As we lead up to the book release party, New Times’ Editor in Chief, Tom Finkel, shares some words.
"I stumbled into journalism in January of 1989. It was a whim — I’d just finished an MFA in fiction writing and I intended to carry on doing what I’d been doing the past two years: tending bar and writing short stories. A novel, maybe. Only I wanted to do it someplace new.
A weekend visit to Miami in late 1988 — my first time in Florida, ever — sealed the deal. I met a local author who, upon hearing my vague plan, suggested I get in touch with the editor of New Times, an upstart free paper of the type then known as “alternative weeklies.”
When I got home, I mailed Jim Mullin my résumé and the only writing samples I had, some short stories. Then, a week after Christmas, I packed up my 1973 VW bus and drove south. Mullin brought me aboard at New Times, first as a part-time proofreader and, by summer, as a full-time staff writer. The staff was growing too. We attracted a constant influx of young talent. Some couldn’t handle the pace. But others stuck, seduced by the livable wage and the freedom to tell stories that editors at other publications wouldn’t touch, as well as the opportunity to experiment with longform narrative and various other forms of what can best be described as disturbing.
I still remember when New Times flew DeFede in from Spokane to interview for a job toward the end of 1991. The Chronicles of Willy and Sal is a collection of disparate stories written by Jim DeFede for Miami New Times during the 1990s. We were lucky enough to have reported on Miami in the 1990s while it was happening, and we think there’s value in revisiting that work from a new vantage point.
This book would not have been possible without the generous grant from the Knight Foundation, Letter16 Press, Rakontur, Jim DeFede, Jim Mullin, Mike Lacey, Jim Larkin (1949–2023), and every single other person who ever helped keep Miami New Times afloat on newspaperdom’s storm tossed seas."
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