about

I am a Florida-bred and -braised freelance writer and scholar primarily focused on historic foodways in Florida, a borderland between the Caribbean and the southeastern United States.

I’ve been thinking and writing about Florida food for over a decade, but I’ve lived here all my life. So did my mother, and my grandmother, and my great-grandmother.

Despite its limestone bedrock, Florida is a fluid place. It’s shaped by flows from the land and from the sea, from the Deep South and from the Caribbean. It’s also shaped by hurricanes. And highways. And low taxes. It’s a dynamic place, with five regions and two time zones and sixteen hundred new people coming here every day. Yet perceptions of its contributions to national culture are about as flat as its landscape.

I belief that historical context, cultural awareness, and empathetic rigor are imperative for impactful storytelling about this place, and it’s these kinds of projects that I’m drawn to. My work as a PhD student at the University of Florida engages this approach to consider the relationship between citrus farming and creative experimentation for Florida writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Laura (Riding) Jackson. Past projects include copyediting and proofreading for a print journal focused on Southern peas, as well as an abbreviated women’s history of rum running and entrepreneurship in the Caribbean region.

I live in Gainesville where, in addition to pursuing a PhD, I work as an editor at the University Press of Florida, acquiring manuscripts in medieval literature, Florida literature, and cooking + foodways.

Send me a line: carlynncrosby[at]icloud[dot]com