| Key West, Florida, is an island about four hours south of where I live in Miami. While I was writing Breathing Underwater, I attended the Key West Literary Seminar, where I took a workshop with Richard Peck. It was really inspiring, and as a result, many of the pivotal scenes in the book take place in Key West. I was back there recently and thought you might want to see it for yourselves! |
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Me in front of Sloppy Joe's bar in Key West. Writer Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea, and other stuff you'll probably read in English class) used to come here and write. He wrote many novels in Key West and based a character in To Have and Have Not on the owner of Sloppy Joe's. Key West has a Hemingway Days festival every summer.
Many famous writers have had homes in Key West over the years, including playwrite, Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire, etc.), poet Robert Frost, and children's writers, Judy Blume and Shel Silverstein.
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 | | Sunset at Mallory Square is a Key West tradition |
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 | | Street performer (juggler on stilts) at Mallory Square |
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Key West is known for its history . . . and its quirkiness. In Breathing Underwater, Nick says, "The saying goes that they tipped the country once, and all the weirdos slid to Key West." The conchs (Key West natives) wouldn't have it any other way. |
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Historic Duval Street in Key West is one of the settings of Breathing Underwater. The bar where Nick and Caitlin went with their friends was fictional, but was based on a place I went while writing the book. |
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 | | Wedding party on Duval Street |
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 | | Snorkeling in Key West |
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Like Nick and Caitlin in Breathing Underwater, my husband and I enjoy snorking in the waters off Key West. I really did see a shark there once . . . but not this time. |
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 | | Parrotfish on a reef near Key West |
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 | | Harry S. Truman's "Winter White House" in Key West |
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