“Through figures as various and variously lovely as orange blossom, night herons, stingrays, and dulse seaweed, Furman takes us on a deep-dive tour through Floridian—and, by extension, American—history and its changing environment. This book not only makes me want to go to Florida but also to spend every minute there outdoors, hoping to see with vision as fresh and sweet as Furman’s the world he lives in and loves.”—Nicole Walker, author of Sustainability: A Love Story

Join Andrew Furman and Susan Cerulean as they discuss Furman's book, Of Slash Pines and Manatees.

About Of Slash Pines and Manatees:

Wings and talons clatter against a windowpane. Foxes den under a deck. Pines stand in quarter-acre lots, recalling a vanished forest. In this book, Andrew Furman explores touchpoints between his everyday suburban life and the environment in South Florida, contemplating his place in a subtropical landscape stretching from the Everglades to the warm Atlantic coast.

Transportive vignettes of encounters in the natural world blend with ordinary, all-too-relatable stories of home and family life in these chapters. Puzzled and fascinated by the plants and animals he meets while continually preoccupied by busy domestic routines, Furman illustrates the beauty of his “suburban wilderness.” He also reckons with changes and threats to the surrounding landscape. How, he asks, should humans go about living in what is simultaneously one of the most overdeveloped and most naturally beautiful states in the country?

Of Slash Pines and Manatees is a creative and memorable example for anyone seeking to live responsibly and richly in a world impacted by human activity. Furman inspires readers to focus fiercely on the local, to conduct their own adventures in the ecosystem outside their front doors, and to see that even in the most overdeveloped areas, what is wild persists.

About Andrew Furman:

Andrew Furman is professor of English at Florida Atlantic University and teaches in its MFA program in creative writing. His many books include Jewfish, Goldens Are Here, and Bitten: My Unexpected Love Affair with Florida.

Funding for this publication was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About Susan Cerulean:

Susan Cerulean is a writer, naturalist, and activist based in Tallahassee and Indian Pass, Florida.

Her award-winning nature memoir, Coming to Pass: Florida’s Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change, was published in 2015 by University of Georgia Press. Tracking Desire: A Journey after Swallow-tailed Kites (Georgia, 2006) was named an Editors’ Choice title by Audubon magazine.