Annual conference celebrating renowned Florida author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in St. Augustine

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - March 28, 2023 - PRLog -- The St. Johns Cultural Council, the organization that promotes arts, culture and heritage in St. Augustine, has announced that the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society's 34th Annual Conference will be held in St. Augustine on April 28-30. The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society honors the memory and celebrates the life and work of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author through annual meetings throughout Florida in locations relevant to Rawlings' literature and locale. Rawlings owned a second home in Crescent Beach and she, along with her husband Norton Sanford Baskin, owned the Castle Warden Hotel in St. Augustine.

The conference will present exciting programs about Rawlings' contemporaries and her influence today with historians as well as tours, lectures, and discussions. The weekend kicks off with presentations on Rawlings' life, including a lecture on her life in St. Augustine, and a trolley tour of the residences of writers who called St. Augustine home led by historian David Nolan. A wine and cheese reception followed by a banquet, featuring historian Gary Mormino as the keynote speaker on his latest books and studies of Florida, will be held Friday evening. Saturday's events will include a discussion led by four-time Emmy-award-winning journalist Bob Kealing, who will give a presentation about The Beatles in 1960s Florida. Saturday will conclude with a scenic river cruise of the Matanzas River.

The weekend will also offer visitors a chance to see a production of the never-before-produced short play Color Struck, written by Rawlings' friend and fellow author Zora Neale Hurston. The play, partially set in St. Augustine, will be performed at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.historiccoastculture.com. For tickets to the weekend's events, visit www.rawlingssociety.org/conferences-upcoming. To make a reservation for the Scenic Matanzas River Cruise, visit https://scenic-cruise.com/.