The Florida Writer Podcast

Obi Umeozor received his B.A. in English from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and taught English Literature before moving to the States in 2015, where he obtained an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida State University.

His work has appeared and is forthcoming in the New Orleans Review, adda, Shift and others. He has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and is currently a PhD (Fiction) candidate at the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program.

Follow Obi on Instagram @calumez

Tami Lowe writes fiction and non-fiction, primarily about and for women. Her memoir, Making Space for Me, my Mormon adoption story, was self-published in August 2018. Tami is a member of the Florida Writers Association, a Board Member of the Florida Writers Foundation as Chairperson of their Silent Auction. She is a judge for the Women's Fiction Writers Association Rising Star Award as well as the FWA RPLA Award.

Follow her on social media through her website at tamilowe.com.

Shepperd November is a recovering New Yorker. His book All in a Daze Work: The Decline and Fall of the American Work Ethic discusses his experiences working in the American auto industry. Find Shep on Facebook at Shepperd November.

Toya Rochelle is an author and philanthropist. In addition to writing, she frequently leads workshops, moderates panels, and keynotes at conferences. She aims to foster a balanced discourse and transformative understanding through her work. Toya Rochelle serves as Tech2Empower advisor with WAKE (Women's Alliance for Knowledge Exchange), TechWomen mentor, and mentor with B Peace (Business Council for Peace). Toya is also a longtime coach for Jobs Partnership Florida and supporter of A Gift for Teaching. Full & Round is her debut collection of contemporary poems. Published in mid-2018, the bulk of proceeds from Full & Round have been donated to A Gift for Teaching, a nonprofit organization that provides free school supplies to teachers. Born and raised in the Virgin Islands, she currently lives in Florida with her family.

Visit ToyaRochelle.com for more information

Laura Krughoff is the author of the mini-book of short fiction Wake in the Night (Arc Pair Press, 2018) and the novel My Brother's Name (Scarletta Press, 2013), which was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Her nonfiction has appeared in national media outlets including The Huffington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, Writer's Digest, SheWired, and Dot429 Magazine, and her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines and journals such as Threepenny Review, Printers Row Journal, Seattle Review, Washington Square Review, qu.ee/r Magazine, and most recently Masque & Spectacle. Her short fiction has won a Pushcart Prize and was a runner-up for a Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award.

Krughoff holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and a PhD in English Literature from the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where she also serves on the board of the Gender and Queer Studies program.

laurakrughoff.com

Rick Partlow is that rarest of species, a native Floridian. Born in Tampa, he attended Florida Southern College and graduated with a degree in History and a commission in the US Army as an Infantry officer.

His lifelong love of science fiction began with Have Space Suit---Will Travel and the other Heinlein juveniles and traveled through Clifford Simak, Asimov, Clarke and on to William Gibson, Walter Jon Williams and Peter F Hamilton. And somewhere, submerged in the worlds of others, Rick began to create his own worlds.

He has written 27 books in seven different series, and his short stories have been included in ten different anthologies. He is currently working on a series for Aethon books, a six-volume military SF saga about a mercenary unit called Wholesale Slaughter. He is also collaborating on a post-apocalyptic/mil-sf/clone series with mercs and mechs called Broken Arrow Mercenary Force with best-selling author Drew Avera. He currently lives in central Florida with his wife, two children and a willful mutt of a dog. Besides writing and reading science fiction and fantasy, he enjoys outdoor photography, hiking and camping.

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DutyHonorPlanet

Twitter: @RickPartlow66

Author website: www.rickpartlow.com

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Rick-Partlow/e/B00B1GNL4E

Chris O'Byrne is a full-time teacher, fly fishing instructor, director of Fly Fishing Schools, and the resident Andy Thornal Company author.

His new book, The Beautiful Addiction Learning to Fly Fish Near Your Home, Begin the Adventure, Fly Fishing Central Florida's Freshwater hopes to inspire everyone to find a pond near their home and begin casting.

Chris is also a columnist for the Coastal Angler and been featured in many other magazines. Learn to fish with Chris @ Featherwater.com