MARK JEROME WALTERS is a professor of journalism at University of South Florida, St. Petersburg and the author of several highly acclaimed books, including A Shadow and a Song, the story of Florida’s dusky seaside sparrow’s extinction. Dr. Walters, a veterinarian, frequently writes about endangered species and the connections between human health and the environment. Walters' 2003 book, Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them, was published by Shearwater Books/Island Press. It was widely reviewed in both the popular and scientific press, including the New York Times and the journal Nature. In 2006 Walters published Seeking the Sacred Raven: Politics and Extinction on a Hawaiian Island. Walters’ 2004 essay "Creation Unfolding", a story of growing up near Sebastian Inlet, Florida, was published in Forum magazine and won the Florida Magazine Association’s 2005 Charlie Award for excellence in writing. Prior to joining USF in 2003, Dr. Walters was a visiting lecturer at Harvard Medical School. He received an undergraduate degree in English literature from McGill University, Montreal; a master’s from the Columbia University School of Journalism, New York; and a D.V.M. from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts. His articles have appeared in publications such as Audubon magazine and Reader’s Digest. He is a contributing editor of Orion magazine.

Contact: mjw@stpt.usf.edu ; 727-873-4544

DONALD MORRILL is the author of three books of nonfiction, The Untouched Minutes, Sounding for Cool, and A Stranger’s Neighborhood, as well as two volumes of poetry, At the Bottom of the Sky and With Your Back to Half the Day. His nonfiction and poetry have appeared in magazines and journals across the country, and in numerous anthologies, garnering several prizes, among them the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Award (2004), the Emerging Writers of Creative Nonfiction Award, Duquesne University Press (1998), the Mid-List Press First Series Award (1998) and The Missouri Review Editors’ Prize for Nonfiction (1995). From 1985-87, he taught American Literature and Culture at Jilin University, Peoples Republic of China. From 1988-89, he was a Fulbright Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Lodz, Poland. Currently, he is an editor of Tampa Review and the University of Tampa Press Poetry Series.

Two prominent voices in environmental literature, BILL BELLEVILLE and ANN FISHER-WIRTH, will share their meditations on the Southeastern and Florida landscape. Bill Belleville, documentary filmmaker and author of River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River, will discuss his latest book, Losing It All To Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape. David Fleshler writes in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Bill Belleville, a well-known Florida nature writer, shows the impact of relentless growth on one corner of Florida, a few houses on a dead-end road four miles outside the town of Sanford. "Losing it All to Sprawl" is a compelling story of a low-key community that had made its peace with nature, and how a mall and a few residential developers killed it..Despite the book's focus on a tiny patch of the state, it provides an enormous amount of information on how government, business and the environment work in Florida."

Tony Silvia will read from his new book, Diamonds in the Air: Radio, Baseball, and the Power of Imagination. Commentator Dewayne Staats, television voice of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and author of the prologue for Silvia's book, will read famous and favorite poems about baseball.

Two of Tampa Bay's nationally recognized, up and coming poets, Martha Serpas and Gianmarc Manzione.

Open mic poetry slam. To close out the series, TBWN will host a poetry competition with local spoken word artists as judges.