Eckleburg and Emerald Coast Storytellers
Eckleburg and Emerald Coast Storytellers present Jessica Lanay, Michael Martone, Richard Peabody and artist Rania Moudaress at Distillery 98 in Santa Rosa, Florida on August 21, 2025 for a literary evening celebrating fifteen years of Eckleburg publishing and one-hundred years of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s The Great Gatsby (1925):
“Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil, but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away.”
—The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Join us for master storytelling from awarded, national poets, authors and artists—Lanay, Martone, Moudaress and Peabody—as well as local writers during an open mic from 7-8. Eckleburg editor in chief and author, Rae Cline, will MC the event along with Emerald Coast Storytellers’ co-counders, Kristy Holditch and Ali Diamond.
Featured Authors, Poets & Artists
Jessica Lanay (She/They) is a Black feminist interdisciplinary writer, poet, and art journalist raised in Key West, Florida. Lanay’s debut hybrid poetry collection, am•phib•ian won the 2020 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize judged by Toi Derricotte from Broadside Lotus Press. Her/Their work is included in How Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Black Writers of Latin American Descent (The Arizona University Press). They/She is a Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow. Their/Her poetry can be found in Eckleburg, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, and others. They/She has performed her poetry at the Brooklyn Museum, The Cave Canem and Bowery Presents First Book series, and with Brooklyn Poets. Their/Her personal and craft essays can be found in Salt Hill Journal and Black Warrior Review. Read more at lanay.me.
Michael Martone’s newest book, a memoir in flash, is Table Talk & Second Thoughts (Cornerstone Press, 2025). Martone has won two Fellowships from the NEA and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His stories and essays have appeared and been cited in the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Stories, The Best American Essays anthologies, Eckleburg and more. He received his Master of Arts in Writing from Johns Hopkins University where he studied under John Barth. Recently retired after teaching creative writing at four universities including the University of Alabama, he now lives in Tuscaloosa, below the Bug Line, where he putters in his gardens and works on his new book, Fort Fort Wayne. Read more at fourforaquarter.com.
Born in Damascus, Rania Moudaress graduated from the École Supérieure des Arts et Mode in Paris as well as from the Paris American Academy of Fashion and Art. She also holds a degree from the Higher Institute of Drama and Music in Damascus. Her work explores the link between womanhood and nature, and the gap between dreams and reality. Her artworks are characterized by lines delicately constructed and the use of natural elements mixed with human faces or body parts. Her Displaced series originally published in Eckleburg in 2013. Read more.
Richard Peabody is the author of the novella Sugar Mountain, the short fiction collections Paraffin Days, Open Joints on Bridge, and Blue Suburban Skies. His poetry collections include I’m in Love with the Morton Salt Girl, Echt & Ersatz, Sad Fashions, Buoyancy and Other Myths, Mood Vertigo, Last of the Red Hot Magnetos, Speed Enforced by Aircraft, and Guinness on the Quay. He has edited (or co-edited) twenty-five plus collections. His short fiction, poems, reviews and essays appear in AB Bookman’s Weekly, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Sun Magazine, Eckleburg and more. He received his Masters in Writing at American University and taught creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. He has received awards and grants from CLMP, DCAC and more. He is the founder of Paycock Press and co-founder of Gargoyle Magazine.
Hosts
Kristy Holditch‘s work appears in Huffington Post, 30a.com, Beach Happy Magazine, Vie Magazine and more. She received her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and lives in Grayton Beach where she is writing her debut novel, “Just Passing Through.” She is a co-founder of the Emerald Coast Storytellers.
Ali Diamond is a writer, entrepreneur, journalist, and aspiring author. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Her work can be read in the Middleton Times-Tribune. She is a Co-Founder of the Emerald Coast Storytellers and hopes to publish her first horror novel.
Rae Cline is the author of the short story collection The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals (Patasola Press, NY). Her debut novel is forthcoming from 7.13 Books in spring 2026. Her stories, essays and poetry appear in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, North American Review and more and has won awards, scholarships and fellowships from Johns Hopkins, American University, Aspen Writers Foundation and North American Review. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg, celebrating its 15th year, and has lectured at Johns Hopkins where she earned an M.A. in Writing, as well as American University where she earned an M.F.A. in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction. Born on the Ohio River, Cline spent thirty years in the DC Metro area and now splits time between the Gulf Coast’s 30A and NYC with her husband, Rand, daughter, Madelyn, and Havanese, Sophi.
Open Bar & Features 6 | Open Mic 7-8:30
Distillery 98
835 Serenoa Rd, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459
