Join 2019 MBF/de Groot Prize finalists Kristen Simental and Holly Takashima as they muse over their respective winning entries. Emerging Latinx author Simental’s Why, Arizona is a story about a girl, an RV, a tortured ex, a small town on the edge of nowhere, and the end of the world. Takashima’s The Meaning of Words […]
In Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People, Natan Sharansky, who spent nine years in prison in the Soviet Union for his activities as a “Refusenik” – a Jewish dissident denied permission to emigrate to Israel – reveals how his time in jail, much of it in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for what became […]
The de Groot Foundation focuses on innovation, education and culture, with particular interest in the visual and literary arts. In 2016, the Foundation partnered with Miami Book Fair to launch the Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize, which is awarded annually to an author for an unpublished novella. Clydette and Charles de Groot, along with Miami […]
Ellen Michaeson, 2019 winner of the MBF/de Groot Prize for the Novella, has crafted a moving story about vulnerability and friendship in The Care of Strangers. Described by Publishers Weekly as an “affecting glimpse into the evolution of friendship between women facing difficult odds," Michaelson’s protagonists learn that letting yourself care for another person can […]
Through dozens of black-and-white images, photographer Gary Monroe takes readers on a time-traveling journey to an oft-forgotten moment in Miami Beach history: when it was a retirement haven for American Jews. The Last Resort: Jewish South Beach, 1977-1986 scratches at Miami’s present-day persona as a cosmopolitan global destination to reveal an earlier iteration, fondly recalling […]
A comprehensive examination of a decades-long career, Daniel Lewis: A Life in Choreography and the Art of Dance is the autobiography of a hugely influential choreographer and teacher of modern dance. Gracefully leaping from Lewis’ time as a soloist with modern master José Limón through his evolution into a sought-after choreographer, respected instructor, and champion […]
James A. Kushlan's Seeking the American Tropics: South Florida's Early Naturalists unearths stories of the explorers and adventurers who – for better and for worse – helped open the unique environment of South Florida to the world. He’s joined by Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida, as they dialogue about the reverberations and repercussions […]
Miami Noir editor Les Standiford sits down with authors Preston L. Allen, Lynne Barrett, and John Dufresne to discuss their contributions to his long-awaited sequel, Miami Noir: The Classics, 19 stories from an impressive list of writers that also includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Elmore Leonard, Zora Neale Hurston, Damon Runyon, and Edna Buchanan. Spanning nearly […]
Tommye Blount’s Fantasia for the Man in Blue orchestrates a chorus of distinct, unforgettable voices that speak to the experience of the black, queer body as a site of desire and violence. The speaker in Ricardo Alberto Maldonado’s The Life Assignment sorts through relationships, trying to discern what was healthy from what was exploitative, and […]
Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts by Nikky Finney is a twenty-first-century paean to the sterling love songs humming through four hundred years of Black American life. Be Holding: A Poem by Ross Gay connects the famously impossible move by legendary basketball player Julius Erving – known as Dr. J – during […]
Grades 9 – 12 Moderated by Michele Wells, VP and executive editor at DC Young Reader Your favorite DC YA authors and artists Kami Garcia (Teen Titans: Raven, Teen Titans: Beast Boy), Danielle Paige (Mera: Tidebreaker, Wonder Women of History), Laurie Halse Anderson (Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed), Alex Sanchez (You Brought Me the Ocean), Sarah […]
The sharp-witted reflections, amusing absurdities, and humor found in the conflicting relationships between art and artist are at the forefront of Adrian Tomine's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist and Lisa Hanawalt's I Want You. A master humorist, Hanawalt strikes the perfect balance between drawing the gorgeous and the repugnant, the fantastical and the […]