Journalist to speak about MacDonald’s green themes
SARASOTA COUNTY – Award-winning journalist Craig Pittman will present “A Flash of Green: John D. MacDonald and Florida’s Environment” at two Sarasota County libraries on Saturday, March 26.The late MacDonald, whose works are being featured as part of this year’s “One Book, One Community” celebration by Sarasota County Libraries and Historical Resources, included discussions of Florida environmental issues in his books long before such concerns were considered fashionable. Pittman will talk about MacDonald’s environmental activism in his hometown of Sarasota, the green themes he worked into his books and how things have changed since then – or not.
Pittman’s presentations will be at 10:30 a.m. at Jacaranda Library, 4143 Woodmere Park Blvd., Venice, and at 2 p.m. at Osprey Library at Historic Spanish Point, 337 N. Tamiami Trail, Osprey.
Since 1998, Tampa Bay Times reporter Pittman has covered plenty of Florida’s environmental issues: its vanishing wetlands, the troubles facing its springs and the future of its panthers and manatees. He has won the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida four times and twice won the top investigative reporting award from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Stories he wrote for Sarasota Magazine have won three first-place awards from the Florida Magazine Association, and he’s the author of three books: “Paving Paradise,” “Manatee Insanity” and “The Scent of Scandal.” His fourth book, “Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country,” will hit stores this summer.
More “One Book, One Community” programming information can be found at www.onebooksarasota.com.
For additional information, call the Sarasota County Contact Center at 941-861-5000 or visit www.scgov.net.
