Vic DiGenti, FWA Regional Director invites us to explore Southern Gothic, old and new:

“Acclaimed American writers like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Truman Capote, and Carson McCullers established their place in the traditional Southern Gothic canon. Author Darlyn Finch Kuhn explores the past and contemporary direction of Southern Gothic in her presentation, “Weird Characters, Strange Places, and Tough Times: Writing New Southern Gothic” at the FWA Ponte Vedra Writers meeting on Saturday, September 24 at 10 a.m. at the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library. In her presentation, Darlyn will discuss how current writers are rediscovering this fascinating sub-genre dealing with disenfranchised voices in warped communities, not necessarily set in the American South. She’ll examine several Southern Gothic classics before moving into current examples and allow participating writers to generate their own story ideas. Darlyn Finch Kuhn is that rare animal: a Florida native. Born and reared in Jacksonville, she obtained an AA from FSCJ (when it was Florida Junior College), a BA from Rollins College, and an MFA from Spalding University. She was the 19th writer-in-residence at the Jack Kerouac Project house in Orlando. Her poetry collections are Red Wax Rose (published by Shady Lane Press) and Three Houses (published by Scribbles). Her debut novel, Sewing Holes, was published by Twisted Road Publications in 2015, and won that year’s Royal Palm Award from the Florida Writers Association. Since moving back to Jacksonville in 2017, Darlyn and husband Brad Kuhn are Co-Directors of the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival. The coffee will be hot and the room cool. We’ll see you this Saturday morning.” ~ Vic