Florida Humanities Council Talks At Home: Dream State (On Demand)

Diane Roberts will discuss how each new wave of Florida settlers, from the mounds of the First Peoples to modern golf courses and artificial lakes, has reinvented the state to suit themselves. We live in a state of dreams, a paradise of sun and sea breezes. We pronounce it paradise then “improve” it: mermaids at Weeki Wachee or castles in Orange County or “islands” built on fill dirt dumped into our waters.

Diane Roberts has been a commentator for NPR since 1993, a political columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, a journalist for the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Orlando Sentinel. Roberts is professor of literature and writing at Florida State University and a visiting fellow in creative writing at the University of Northumbria in England, specializing in Southern United States culture.