With my partner Julie Armstrong for “Runway on the River” (Oct. 12, 2015).
I like my nature writing next to club listings and drink specials. Where nature writing should be. Ond and off, since 2016, Tampa Bay’s alt-weekly Creative Loafing has let me run a column called “City Wilds.” I write about trespassing onto Florida springs, dubious canoe and kayak paddles, fashion on the river, vernacular murals, foibles in the life of my adopted hometown, and what it’s like to go to Monster Jam the night after your dad dies. I am grateful for razor sharp editors like Cathy Salustri, Scott Harrell, David Warner and Ray Roa–they have given me amazingly wide latitude, so long as the facts check out, and the sentences hold. Here’s a running list of articles to date:
Tampa Bay Teacher Nina Shand Is a Master Fire Builder Whose Heart Belongs in the Woods (Dec. 16, 2020)
Tampa Bay was built on Native land, so say “Ysaco niquosonihaue nimantela” this Thanksgiving (Nov. 20, 2020)
Bill Belleville’s Love of Florida Waterways Remind Us that We are Only Single Players in a Long Procession (Oct. 7, 2020)
John Nolen Gave St. Pete a Chance to Embrace Nature, But the City Passed (Sept. 10, 2020)
Proposed Plans for Gas Plant Raise Red Flags for a Neighborhood That’s Been Wronged Before (Aug. 12, 2020)
Gas Plant–Imagining a Lost Neighborhood (Oct. 19, 2017)
A Classic Florida Storm Story, c. 1528 (Sept. 19, 2017)
Paddling Towards Reparations (Aug. 4, 2017)
Gardening with Mr. Clowers (June 20, 2017)
Spiderwort, the Pocahontas Flower (May 23, 2017)
Trespassing, Crystal Springs (April 18, 2017)
Crossing Tampa Bay, Courtesy the Deepwater Horizon (March 13, 2017)
On the Necessity of Monster Jam (Feb. 27, 2017)
Coach English, Neighborhood Muralist (Jan. 16, 2017)
Walking and Talking Nature with Jeff Klinkenberg: Stealing What We Can from an Old Hand (Dec. 12, 2016)
An Interstate Runs through It (Nov. 8, 2016)
Runway on the River (Oct. 12, 2016)
Paddling across Pinellas (May 26, 2016)
Spring Fever (May 13, 2004)
