(For contact information, see paragraph three below.)

A native Floridian, Mary Catherine Coolidge is a freelance writer living in Sarasota, whose work has appeared in print in the Op/Ed and guest column sections of the Tampa Tribune, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Bradenton Herald, and the Venice Gondolier Sun. From 2006 to 2008, she penned a weekly column titled Reality Chick, which ran in the Pelican Press newspaper. Her book, Sideways in Sarasota, is a compilation of those columns.

Coolidge won a Florida Press Association in 2009 for a 2008 humor column she wrote entitled Ben & Jerry Take a Hike. Her blog, www.mcrealityonline.com was also voted Sarasota’s “best” in Sarasota Magazine’s Best of Sarasota 2010 Readers Poll, and one of the best in 2009. As a columnist, Coolidge was voted #1 Best of the Suncoast in 2008 and 2007; in 2008, her blog was voted 2nd Best of the Suncoast in the blog category. She is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

If you would like to book MC to speak to your group, classroom, or business, (or for information about advertising on this site) write her at mcrealityonline@yahoo.com. She is an occasional guest on the WEDU/PBS political roundtable program, Florida This Week, and has previously spoken to the Democratic Club of Sarasota, at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, and to a media class at the University of South Florida’s Lifelong Learning program.

Coolidge graduated summa cum laude in English from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, and was a Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University (Pennsylvania) which published a chapbook of her poems in 1992. She lived for many years in Boston, Massachusetts.

In addition to freelance writing for newspapers and magazines, Coolidge is a communications consultant providing public relations, writing, and editing services to clients in New York, Washington DC, Boston, Phoenix, and Sarasota.

List of Past Readings/Signings/Speaking Engagements/Public Appearances
For upcoming events, click here:

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Television
• Florida This Week with moderator Rob Lorei; PBS Channel 3 airing 12/11/09

• Florida This Week with moderator Rob Lorei; PBS Channel 3 airing 10/9/09

• Florida This Week with moderator Rob Lorei; PBS Channel 3 airing 6/26/09

• Florida This Week with moderator Rob Lorei; PBS Channel 3 airing 2/13/09

• Community TV with Annette Scherman; Channel 21 Comcast; airing Jan 09

Speaking Engagements

• University of South Florida Lifelong Learning “Blogs or Print?,” 1/11/10
• Sarasota News & Books “Sex & Socrates,” 7/23/09
• University of South Florida Lifelong Learning “Media in the Modern World,” 2/3/09
• Plymouth State University (campus/community book discussion and Q&A) 10/28/08
• Plymouth State University (classroom lectures) 10/28-29/08
• Southwest Florida Council on Peace & Justice Media Forum panelist; 10/27/08
• Democratic Club of Sarasota (including signing); 7/12/08
• Sarasota Sunrise Rotary Club 3/28/08

Book Readings/Signings
• Circle Books, St. Armands Circle, Sarasota 3/24/09
• Village BookShop, Bradenton 3/6/09
• Circle Books, St. Armands Circle, Sarasota 12/27/08
• Local Coffee & Tea; 7/19/08
• Sarasota News & Books, Sarasota; 7/11/08

Radio
• Talk Sarasota w/Sherman Baldwin; 1280 AM 8/5/10
• Talk Sarasota w/Sherman Baldwin; 1280 AM 7/30/10
• Too Early in the Morning; WSLR 96.5 FM 6/30/10
• Louisiana Gumbo Show; WSLR 96.5 FM 4/5/09
• Sustainable Sarasota; WSLR 96.5 FM 12/11/08
• The Creative Life; WSLR 96.5 11/11/08
• Talk of the Suncoast/Cliff Roles; 7/28/08
• Too Early in the Morning; WSLR 96.5 FM 7/27/08
• Sustainable Sarasota; WSLR 96.5 FM 7/10/08
• Too Early in the Morning; WSLR 96.5 FM 7/2/08