Oyster Flats

Wondrous things occur while reading Oyster Flats. Dawn Evans Radford, author of this charming, page-turner coming-of-age tale, lays claim to her particular forgotten arc of the Florida panhandle with a sense of place that brings to mind Eudora Welty; Darlene, the book's spunky protagonist, makes off with your heart; and Brother Joshua and his loopy, conflated sermons, send you laughing far into next week. I'd read it all over again.
-- Diane Thomas, author of The Year the Music Changed

Oyster Flats: serene, isolated fishing community on the Florida panhandle.

Joshua Herndon: He wants a church. Fresh out of prison, with a mail-order certificate to preach, he comes to Oyster Flats on a spring afternoon with his dedicated, mountain-bred bride, Venera. His home will be a dilapidated camper trailer beside the swamp and his church a derelict building across town.

Their first friend: curious, adolescent neighbor, Darlene Duggar, stepdaughter of the town’s angry bully, Daddy Jook. She sets out to teach the Herndons survival in the sweltering north Florida summer. They take her into their hearts.

Unschooled and confused about biblical facts, Brother Joshua can preach a lively story, and his sermons soon attract a growing congregation. Members of the new Friends of the Tabernacle Church include Grace, the honky-tonk piano player; Molly, the Sheriff’s bored wife; and a flock of local seafood families who love good stories.

The promise of peace in Oyster Flats is disrupted by the arrivals of a Tampa mobster on a business venture and Venera’s belly-dancing twin sister. The murders of two local family men will shock Oyster Flats with a dread it has never known. Darlene finds herself an unwitting, intended victim in the center of the violence.

Together with Brother Joshua who has brought change to the town, Darlene will learn the ultimate meaning of love and sacrifice.

Dawn Evans Radford holds master’s degrees in Creative Writing and English from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She was the recipient of the prestigious Sherwood Anderson Award in 1993. Published and recognized in a variety of genres including poetry, short story, essay and scholarly research, she has taught in educational, literary, community and professional settings. Her poetry has been translated to Russian and published internationally. Ms. Radford lives on the Florida Panhandle where she is currently at work on a second novel.