Limpkin October 2003

IRAS Welcomes Award-Winning Writer and Filmmaker Bill Belleville

Article courtesy of the Florida Humanities Council

Bill Belleville is an award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker specializing in environmental issues, and how a “sense of place” helps shape local culture. He’s published more than 1,000 national magazine articles, co-produced and scripted three PBS documentaries, and served as a writer on Discover Channel oceanographic expeditions in the Galapagos Islands, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.

Bill’s critically acclaimed non-fiction book, River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida’s St. Johns River won the “Michael J. Shaara Award for Excellence in Writing,” River of Lakes is the first modern book devoted to the natural and cultural history of the state’s longest river. It has received critical support from 15 national and regional reviewers, from Kirkus Book List, and Audubon to Southern Living and the Miami Herald. His latest book, Deep Cuba: The Inside Story of an American Oceanographic Expedition was published in Autumn 2002.

Bill’s essay on the Everglades currently appears in Wanderlust, a Random House anthology on adventure-travel writing, while another essay is anthologized in the Year’s Best Stories of Adventure & Survival. A third essay appears in The Wild Heart of Florida. His Emmy award-winning documentary, Wekiva: Legacy or Loss? premiered on a PBS affiliate in central Florida in 2000.

Published credits include: Christian Science Monitor, Sierra magazine, Islands Publications, Sports Afield, Outside, New York Times Syndicate, Salon, Newsweek, Oxford American, and many others. Bill’s environmental essays have also been heard on NPR. Bill has been named Environmental Writer of the Year by the Florida Wildlife Federation, and the Florida Audubon Society. Other recognition includes the Florida Magazine Association award for best column, the national Sunday Newspaper Magazine Association award for best column, the national Sunday Newspaper Magazine Association award for best feature, and an AP award for best news feature. With Bob Giguere, he is the co-founder of Equinox Documentaries, Inc. a 501(c)3 non-profit incorporated in Florida.

Bill was educated at the University of Maryland (B.A. English; 1968.) He has lectured at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, the University of Central Florida, the University of Arizona, and Seminole Community college. He has also been a keynote speaker at the Earth Kinship Conference, the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Writers Conference, the Natural Areas Association Symposium, the New England Aquarium’s Lowell Lecture Series, and CSpan Books, among others.

Bill’s appearance at the IRAS meeting on October 17 is sponsored by the Indian River Audubon Society with support from the Florida Humanities Council and the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs.