Bill Belleville

Bill Belleville
Environmental Writer & Documentary Filmmaker
Themes: nature, wildlife, conservation, sense of place, adventure-travel

Email: Bill@EquinoxDocumentaries.org

NON-FICTION BOOKS:
* "The Peace of Blue: Water Journeys". A collection of 21 of my first person stories that all have to do with water. Most take place in Florida, but a few happen overseas, including Cuba, the Amazon, and Los Roques. (UPF. Late 2014. Cloth)
* "Salvaging the Real Florida: Lost & Found in the State of Dreams". 92,000 word anthology of my narrative-style nature essays that take place throughout Florida. UPF. early 2011. (cloth & paper)
• "Deep Cuba: The Inside Story of an American Oceanographic Expedition (University of Georgia Press. 2002). My account of exploring the remote southern coast of Cuba during the first American oceanographic expedition to that island-nation. University of Georgia Press. (cloth & paper)
• "Sunken Cities, Sacred Cenotes and Golden Sharks: Travels of a Water-Bound Adventurer" A collection of adventure-travel essays, articles and narrative essays. (cloth)
• "Losing it All to Sprawl: How Progress Ate my Cracker Landscape" (University Press of Florida. Spring 2006). A chronicle of my experiences living in an Old Florida homestead that became threatened by sprawl. (cloth and paper)
• "River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida’s St. Johns River" (University of Georgia Press 2000). [Miami Herald: The ‘definitive book on the St. Johns] (cloth and paper)
* "Rediscovering Rawlings, a River and Time: Filming In Marjorie's Wake on Florida's St. Johns River" (a companion to the national PBS documentary "In Marjorie's Wake")

ARTICLES/ESSAYS:
Over 1,000 published in OnEarth, Sierra, Audubon, Outside, Sports Afield, Oxford American, Salon.com, WorldHum.com, Islands, Aqua, Sea Frontiers, American Way, New York Times Syndicate, Parade, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Denver Post and Newsday Travel, Reader’s Digest, Destination Discovery, Fast Company, Christian Science Monitor, Southern, Newsweek (as special correspondent) et. al.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHOLOGIES or joint projects:
• Introduction & consultation for "Florida's American Heritage River: Images from the St. Johns Region" By Mallory O' Connor & Gary Monroe. University Press of Florida. 2010.
• Main bar and consultation for "AQUIFERIOUS" by Margaret Ross Tolbert. Feb. 2010. Winner of the Florida Book Award for best non-fiction.
• Essay for "Unspoiled: Writers Speak for Florida's Coast. ("The Great Blue River") Spring 2010
• Essay for "Batram's Living Legacy: The TRAVELS & the Nature of the South". ("In With the Ixia") (Editor Dorinda Dalmeyer). Mercer University Press 2010
• "Best Travel Writing of 2006". ("A Million Years of Memory")
• "Salon.Com’s Wanderlust" ("Searching for Mr. Watson") Random House 2000
• "Wild Heart of Florida" (Whales Once Breached Here) University Press of Florida 1999
• ""Adrenaline: The Year’s Best Stories of Adventure & Survival" ( (Diving with Sharks) Adrenaline Press 2000
• "Elemental South: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water" ("Diving Into the Heart of a Poem") University of Georgia Press. Fall 2004
• "Naked: Writers Uncover the Way We Live On Earth" (Everglades) Four Walls Eight Windows Press
* "Along the Wekiva" co-authored with Jim Robison (Arcadia) 2010.

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO DOCUMENTARIES & COMMENTARY via WMFE-FM, NPR affiliate
Multi-part Serial Reports:
"The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: Put Another Coral Polyp on the Barbee, Mate"
"Nicaragua’s Miskito Coast: Turtles or Turmoil?"
"The Florida Keys: Can Margaritaville Manage a Marine Sanctuary?"
"Environmental Notebook" (A regular series of environmental commentary)

NPR'S "LIVING ON EARTH"
"Manatees & Blue Spring". Associate Producer/Writer. Reported by Philippe Cousteau, EarthEcho.org

PUBLIC TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES
"In Marjorie's Wake: Rediscovering Rawlings, a River & Time" National PBS release 2009-2010. (Co-produced & scripted)
"Searching for Xanadu" Florida PBS Affilaites (co-produced and scripted)
"Conch Cowboys" (Florida PBS Affiliates. co-produced and scripted)
"Wekiva: Legacy or Loss?" Florida PBS Affiliates. (co-produced and scripted) Now used as a DVD for educational programs in Florida schools & colleges.

RELATED FILM WORK:
* Co-founder of Equinox Documentaries, Inc. (EquinoxDocumentaries.org), a non-profit 501.c3 dedicated to using films & related media for environmental education
* The Nature Conservancy's "Flow Program": Restoring habitat using Ranchland Conservation Easement in the Kissimmee River basin.

OTHER DOCUMENTARIES
"Off the Map", a 13-part series focusing on eco-heritage of a site while kayaking rivers and waterways of Florida broadcast on the Sunshine Network.

TEXTBOOKS & OTHER
• "Elements of Literature" ("Inside a Blue Hole") Holt, Rinehart & Winston
• "Sustainable Travel Handbook 2006" (www.travelearning.com)
• "From Eden to Sahara" by John Kunkel Small. reprint. Consultation and Foreword.
• "Naturally Central Florida" report by MyRegion.org ('St. Johns Mosaic')

FILM AWARDS:
Suncoast Emmy (2001), Telly Award Finalist (1999, 2000, 2001), Aurora Award Platinum Best of Show (2002) Aurora Gold Award 2009. For writer & co-producer of each film.

OTHER AWARDS & HONORS

* "Salvaging the Real Florida" is awarded the national Outdoor Book Award in Literature & Natural History category. 2011
* "Losing it all to Sprawl" named one of "Best Books of 2006" by the national Library Journal
* "Losing it all to Sprawl" given the 1000 Friends of Florida's Al Burt Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2006.
* "Losing it all to Sprawl" named to the "Just Read, Florida!" recommended curriculum list by the Florida Commissioner of Education
* "Losing it all to Sprawl" First Annual Florida Book Awards 2007. (Bronze)
* Carol & Bob Grimes Environmental Award. 2006
* Certificate of Award of the Order of the South (The Southern Academy of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Inc.) 2006.
* Award of Excellence: Outstanding Journalist 2006. The Florida Planning & Zoning Association.
* Environmental Writer of the Year respectively from Florida Audubon & Florida Wildlife Federation.
* Michael J. Shaara Outstanding Writer (2000) for ‘River of Lakes.’
* Excellence in Column Writing (Florida Magazine Association)
* 2004 'Champion of Sustainability (Nature) named by the Healthy Community Iniatives of Orlando (2004).
* "River of Lakes" selected as the choice for Central Florida Reads program for the region sponsored by the Orlando Sentinel and the Orlando Public Library for 2005-6.
"Losing it all To Sprawl"; "Sunken Cities"; and "River of Lakes" named to national ASLE recommended curriculum reading list for the study of literature and the environment.

Lectures & Other Presentations (a partial listing):

* National Archives, Washington, D.C. Oct. 5, 2010. "The Future of the South: A Symposium Presented by Oxford American" magazine. Panel discussions videotaped by C-Span Books. My panel was "Land & the Environment" and my topic was "Sense of Place", based on an essay devoted to that in the Fall 2010 issue of OA.
* The Harn Museum of Art, U of Fla., Gainesville, Fla. Nov. 18, 2010. Presentation for the "Springs Dialogue" focusing on literature and how it both reflects and interprets the geography of our Florida springs. Followed by a panel discussion of the gifts and challenges of our spring systems at the Florida Museum of Natural History moderated by former DEP springs chief Jim Stevenson, and featuring cave cartographer Eric Hutcheson, cave biologist & photographer Tom Morris, and more. Both events were inspired by "AQUIFERious", M.R. Tolbert's art book on Florida springs.
* Member: Speakers Bureau. Florida Humanities Council. (FlaHum.org)
* Member: Author's Guild
* Guest lecturer:
Rollins College, University of Central Florida, University of North Florida, Stetson College, U of Florida's Levin Colleges of Law, USF, SCC, VCC, Emory University, Jacksonville University, Steinhart Aquarium (San Francisco); New England Aquarium’s Lowell Lecture Series (Boston), et. al.
* Speaker:
Miami International Book Fair; Earth Kinship Conference, First Coast Writers Festival, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Writers Workshop, Much Ado About Books (Jacksonville), Amelia Book Island Festival, Sarasota Festival of Books, St. Pete Times Festival of Reading, Vero Beach Book Festival, Indian River Literary Society, Naples Book Festival, Natural Lands Acquisition Conference, Natural Areas National Conference, Florida Native Plant State Conference, et. al.
* Keynote speaker: Turks and Caicos; first annual eco-tourist conference. Providenciales, T&C, West Indies.
* Keynote speaker: First Annual Marine Ecotourism Symposium, International EcoTourism Society, Hawaii.
* Facilitator; speaker. Inagural St. Johns River Classroom, Blue Spring, Fla. St. Johns River Alliance.
* Speaker, Eco-heritage Seminar, Trinidad, West Indies.
* Keynote: The Florida College English Association. Rollins College, Winter Park, Fal. Oct. 15, 2010.
* St. Johns River Alliance's "River Summit", Jacksonville, Fla. Fall 2010. Powerpoint: "The St. Johns River: 500 years of Magic, Myth & Mayhem."
* Numerous lectures aboard eco-heritage boat cruises for the St. Johns Riverkeeper.

GRANTS:
Florida Humanities Council (Water essay in Forum; Public screening of oral history via Dessie Smith)
Caribbean Conservation Corporation (For "Images of Miskito Coast)
Florida Wildlife Commission (for "Wekiva: Legacy or Loss?" film)
River Branch Foundation (For Equinox Documentaries)
Lydia B. Stokes Foundation (For "Eden to Sahara" film)
Lastinger Family Foundation (For "In Marjorie's Wake")
Hanna Family Foundation (For IMW)

PROFILES OR NEWS ABOUT BILL BELLEVILLE (a partial listing):
C-Span Book Channel
Associated Press
Earth Island Journal
Bob Edwards Show (XL Radio)
Daytona Beach News Journal
Halifax Magazine
Rodale's Scuba Diving
Radio Havana
Daily Times (Salisbury, MD)
Sanford (FL) Herald
WMFE-TV (PBS Affiliate)
WKMG-TV (CBS Affiliate)
WFTV-TV (ABC Affiliate)
WMFE-FM's Arts Connection
Florida Humanities Council Radio
Contentious.com
Tampa Tribune
Miami Herald
Tallahassee Democrat
Florida Times Union
Florida Today
Southern Living
International Travel News
Folio Weekly
Orlando Magazine
Orlando Business Journal
Orlando Weekly
Orlando Sentinel
WMFE-FM Arts Connection
Milkweed's 'World as Home' web series
Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Booklist
Sport Diver
E ! The Environmental Magazine
H-Net
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger
Natural History magazine
Florida Review
Audubon Magazine
Times of the Islands (Turks & Caicos)

ACADEMIC CONTRACT WORK:
Writer-in-Residence for 2004-2005 at the University of South Florida (St. Petersburg, Fla.) in its Florida Studies program.

AS VOLUNTEER:
• Reef Relief, Key West, Fla. Member, Board of Directors
• St. Johns RiverKeeper, Jacksonville, Fla. Advisory Board
• Friends of the Wekiva River, Inc., Longwood, Fla. Member, Board of Directors. 2008-10 Vice President.
• Volunteer Media Director: Natural Lands & Trails Committee (Seminole County, Fla.)
• Adult Literacy Tutor: American Literacy Program, SCC
• Co-Founder: Backcountry Flyfishing Association (Central Florida)

NON-RELATED PROFESSIONAL WORK:
School Social Worker (SSA), Baltimore City Public School System in Inner City. (Two years).
==============
HIGH SCHOOL:
Wicomico Sr. High, Salisbury, Md. (All Conference Football, Track.)

COLLEGE:

Wesley College, Dover, Del. (Football)
University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Md.

B.A. English

OTHER Instruction a/o Certification:

SCUBA: Basic; Open Water; Advanced; Cavern
Dive Certification for Oceanographic cruises (HBOI, Ft. Pierce).

Red Cross
CPR; Lifesaving Badge