an award winning English Literature and Composition Instructor at the middle and high school level for over two decades.
Tickets are $10 each with the proceeds going to Camp Fire. Camp Fire believes in the dignity and the intrinsic worth of every human being. They welcome, affirm, and support young people and adults of all abilities and disabilities, experiences, races, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, religion and non-religion, citizenship and immigration status, and any other category people use to define themselves or others. They strive to create safe and inclusive environments that celebrate diversity and foster positive relationships.
Tickets can be purchased here on Eventbrite.
Copies of John Henry Fleming’s books can be purchased here: