Keys Weekly Exclusive With Jimmy Buffett-Streets you know by heart

On the south end of Duval Street, just before you hit the water, there used to be a restaurant flanked by red fringed umbrellas with a thatched tiki bar inside. “Logun’s Lobster House” the sign read, and if you wandered into the seaside lot on the right night in the early ’70s, you might have heard a long-haired young Jimmy Buffett play with his band.

Is Key West Kokomo? Exclusive Interview with The Beach Boys’ Mike Love

The Beach Boys are the soundtrack to a perfect California summer—or creating the feeling of one at any time, in any place. 

Swimming Against the Current

It’s nice. It’s warm. We’re in a good mood.  Hearing those words from the mouth of a New Yorker and recent transplant to South Florida, it’s a wonderful reminder of the charms of subtropical life. Sitting poolside at the Casa Marina with Chromat founder Becca McCharen-Tran, I can’t help but think how the designer marries the luxury of Flagler’s resort with the subversive spirit of the Key West iconoclast.

Modern Love

We’ve all been there: struggling in a romantic relationship and hearing a timeworn adage from a well-intentioned friend, or coworker, or maybe mom. “You reap what you sow.” “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Inheritance and Time Travel

“I fear inheriting motherhood, a hot white Southern house.”

I do not like my hands. They are not “delicate” or “spindly” in the way lady hands are described in novels. They are large—“piano hands,” said music teachers; “man hands,” said boys—and there is blonde hair sprouting from my fingers. My girlfriends ask me to open pickle jars.

Tongue Tied

I come to you as a scab picker.

I was known for sitting alone after a grade school scuffle or a tumble off the jungle gym and picking off my scabs to watch the blood run. I was never sure if I did that to prove something to myself or just to make others watch me bleed.

The Trouble with Hemingway and Women

I’ll warn you: I’m having a Papa’s Pilar Blonde at 1:53 p.m. on a work day in order to conjure the words necessary to write about Hemingway, here on the cusp of Hemingway Days. Worse yet, to delve into Hemingway’s relationship with women, in only 500 words. It’s only right to write Hemingway short, one might say (His most famous short story is perhaps “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”).

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Why America Needs a Lesson in Nuance

Imagine a young black soldier coming home from war. After a bloody tour abroad, he returns to America expecting, on some level, the same regard for his personhood that he received as a uniformed enlisted man overseas. In the ensuing weeks, he sees fellow black Americans abused by police and maligned by neighbors. He becomes disillusioned and angry.

Is it Right to Pay NFL Cheerleaders in Drool Alone?

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, we collectively anticipate the spectacle, from a star-studded halftime show to nearly $4 million dollar advertising spots to the beautiful and bedazzled pro cheerleaders. But behind the scenes, it’s a very different story.

Incentivizing Goodwill: A Lesson From Africa For America

A few mornings ago, the CDC predicted a worst-case scenario for the Ebola outbreak: 1.4 million cases in 4 months. Now, on the streets, and televisions, and social media sites of America, we hear a rising sense of panic about the one case in Dallas and our safety, yet the real site of terror continues to be in Africa.

Do you only date white girls now?

My boyfriend was asked this question when we walked into a bar on a recent night out in Harlem. And this scenario, or a version of it, isn’t unfamiliar. The query came from a young Black woman whose friend used to date him, I later learned. Despite the fact that he answered “no,” this friend-of-his-ex appeared to be fantastically annoyed with the whole thing.

To be gay, Christian and black in Harlem

As a gay man in Togo, where homosexuality is punishable by up to three years in prison, Rodrigue (who asked that his last name be withheld because of concerns for his family’s safety) felt in danger. Though the law is rarely enforced, violence against gay men is perceived as a viable and available option among the general public. Rodrigue speaks of young men he has known who have been attacked by acquaintances on the street after school. He says that he was never physically threatened in Togo, then he reluctantly adds, “except by my family.”

The real GIRLS of New York

“In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”

Richard Feynman, a New York–born theoretical physicist famous for helping develop the atomic bomb, said this. Considering Feynman’s time and field, he seems an unlikely commentator on the world of budding artists in today’s New York. But it is his words that are taped to a young writer’s computer monitor in her apartment on 151st Street in Hamilton Heights.

Homeless in Paradise

Paradise has its problems, and homelessness in the Keys is one of them. While some transient people seek out the Keys’ warm weather, many of Monroe County’s homeless have lived here for years. Perhaps they lost a job, fell back on rent, are escaping domestic violence or struggling with addiction. Essentially: many the homeless people we see in the Keys were our neighbors a few months or years ago.

What recent great white sightings in the Keys mean

April and May have been big months for big sharks in the Keys. In mid-April, a fisherman named Carter Bates posted a video online of a white shark devouring a chum bag, and it went viral. He estimated the shark was 16 feet long. Then, a couple weeks later, Knee Deep charter boat owners Barbie and Kevin Wilson spotted another great white, about six miles off Geiger Key. Barbie described it as “huge.”

Too Close for Comfort: The Social Significance of New York City's Public Pools

This week, New York City temperatures are topping out in the mid-90s, and finding water to cool off can become a blood sport. While many urbanites spend time plotting how to scam their way into Soho House or better befriend those with Hamptons digs, the city’s municipal pools may be fairly called the “unsung heroes” of the summer.

The Snowbird

If you are an agent or editor interested in reading the full manuscript of THE SNOWBIRD, send Sarah a note at the Contact page.

Short Fiction

Sarah's short fiction has been published in The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal and Momaya Review and has been featured in Columbia University School of the Arts and Apogee Journal reading series.