St. Petersburg, FL (March 23, 2017) – The Friends of Mirror Lake Community Library and Keep St. Pete Lit present An Evening with Craig Pittman at the Mirror Lake Community Library, 280 Fifth Street North, on Monday, April 10. Seating begins at 5 p.m. Opening remarks and lecture begin at 5:30 p.m. Author reception and book signing will be held from 6:30 to 7 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public. This event is part of the third annual SunLit Festival. For more information about the festival, please visit www.sunlitfestival.org.
Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature. Since 1998, he has covered environmental issues for Florida’s largest newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times. 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 has written for Sarasota magazine have won three first-place awards from the Florida Magazine Association. He’s the co-author, with Matthew Waite, of Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss, (2009), which won the Stetson Kennedy Award from the Florida Historical Society. His second book was Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species (2010), which the Florida Humanities Council named one of 21 “essential” books for Floridians. The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid, was published in 2012. Mr. Pittman will be discussing his latest book, Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country.
The Friends of Mirror Lake Library is a voluntary association of engaged, like-minded folks who want to support Mirror Lake Library through: volunteerism, fund-raising, and sponsorship of programs and services. KEEP ST. PETE LIT celebrates and promotes Tampa Bay’s literary community – past, present and future – through arts, education and events with a literary twist. They are “readers, writers and lovers of words who strive to bring an approachable, engaging literary component to St. Petersburg’s vibrant arts community.”
The St. Petersburg Library System is pleased to offer this program as a part of its Community Development Initiative, a method to enhance the provision of resources, services, and programs focused on the Education, Economy, Ecology, Equity, Efficiency and Engagement of our community.
For more information, call the Mirror Lake Community Library at 727-893-7268.
About Your St. Petersburg Library: St. Petersburg’s Library System provides library resources to meet the educational, recreational, cultural, intellectual and social needs of its diverse community. It operates seven community libraries, including the Main Library, North Community Library, South Community Library, West Community Library, Johnson Community Library, Mirror Lake Community Library and a micro-library at Childs Park. For more information, visit www.splibraries.org.