Sanford author Bill Belleville will give a reading to the Florida Native Plant Society on Monday at the Sanford Garden Club.
“Salvaging the Real Florida” recounts author Bill Belleville’s eco-adventures in the backcountry of the Florida Keys, on the Suwannee River, in the swamps of the Wekiva, and in freshwater spring and caves systems around the state.
Of Belleville’s work, New York Times best-selling writer Carl Hiaasen has said: “Bill Belleville writes gorgeously and straight from the heart.”
“Salvaging” recently received the prestigious National Outdoor Book Award for excellence in the Natural History-Literature genre. Previous award winners include Farley Mowat, Robert Michael Pyle, David Attenborough, Roderick Nash, and Aldo Leopold.
In selecting the winner, the judges wrote: “Belleville is a talented writer and a sheer pleasure to read. He takes readers throughout Florida on hikes, paddles and dives – and through lagoons, forests, and swamps. Intermixed with his stories are fresh insights and strong reasons why the remaining wild lands of Florida need to stay that way.”
Belleville’s five other books include “Deep Cuba,” “River of Lakes,” and “Sunken Cities, Sacred Cenotes and Golden Sharks: Travels of a Water-bound Adventurer.” His book “Losing it All to Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape” was named one of the “best books” in the country by the National Library Journal in 2006. Belleville has also contributed to nine anthologies, including “Best Travel Writing” and more recently “Bartram’s Living Legacy: The Travels & the Nature of the South.”
Belleville has scripted and co-produced documentaries for PBS, and with Philippe Cousteau, produced a radio documentary for NPR’s “Living on Earth” on the manatees of Blue Spring. He has traveled widely overseas for the Discovery Channel, and has been a Writer in Residence at USF’s graduate “Florida Studies Program.”
Belleville, who lives in Sanford, lectures throughout the state, on behalf of the Florida Humanities Council. For more information on the author, please visit www.BillBelleville.com
During the Cuplet Fern program, Belleville will read from “Salvaging” and show nature photos to illustrate.
The regular monthly chapter meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Sanford Garden Club, 200 Fairmont Drive, in Sanford. The presentation is open to the public.