Hi, I'm Christopher Nank, and I'd like to introduce Florida Book Club, a new podcast focusing on the forgotten, undervalued, underrated, misrepresented, and weird literature, film, media, music, and assorted other pop cultural relics of the Sunshine State. In each episode, myself and occasional assorted guests—sometimes writers, sometimes egghead academics like myself, but mostly just ordinary book and film lovers and fans—will dish on and debate and discuss works we're passionate about. So if you saw book club in the title and were instantly turned off, don't be. We'll take frequent detours into other mediums. That no budget, eco-horror movie you saw when you were a kid? Some obscure death metal album recorded in Tampa in the late 1980s? Old Florida ruins inhabited by shadow people? Yeah, we'll likely get into that sort of stuff, too.
Of course, we'll also dig into the literary history of the state. Does Florida have a literary canon? If so, does a 1970s pulp novel about a giant alligator belong in it? Is it too soon to put Colson Whitehead's "Nickel Boys" in the Florida canon? Is there a definitive Florida novel, story, or poem? And so on. Our first season will launch in November 2020. Join me and these potential various guests for some intellectually stimulating and entertaining discussions. Hopefully you'll come out of it with a new reading list and an appreciation for Florida's wildly diverse artistic and cultural heritage.
