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Amy Bennett Williams Essays
Fridays @ 8:45am

Amy Bennett Williams touches our hearts each week with a special essay. From the beauty found in Southwest Florida to heart-warming stories of family, friends and neighbors, her essays take us around our community and often into our past. Her essays extol the beauty found in the commonplace objects and places – and are delivered with a touch of tenderness. Williams is a long-time writer for The News-Press who started emptying ashtrays and writing obits and now has the coolest job title she can imagine: Storyteller. She's also author of the pictorial history book, "Along the Caloosahatchee" and is at work on another. She and her husband, Roger, also a writer, live in rural Alva with their two sons and way too many animals.

Latest Episodes
  • Raptors at the Calusa Nature Center in Fort Myers recently won a reprieve from potential euthanasia as state wildlife officials have given the Nature…
  • News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams is perhaps best known for her news reporting, feature stories and distinctive and descriptive prose. In this…
  • A tell-tale sign of warmer weather here in Southwest Florida comes in the form of the stunning purple blooms of one of nature’s most exquisite and complex…
  • This week’s essay from News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams includes her musings about the centrality of the kitchen to family and home life. It’s…
  • The sweltering heat of sub-tropical summer has taken hold here in Southwest Florida. On the bright side though, it’s the time of year when delicious…
  • Much of Southwest Florida’s beachfront is known for great shelling opportunities. So, it’s only fitting that for this week’s encore essay from News-Press…
  • This morning’s offering from News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams pays homage to one of South Florida’s iconic coastal plant varieties: mangroves.…
  • Even for longtime Southwest Florida residents with plenty of knowledge about our region’s wild spaces and their vast array of flora and fauna, there are…
  • Although the official start of the summer season is still days away, the tale-tell sweltering heat of another sub-tropical Southwest Florida summer is now…
  • Along U.S. 27 in Palmdale, which was once a major transportation artery, stands what remains of one of Florida’s lost tourist attractions: Tom Gaskins’…