Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass

Laughing comes easily for this husband and wife creative team, who founded the LOL JAX FILM FESTIVAL in 2016 and more recently took over as Jacksonville city producers for the 48 Hour Film Project. But the work they're doing is serious business. Running film festivals, while both working full-time jobs, producing a vlog, and making time to be a couple, is hard work, but they wouldn't have it any other way. Although neithe...

Ben Atkinson grew up in western Pennsylvania and currently resides in Jacksonville, Fla., with his wife and two young children. A poet with a PhD in wildlife ecology and conservation, he struggled to strike a balance between his scientific research and artistic pursuits. As a young father and husband, he set aside his passion for poetry for more than a decade, under the mistaken belief that he had to choose between a career in scie...

"I was living in Key West, and there were a lot of writers there. When I decided maybe I wanted to become a writer, I didn't know anything about writing, so I asked my neighbor, Tom (Tennessee) Williams, for his advice . . . He said, well, 'Just write.'" So begins a fascinating hour with Sharon Y. Cobb, an accomplished screenwriter, former UNF professor, and generous mentor, whose career has taken her from ...

Emily K. Michael is a blind poet, musician, and writing instructor from Jacksonville, FL. Since 2016, she has worked as the associate poetry editor for Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Wordgathering, The Hopper, Artemis Journal, The South Carolina Review, The Deaf Poets Society, Nine Mile Magazine, Bridge Eight, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, BREVITY’s Nonfiction ...

A forbidden love affair, a suggestion of magical realism, a collective of village women lifting themselves out of poverty, and a family of Bengal tigers struggling to survive; Katy Yocom's debut novel, Three Ways to Disappear transports readers to India, where they are surrounded by the sights, the smells, the sounds, and amazing people. A lot has been written about the India of cities and slums. Yocom writes about rural India...

New Orleans novelist Victor Hess has been a lot of things, but he only came to writing recently. His first novel, Jesse Sings, was a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing competition in 2015. It was also recognized as a finalist in the Fiction: Inspirational category of the 2018 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest. His short stories received Honorable Mention in a recent Glimmer Train compe...

A coach wouldn't be much good if they always agreed with you. Lynn Skapyak Harlin has been punching writers in the face to make them better since 2001. She likes to talk about how "mean" she is, but that's not how workshop participants describe her. And that's certainly not why they keep coming back, year after year. Jacksonville's favorite literary curmudgeon, The Shantyboat Lady, ties the ghost of he...

Sometimes it's hard to know who your friends are, even when there aren't any cultural barriers to overcome. In his work, Sohrab Homi Fracis documents his experience as an Indian immigrant adapting to American culture—the good, the bad, and the ugly—in the 1980s. Fracis, who now calls Jacksonville home, has gone on to gain recognition for his excellent work, but he walks through life with a perspective inextricably tied to...

Hope McMath grew up in Jacksonville, so being named executive director of The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens was a dream come true. Her departure, in 2016, was a gut-wrenching inflection point. Opening her own gallery took even more courage. Anyone who has never been inside Yellow House, at 577 King Street, in the CoRK Arts District, need look no further than the backyard. The psychedelic school bus with Rosa Parks at the wheel t...

Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams is a poet and essayist, teaching artist, and narrative practitioner in applied behavioral science. A passionate mixed-media artist, she uses collage and fiber arts to express stories. Her work spans a wide range of corporate and private projects, but her passion is working with young African American women to help them find their voices and develop their own transformative narrative. She stopped by Scr...

Filmmaker, director, writer, actor—Fred Zara lives in Orlando, but stopped by Scribbler's Corner at River of Grass while he was in Jacksonville for the Southeast Regional Film Festival, where his latest film, The Suicide of James Rider, was being screened.

Fred grew up in New Jersey, where, at 15, he got kicked out of the 9th grade for fighting with a teacher. He played drums in a Trenton-based punk band under the name of Fred ...

Playwright, musician, professor, Jenn Chase’s creative journey has taken her from her childhood home in Cape Cod to Dakar, Senegal, before bringing her here to us in Jacksonville where she works out of her studio in the CoRK Arts District, and as a professor teaching writing and humanities at FSCJ. A free spirit, who has failed as spectacularly as she has succeeded, and persevered to produce a significant body of work, including fi...

Nikesha Elise Williams is an Emmy award winning news producer and author. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Florida State University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communication: Mass Media Studies and Honors English Creative Writing. Nikesha’s debut novel, Four Women, was awarded the 2018 Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Award in the category of Adult Contemporary/Lit...

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Scribbler's Corner caught up with one of Jacksonville's rising stars.

Andres Rojas was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. at age 13. He attended Florida Junior College, now FSCJ, here in Jacksonville and went on to earn an M.F.A. and a J.D. from the University of Florida. His work has been featured in numerous literary magazines and included in the 2017 edition of Best New Poet...

Tim Gilmore writes about the haunted South.

Gilmore is the author of 17 books, including a historical novel about the founder of Jacksonville, The Book of Isaiah: A Vision of the Founder of a City, illustrated by his colleague Shep Shepard, and creative nonfiction such as Goat Island Hermit: The State of Florida vs. Rollians Christopher, The Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray’s Unholy Trinity, In Search of Eartha White: Storehous...