​In Debut Novel, Sarasota Author Tackles Red Tide, Inequality

SARASOTA, FL — In his debut novel, Sarasota journalist and author, Cooper Levey-Baker, tackles two long-simmering issues in the region: the impact of red tide outbreaks on businesses, residents, and the environment, and financial inequality.

“Dead Fish Wind,” his darkly comedic coming-of-age tale, was released Thursday by Madville Publishing.

In his book, Levey-Baker’s main character, Cicely, is stuck in a miserable job taking care of her “deadbeat” father. Essentially, “she’s living just a step above homelessness in a town ruled by a remote, affluent elite and stricken with a catastrophic outbreak of red tide,” according to the description on his website.

The plot focuses on her dreams beyond the life she knows and her finding a way out, through “a scheme that involves stolen placentas and a dangerous doula.”

While the story is set in a city much like Sarasota, it’s not actually Sarasota, the author said. “I want to be clear. The geography is Sarasota, but it’s very not Sarasota at the same time. It’s supposed to be this twisted, dystopian Sarasota. But locals will recognize the landmarks.”

In 2012, he began attending the University of Tampa’s graduate creative writing program, where “Dead Fish Wind” grew out of a creative writing exercise.

“One of my professors told us to close our eyes and just write on a blank sheet of paper and you can’t stop; your hand has to keep moving,” he said. “Basically, the idea was you can’t think too much about what you’re writing.”

As Levey-Baker wrote, “a very specific image of this woman walking home” appeared in his mind, he said. “There’s this howling wind. She’s wearing a trench coat to protect herself against the wind. She gets home and there’s an old man, her father, sitting, smoking a pipe. That was the spark of the narrative.”

After class, he couldn’t get the image out of his head. As he explored the story, thinking about this image of a woman battling the elements, he had a rush of ideas.

“Maybe I could do something with red tide,” he said. “Where’s this woman going to? What’s this conflict between her and her father?”

Levey-Baker, who moved to Sarasota when he was 15, graduated from Riverview High School in 1998. He moved away for college, attending Wake Forest University for his undergraduate degree.

It wasn’t until he moved back in 2003 that he first experienced Sarasota “as an adult,” he said.

He began working as a journalist in the area not long after returning to the city. Today, he’s an editor with Sarasota Magazine.

Though he had heard of red tide as a teenager in Sarasota, it was through his work that he first started to fully understand its impact on the region.

“Around 2005, 2006, there was a horrible red tide outbreak here in Sarasota,” Levey-Baker said. “It was similar to a few years ago. It lasted months. Hotels were canceling trips. Businesses were losing money. This was a total catastrophe and I never experienced anything like that before.”

At the time, he covered the issue for Creative Loafing and became interested in the topic. Even after his coverage of the outbreak ended, “it was a memory I always had in the back of my mind,” he said. “It’s something people around here know about, but I always thought not enough people knew about it.”

He relied heavily on his journalism background, especially his work covering red tide, as he wrote the first draft of “Dead Fish Wind” in 2013.

The story, written “very much still in the shadow of the big recession that happened,” also tackles the issue of inequality in this fictional, Sarasota-inspired city, Levey-Baker said.

“I’m taking red tide but cranking it up to this kind of crazy level. At the same time, I’m taking this inequality and cranking it up to this absurd level,” he said. “Obviously, inequality is this huge issue. I think it’s particularly sharp in Sarasota. I just saw the rents around here are astronomical. I wanted to get to that divide between working people and the people living comfortable lives.”

It’s not something he was always aware of, he added, especially as a teenager. “It’s easy to overlook that divide sometimes. Sarasota is such a wonderful place and such a beautiful place, it’s easy to overlook the struggles that a lot of people are going through.”

It’s something that became more apparent to Levey-Baker over the past decade through his work.

“As a journalist, you get to meet people from all walks of life and you realize not everybody has had the same privileges and opportunities,” he said. “I’ve met people with vastly different life experiences, and it was eye-opening.”

Once the novel’s first draft was completed, he “just started editing and editing and editing,” he said. “It took a long time before I felt like it was in some kind of finished shape.”

He began submitting the book to various publishers. While he got valuable feedback, he wasn’t able to find it a home.

“It got to the point where I was getting polite, personal rejections, not just the blanket rejections,” he said.

An author friend, Tampa-based Brian Petkash, who released a short story collection through Madville Publishing in the spring of 2020, introduced him to the indie publisher.

Levey-Baker appreciates that the story stood out to the Texas-based publisher.

“Obviously, a book that’s set in Florida, I think Floridians will kind of get it, but I wanted to work with somebody who’s not in Florida,” he said. “If they’re not from Florida and don’t care about Florida but interested in the book, maybe that’s a sign.”

And with red tide ebbing and flowing in Sarasota and throughout the Sunshine State, he thinks Florida readers will embrace the story and his dark humor.

“I just hope that people approach it with an open mind and accept the absurdity of it,” he said. “I don’t ever try to have a message in my fiction. It’s really just trying to deliver a memorable reading experience. The thing I care most about is that people enjoy reading it. Not enjoying it in a superficial, page-turner type of way, but just something that captures your imagination.”

Learn more about purchasing the book here.