Coming to Pass tells the story of a little-developed necklace of northern Gulf Coast islands. Both a field guide to a beloved and impermanent Florida landscape and a call for its protection, Susan Cerulean's memoir chronicles the uniquely beautiful coast as it once was, as it is now, and as it may be as the sea level rises.

For decades, Cerulean has kayaked, hiked, and counted birds on and around Dog, the St. Georges, and St. Vincent Islands with family and friends. She has collected scallops, snorkeled over a fallen lighthouse a mile offshore, and cast nets and fishing lines into cyclical runs of mullet and shrimp.

Like most people, she didn't know how the islands had come to be or understand the large-scale change coming to the coast. With her husband, oceanographer Jeff Chanton, she studied the genesis of the coast and its inextricable link to the Apalachicola River. She interviewed scientists as they tracked and tallied magnificent and dwindling sea turtles, snowy white beach mice, and endangered plants. Illustrated with images from prizewinning nature photographer David Moynahan, Coming to Pass is the culmination of Cerulean's explorations and a reflection of our spiritual relationship and responsibilities to the world that holds us.

Writer, naturalist and activist Susan Cerulean’s nature memoir Coming to Pass: Florida’s Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change (University of Georgia Press, 2015) received a Gold Medal in the category of Florida Nonfiction by the Florida Book Awards.  Her previous book, Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow-tailed Kites (University of Georgia Press, 2005) was named Editors’ Choice by Audubon magazine (March 2005).
Cerulean directed the Red Hills Writers Project between 2004 and 2011, and edited Unspoiled: Writers Speak for Florida’s Coast, with Janisse Ray and A. James Wohlpart, in 2010. Unspoiled alerted Floridians to perils of oil drilling in the Gulf (and sold nearly 10,000 copies). With Janisse Ray and Laura Newton, she also edited Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf (RHWP, 2004). This locally-acclaimed anthology brought together personal essays written by 29 of the area’s foremost writers and naturalists.

In March 2009, she was honored by Tallahassee Community College as one of the “Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet.”

Cerulean has written and advocated on behalf of Florida and its wildlife from her home in Tallahassee since 1981. She is a founding board member of Heart of the Earth and the Red Hills Writers Project. She designed the States Nongame and Watchable Wildlife Programs, and was named Environmental Educator of the year by the Governors Council for a Sustainable Florida in 1997.

Susan Cerulean lives in Tallahassee Florida with her husband, oceanographer and climate scientist Dr. Jeffrey Chanton. They have three grown sons.

Source: comingtopass.com