About the Book

First-time travelers to Florida often imagine the state as just a vacationland or a swamp -- a place to visit and to leave behind. But the writers in this collection discover the truth that everyone who's lived in the state knows. When you venture into Florida you won't find what you expect . . . and what you do find will stay with you forever.The authors of these essays come to Florida for different reasons. Love, fortune, family, rest, natural beauty, or a fresh start. They encounter a place so diverse that it defies easy categorization. Lauren Groff describes her experience settling in Florida after growing up in the Northeast and finds an affinity with the strong-willed writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who grew to resent the cities of her past and embraced the wild lands that inspired The Yearling.