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.
October 9th with Shane Hinton, Kayla Upadhyaya, and Ryan Rivas of Burrow Press
We have a very special line up for our October talk! We’ll hear from Shane Hinton, Kayla Upadhyaya, and Ryan Rivas, all wonderful local authors. Ryan Rivas is also the publisher and editor for Burrow Press: A literary publisher founded in Orlando, FL, in 2010. Burrow Press has provided over 1,600 opportunities for writers to publish and share their work.
Due to federal government cuts, Burrow Press has lost a grant causing a significant budget shortfall. All of our proceeds from this talk will be donated to Burrow Press.
Tickets / donations are $10 per person. We will be raffling copies of each authors books and a one year subscription to Burrow Press.
Help support this independent publisher by subscribing! Burrow Press exists because of adventurous readers. Subscribers directly support their publishing program, allowing them to provide a home for work that might otherwise be overlooked by “the big 5” corporate publishers. Subscribers receive all their 2026 books & other perks (including acknowledgement in print and online). Subscribers directly contribute to helping them build a lasting body of literature and foster literary community in Florida. Subscriptions help them pay authors more, and give them the financial freedom to take artistic risks in the work we publish.
https://burrowpress.com/subscribe/
Meet the authors:
Shane Hinton is the author of the novel Radio Dark and editor of the anthology We Can’t Help It If We’re From Florida. He holds an MFA from the University of Tampa and lives in the winter strawberry capital of the world.
“If Kafka got it on with Flannery O’ Connor, Pinkies would be their love child.”
–LIDIA YUKNAVITCH author of The Small Backs of Children
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. Her queer horror novelette Helen House was named one of the Best LGBTQ Books of 2022 by NBC News. She is the managing editor of Autostraddle, an assistant fiction editor at Foglifter, and the former managing editor of TriQuarterly. Her short stories appear in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Catapult, The Offing, Joyland, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and others. Some of her culture writing can be found in The Cut, The A.V. Club, Vulture, Refinery29, and Vice, and she previously worked as a restaurant reporter for Eater NY. She has held fellowships with Tin House and Lambda Literary.
Ryan Rivas is the author of the text-image book Nextdoor in Colonialtown (Autofocus, 2022) and the novella Lizard People (ThirtyWest, 2023). He is the Publisher of Burrow Press, and the Coordinator of MFA Publishing at Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas creative writing program. A Macondo Writers Workshop fellow, his work has appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, and elsewhere.
November : The Mothership Imprint with Ferdinand DeJesus & Marchell Short
Meet local publishing house, The Mothership Imprint! Jessica Rios and Ileah Green have been creating art and launching companies together since 2018.
They are pro-human, anti-racist, anti-exploitation, anti-capitalism, pro-land back, prison abolitionists. They believe in artistry & creativity as a form of resistance.
See some of their work:
Inanna Creative, their sister company, is the PR Consulting side of the Publishing House.
Fuckboy Haiku, an Astrological Perspective was self-published in 2020 & led to the birth of The Mothership Imprint. Buy your copy in their shop now.
The Feminist Palette is their digital zine.
Jessica is an artist and her artwork can be found in the shop.
Ileah sells vintage luxury & home goods.
The Mothership Imprint also hosts Poetry & Open Mic nights at Union Hall.
They will be talking with two local authors: Ferdinand DeJesus and Marchell Short.
Ferdinand DeJesus is the founder of FrediDANCE. FrediDANCE Project is a New York based boutique dance company presenting works by Artistic Director Ferdinand “Freddie” De Jesus. The work explores a unique genre of gender identity exploration and choreographic development focusing on GLBT topics, and a variety of broad issues relating to sexuality and social issues.
FREDIDANCE Project is a not for profit Contemporary Dance company featuring the choreographic works of Artistic Director Ferdinand De Jesus since 2011. The group is Ultimate Dance Center’s In-House Dance company and hosts Junior & Senior Intensive programs throughout the year to help UDC students grow as dancers and future choreographers. The goal of these programs is to inspire young dancers to seek professional dance careers. These programs teach technique strengthening, choreography exploration and personal development for students. The accomplishment of goals and student development is the heart of this program.
Preorder Freddie’s memoir through The Mothership Imprint’s website: https://www.themothershipimprint.com/the-mothership-shop/p/dance-through-fire.
Marchall Short is the author of Where There is a Will, There is a Way: Estate Planning Made Easy for You. Marchall is an Income Tax Preparer & Certified Financial Coach with over 40 years experience.
Copies of her book can be purchased here: https://mgshorttaxsvc.com/store. You can also subscribe to her newsletter: https://forms.gle/CekRZhXt4YfVqtKp6.