Terry Ann Thaxton
Writer. Teacher. Swamp Witch.
My poetry and creative nonfiction--rooted in Florida landscape and history--explore the individual’s place in family and community, women’s issues, mental illness, and silenced voices of the past and present. In addition to my books, my poems and essays have been published in Pithead Chapel, New Letters, Chattahoochee Review, Hayden's Ferry, The Missouri Review, and other literary journals.
I spent most of my childhood just south of Sarasota, Florida roaming hundreds of acres of natural land surrounding my home, which is now a swanky restaurant--Rosslers. Many of the natural habitats in Florida are now gated communities or shopping centers. My dog and I now wander the trails throughout central Florida--she looks for rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, while I hunt for silence and solitude.
My great-great grandparents (Joseph B. Keen/e, 1837-1898 and Mary P. Bronson, 1840-1921) are buried in the Shingle Creek Cemetery south of Orlando, Florida, tucked behind a small church near the intersection of Irlo Bronson Highway and Old Vineland Road. My great grandparents were born in the Shingle Creek Settlement, but moved to St. Petersburg, FL in 1904 where my grandmother grew up. She moved to Sarasota probably around 1917. She ran a boarding house before marrying my grandfather and raising 11 children. Though my father was a self-proclaimed "hillbilly" from West Virginia, my mother, my five siblings and I, and my contemporary relatives were born in Sarasota. I moved to Orlando in 1990.
I have an MA in English. And I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. I'm a professor of English at the University of Central Florida in Orlando where I also direct the Creative Writing MFA Program.