Literary Arts
Nicholas Griffin’s New Play — “English Only”
NICHOLAS GRIFFIN’S new play, “English Only,” is based on events in Miami in 1980, and will open at the Colony Theatre on January 29th, running through February, 13th.
read moreAuthor Hayden Herrera: From “Frida” to “Upper Bohemia”
HAYDEN HERRERA is an art historian, critic, and biographer. Her doctoral dissertation about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo became her first book: “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo,” which was made into the movie “Frida,” starring Salma Hayek.
read moreStoryteller John Dufresne
JOHN DUFRESNE is an award-winning, best-selling novelist and short story writer. He has also written six books on the craft of fiction writing.
read moreJane Leavy: Make Me Commissioner of MLB
JANE LEAVY is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created,” “The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood” and “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” and the comic novel “Squeeze Play,” which Entertainment Weekly called “the best novel ever written about baseball.”
read more“Literally Everyone’s Invited: An Ode to South Florida”
TOM HUDSON is WLRN’s Senior Economics Editor and Special Correspondent. MELODY SANTIAGO CUMMINGS is the Executive Director of O, Miami. We discuss O, Miami’s new book, “Literally Everyone’s Invited: An Ode to South Florida,” and the huge success of ZipOdes.
read moreArt Critic Elisa Turner: “Miami’s Art Boom”
ELISA TURNER is an award-winning art critic and journalist based in Miami. In October 2025 her book, “Miami’s Art Boom: From Local Vision to International Presence,” was published by the University Press of Florida. It chronicles the city’s art scene from 1987 to 2007.
read moreRebecca Friedman: From History to Public Humanities
DR. REBECCA FRIEDMAN is the Founding Director of the Public Humanities Lab (PHL) and a Professor of History at Florida International University.
read moreBob Blumenthal: Grammy Award Winning Jazz Critic
BOB BLUMENTHAL began writing jazz criticism in 1969 while attending Harvard College. He was a contributing editor of the Boston Phoenix (1969-1989) and a contributor to The Boston Globe (1990-2002), and has also appeared in such publications as the Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, Down Beat, JazzTimes and Jazziz. He won two Grammy awards for best album notes for collections by John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
read moreJulie K. Brown: In Pursuit of Justice
JULIE K. BROWN is an investigative journalist with the “Miami Herald,” best known for pursuing the sex trafficking story surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. She is the recipient of several awards including two George Polk Awards for Justice Reporting. Brown’s book, “Perversion of Justice,” based on her reporting on the Epstein case, was published by William Morrow and Company. The book served as the foundation for a limited series on HBO.
read moreSuper Prolific Author Ben Mezrich
As of July 4th, 2025 BEN MEZRICH (b.1969) has authored twenty-eight books – major international and New York Times Bestsellers, with well over 11 million copies sold. The non-fiction genre he’s created – cinematic and unique true stories of young geniuses battling their way through the grey area between right and wrong, and succeeding at all costs
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