Books published by Burrow Press. It’s now celebrating 15 years. Courtesy Ryan Rivas.

ORLANDO HAS A DIVERSE, PULSING LITERARY SCENE. In addition to the many novelists who live here (or spent their formative years here), The City Beautiful has an independent literary press and thriving poetry scene—and we’ve just welcomed our third poet laureate. And the future is only getting brighter. What’s going on now, and what’s in store for the future of Orlando’s literati? Read on for all the page-turning details.

Ryan Rivas, publisher of Burrow Press. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez.

The Written Word

Burrow Press is an independent publishing company dedicated to publishing literary fiction and creative nonfiction. The press, headed by publisher Ryan Rivas, has provided more than 1,600 opportunities for writers to publish and share their work, and is celebrating its 15^th anniversary this year.

Rivas says the origin of the press was simple—Orlando writers wanting to connect. But after they published the press’ first book, an anthology of fiction, his team found their mission.

“We realized that Orlando was really hungry for a press and hungry for a literary community, so a lot of our projects spun off from that book launch,” says Rivas. “Since then, it has expanded outward to become more of a traditional literary press.”

Today, Stetson University is home to Burrow, where students from the Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing program get hands-on experience running it. Burrow publishes about three or four books a year, mainly through solicitations.

This month, Burrow hosts the Florida Book Tour (at various venues) and, in December, the Grandma Party at Stardust Video & Coffee. To stay connected and learn more, visit burrowpress.com.

Alex Gurtis in front of the Jack Kerouac House. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez.

The Literary Arts Council of Central Florida

Rivas says that literary events in Orlando can sometimes be tricky to find, but two of his counterparts are trying to streamline that: Alex Gurtis and outgoing Orlando poet laureate Shawn Welcome are the men behind the Literary Arts Council of Central Florida (LACCF).

Gurtis, a poet and critic who serves on the board of the Kerouac Project of Orlando, has been part of Orlando’s literary scene since 2020. He met Rivas while in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida, and says he was shocked to find out that Orlando had its own independent press.

“It was one of those moments where it clicked,” says Gurtis, “that Orlando’s not just theme parks, there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye.”

Later, he says, when he saw Shawn Welcome perform and curate his “Diverse Word” open mic, he felt an even greater sense of community.

“Everyone came out to share their art, and was gracious to read and see your work,” he continues. “For somebody who was just getting my feet in the water creative writing-wise, it made a big impact. It gave me the confidence to chase my dreams.”

And that scene is still lively today, says Gurtis.

“Orlando has one of the most vibrant open-mic scenes in the country,” he says. “There’s at least 12-15 open mics in the city proper going on every month. I think it speaks volumes to how large and engaged the literary scene is.”

But the LACCF, Gurtis says, is the most exciting thing he sees happening now.

“Our mission is to cultivate, sustain and celebrate the literary arts in Orlando,” says Gurtis. “Our scene is so vibrant, but it’s also very fragmented. Many people operate in their own silos, so our mission is to turn these different silos into spokes turning a wheel, and to connect the entire literary scene in a one-stop shop to help create more collaboration.”

LACCF’s three initial initiatives are: creating a literary map of Orlando; a community calendar of events and organizations; and hosting the 34^th annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam, a national competition with 200-plus poets in 40 teams from around the country.

Shawn Welcome, Orlando poet laureate from October 2021-25. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez.

The Spoken Word

Shawn Welcome, through his work as Orlando Poet Laureate from October 2021-25, has also been instrumental in gaining visibility for the LACCF. With help from Gurtis, he applied for a grant available to him as poet laureate in 2022.

“He had a very good pulse on the written word community, and I had a really strong pulse on the spoken word community,” says Welcome. “We thought that if we came together and cultivated a stronger literary ecosystem, we can make a significant impact for poetry and literary arts in our community.”

Although Welcome ultimately didn’t receive that grant, the seed was planted and will blossom in June 2026 when the Southern Fried Poetry Festival comes to town.

“This is one of the nation’s largest poetry slam festivals that Orlando has never hosted but has always participated in,” says Welcome. “We want to make it part of the normal culture.”

“We envision a community where literary arts are woven into the fabric of everyday life,” says Welcome of the LACCF. “That’s our vision, and I could speak so much on this because the only reason I am who I am today professionally had very little to do with what I learned in the classroom, it had a lot to do with what was in the culture. It had a lot to do with me picking up words and language just because my classmates were doing it in the hallways and on the sidewalk. I discovered I had a talent for it, and it ended up being my full-time career.”

Welcome has parlayed his role as poet laureate into his next venture, The Next Level Speakers Academy, where he acts as a coach and a guide for those pursuing their public speaking careers.

At the core, however, it’s all about strengthening the literary ecosystem and making the world a better place.

“I think people need to think more critically,” says Welcome. “They need to have social and emotional intelligence. There’s a lot of ills in the world that would be offset if we just were not ignorant. Reading and writing poetry and listening to other people’s vantage points and world views is a part of the development of the human being, and I think we can make Orlando a destination known for that.”

Joy Wallace Dickinson, the author of three nonfiction books and a historical novel. Photo by ©Judith Starnes

The Importance of Reading

Joy Wallace Dickinson grew up in Orlando, moved away, and returned in the ‘90s. She still lives in the same house her grandparents bought in 1949. But she’s seen many changes in Orlando; it’s now become the cosmopolitan city she had hoped for in her youth.

Trained as a copy editor, and also working in book production, Dickinson has always been around words. As a child, she spent a lot of time in the public library researching and checking out books, a precursor to her role at the Orlando Sentinel and as a historic preservation advocate.

“People tend to take it for granted, but not all communities have as strong a library system as Orlando and Orange County have had for such a long time,” says Dickinson. “There were two women librarians in succession in the (19)20s, and then Clara Wendel was the library director from ‘43 to ’70.

“They were very forward-thinking,” says Dickinson, “and committed to the importance of books and reading. I think that has long been a value in the community.”

Dickinson also points to the influence of authors such as Jack Kerouac and Philip Deaver, as well as Rollins College and its president Hamilton Holt in providing Orlando with a strong literary foundation.

Dickinson is the author of three nonfiction books and a historical novel, but in any instance, Orlando has influenced her writing.

“It includes some real places and many made-up places and people,” Dickinson says of her novel (which is set in the late ‘40s), “but I think it reflects Orlando at that time. So, Orlando has influenced me as a setting.”

Novelists Dr. Sara Walters. Photo by ©Vito Grippi and Lizz Dawson.

The Novelists

As recounted above, Orlando is home to a diverse array of authors with a diverse array of literary talents. We’d be remiss, however, if we didn’t mention some of the best-selling novelists who call Orlando home and those who spent their formative years here.

The first is Dr. Sara Walters. Full disclosure: she’s the sister of Orlando magazine publisher Catherine Walters. Although she currently lives in Vermont, Walters attended Apopka High School and has two degrees from the University of South Florida. While at Apopka, she developed her love of creative writing in a class that had her short stories published in The Apopka Chief. She and her friends also participated in open mic nights at Austin’s Coffee shop.

“I always appreciated how rich, welcoming and inclusive those scenes were,” says Walters. “We were super-young at the beginning, and they still were excited to have us. It’s something I miss about Orlando a lot.”

She correlates the culture of Florida with the willingness to take risks.

“There’s just something about people in Florida, they’re ready to try anything,” says Walters, “and see what works, whether or not it fits in with what was mainstream at the moment. Being immersed in that has made me into a writer who takes risks. Now, as I write my third book, I’m trying to tap back into that.”

Kristin Harmel stoked their passion for writing from a young age. Photo by ©Scot Lerner.

New York Times bestselling novelist Kristin Harmel sold her first book in 2004, but started writing professionally for magazines at age 16. She wrote six books before her first bestselling title, “The Sweetness of Forgetting,” came out in 2012.

“I started off writing romantic comedies, because I was in my 20s at the time and chic-lit was all the rage,” says Harmel. “But as I grew up and got to know   myself as a person, I began to realize it wasn’t the natural fit. I had to find my voice and my genre before I found my audience.”

Harmel grew up in St. Petersburg and went to the University of Florida. After college, she felt the pull of Orlando, as she’s a lifelong Disney World fan. But once here, it was the culture that made her stay—she’s a huge supporter of Orlando’s thriving poetry scene.

“I was recently honored to serve on the poet laureate selection committee for the City of Orlando,” says Harmel. “It was wonderful to evaluate this wonderful pool of talents we have here. It made me proud to be part of the community.”

Many of Harmel’s books feature a Central Florida tie-in, including “The Book of Lost Names,” which features a librarian from Winter Park.

Words of Wisdom

Our pros share their tips on writing and publishing.

Ryan Rivas: “The first steps to getting published are to be confident in your work and knowing you have put everything into a particular project. Have a friend who can operate as an extra set of eyes so you can have your blind spots pointed out to you.”

Alex Gurtis: “Whether you’re a slam poet who wants to perform or you’re a fiction writer looking to participate with The Florida Review at UCF, go out and see how published authors arise on the scene. I think that just taking that first step out of your door, that first step forward and having the confidence to chase it, is all you need in Orlando.”

Shawn Welcome: “Sales is a lie; branding is the truth. I think we tend to have an over-emphasis on selling people—that you’re good and you’re worth investing in—versus showing up and demonstrating the proof of your quality. Rolls Royces don’t have commercials. I encourage all artists to focus on their brand.”

Joy Wallace Dickinson: “Let yourself write a really bad first draft. This is the famous advice of Ann Lamott in the book ‘Bird by Bird.’ It’s good to know how to fix things, but you just want to get the ideas down.”

Dr. Sara Walters: “Don’t listen when people say you’re not going to be able to do it. Take the risk.”

Kristin Harmel: “Read as much and as wisely as you can. The more you read, the more you absorb the rhythm of the books into your bones, and there’s stuff about how stories work that maybe you can’t even put into words. If you’d like to write a book, pick up three (successful) novels in the genre you’d like to write in, and outline those novels by chapter. It’s time consuming, but it will force you to understand exactly how those novels are assembled.”