Arlo Haskell is an American author, publisher, and literary organizer.

Early life and education

Arlo Haskell was born and raised in

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

, Florida, where his mother, Monica Haskell, was director of the

Key West Literary Seminar The Key West Literary Seminar is a writers' conference and festival held each January in Key West, Florida. It draws an international audience for readings, panel discussions, and workshops. History The seminar was founded in 1983 by David Kaufel ...

during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Haskell attended

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

in the late 1990s, where he studied poetry and was a student of

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

. After college, he worked for David Wolkowsky, ferrying guests to Wolkowsky's private island and doing other odd jobs.

Career

In 2017, Haskell authored and published his first work of nonfiction, ''The Jews of Key West: Smugglers, Cigar Makers, and Revolutionaries (1823–1969)'' (Sand Paper Press). Critics generally praised the social history for its depth of research and style, arguing that it had filled gaps in regional Florida history and in American Jewish history. In a review for the ''Journal of the Southern Jewish Historical Society'', Raymond Arsenault remarked that it "introduces a fascinating cast of characters, revealing a unique saga of Jewish community life that no previous historian has chronicled." ''The Jews of Key West'' won the Phillip and Dana Zimmerman Gold Medal for Florida Nonfiction from the Florida Book Awards and a President's Medal from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. Haskell is also the author of the poetry collection, ''Joker'' (Sand Paper Press, 2009). Haskell is the publisher of Sand Paper Press, a

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction ...

he founded in 2003, where he has frequently collaborated with poet and translator Stuart Krimko. Publications include ''The Last Books of Héctor Viel Temperley'' (2011), which was translated from Spanish by Krimko and named a ''

BOMB A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

'' Editor's Choice. Another Sand Paper title,

Harry Mathews Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer, the author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. Mathews was also a translator of the French language. Life Born in New York City to an ...

's ''The New Tourism'' (2010), was co-edited by Haskell and selected as a "Book of the Year" by ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''. Haskell is executive director of

, the nonprofit organization whose annual writers' conference has been held since 1983. His career with the organization began in 2008, when he led the digitization of its extensive audio archive. Since his promotion to executive director in 2015, Haskell has increased the organization's scholarship program, launched a literary walking tour of Key West, and created writing programs for local high school students. In 2019, he led the organization in its $1.2 million purchase of the former home of poet

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

. On June 4, 2019, Haskell was named by city proclamation the Poet Laureate of Key West by the Mayor, Vice Mayor and Board of Commissioners of Key West.

Political activities

In 2020, Haskell co-founded the Key West Committee for Safer, Cleaner Ships, a nonprofit group that fought successfully to establish the first-ever regulations for

cruise ships Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on tours known as " ...

in Key West. As the group's treasurer, he helped organize a citizens'

initiative Popular initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put direct ...

that placed three

referendums A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or advis ...

with proposed amendments to the

city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the granting of a charter ...

for a popular vote. Key West's voters approved the amendments by wide margins on November 3, 2020, resulting in limits on the size of cruise ships that may call and the number of persons that may disembark each day. Haskell was the committee's primary spokesman during the political campaign, in which the cruise industry secretly financed a

dark money In politics, particularly the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections, public policy, and political discourse, where the source of the money is not disclosed to the public. In the United States, ...

group that lobbied against the measures using

fearmongering Fearmongering, or scaremongering, is the act of exploiting feelings of fear by using exaggerated rumors of impending danger, usually for personal gain. Theory According to evolutionary anthropology and evolutionary biology, humans have a strong ...

and

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

tactics. He was also an expert witness in the committee's legal defense of the referendums in Federal and State court. Since their passage, the charter amendments have been cited as an inspiration by others seeking to regulate cruise ships in places including Bar Harbor, Maine, the Cayman Islands, and Juneau, Alaska.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haskell, Arlo American publishers (people) Bard College alumni Living people People from Key West, Florida Writers from Florida Year of birth missing (living people)