I have enjoyed all of Doug Alderson’s award-winning books, but I was truly blown away by his latest, A Florida Dance: Life Stories from the Sunshine State (Earthways Press 2026). I know Doug through Tallahassee’s writing community and consider him a friend, but the praise I’m offering here is fully earned. These stories are so engaging and entertaining that I breezed through the book in a single day. I can’t recommend A Florida Dance highly enough.
The book is divided into seven sections. “Beginnings” explores Alderson’s All-American childhood, with vivid recollections of delivering newspapers, riding bumper cars, and boys clumsily attempting to play strip poker with a girl. His early years were spent on the outskirts of Chicago, and the stories evoke both humor and nostalgia.
The next section, which covers his family’s relocation to Florida, offers thoughtful insights into integration. After the move, Alderson spent one day as the only White child in his classroom. Though understandably nervous, he was welcomed by everyone. Ironically, he only encountered hostility and bullying only later, when he transferred to an integrated school.
Alderson’s identity as an outdoorsman, nature lover, and environmentalist comes to the fore in “Searching for Purpose,” which recounts his early activism with causes such as the Sierra Club, anti-nuclear efforts, and opposition to clearcutting. His commitment to living lightly on the land continues in “Home Roots,” where he describes building a house for his family—for just three thousand dollars. In “Struggles and Challenges,” he and his wife, Cyndi, regularly gather with neighbors to clean up trash discarded along their rural roads. These stories also touch on challenges familiar to many Southerners, including hurricanes, power outages, and deterring ornery squirrels.
In one gripping account, Alderson helps to rescue a woman attacked by an alligator during a kayak trip. Such attacks are rare, he explains, and usually occur when someone ventures too close to a mother gator protecting her nest. In another powerful piece, Alderson describes his role as a whistleblower who helped prevent Florida’s state parks from being over-commercialized with hotels and golf courses—even at the risk of losing his job. When the state government’s secret plans were leaked, public outrage forced the proposals to be abandoned. As a Florida citizen who cherishes our state parks, I am deeply grateful for the courage Alderson and others showed in preserving these last wild places.
Doug Alderson is a man who has walked the good walk, doing his best to leave the Earth better than he found it. A Florida Dance is a highly entertaining and deeply humane book from a master storyteller.
Doug Alderson
Doug Alderson prefers a kayak to a desk, hugs trees and friends, and delights in observing alligators, manatees, and other wildlife. Most of his seventeen published books celebrate the dynamic and quirky nature of Florida. Titles include Nostalgic Florida, Florida’s Rivers, America’s Alligator, Wild Florida Waters, Waters Less Traveled, New Dawn for the Kissimmee River, Encounters with Florida’s Endangered Wildlife, A New Guide to Old Florida Attractions, and Discovering Florida’s Coast, which the Florida Writers Association named one of the top four published books of 2023. Alderson has won six first-place Royal Palm Literary Awards for nonfiction, three gold medals from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association, and numerous other state and national writing and photography honors. His articles and photographs have appeared in many magazines. An avid adventurer, he has hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, coordinated a group walk across the United States, backpacked through Europe, and mapped a 1,500-mile sea kayaking trail around Florida.
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