Greg Brecht

My background is thoroughly working class, and I’m the first male in the family to get a college degree, let alone finish high school. My mother’s family is genuine Appalachian, from the mountains of western Virginia, where they’ve been since the 1780s. Before moving to Florida, I spent a lot of time in Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, and have also lived for a time in New York City, Cleveland, Denver, Chicago and Washington, DC.

I returned to college in my 40s for graduate studies. Before returning, I had a wide variety of experiences. As academic staff at UW Green-Bay I ran a tutoring center. I worked for the Admissions office of Antioch College in Ohio. I have done freelance cartooning, and was a regular cartoonist for ACET Newsletter (Manhattan KS) for a number of years. I was president of a human rights organization in Green Bay for a couple of years, and on the board of a social service organization there.

Much of what I’ve done has centered on writing. I wrote scripts for a small video production firm I worked at for several years. I’ve written skits for a comedy group. I wrote extensively for a small lifestyle magazine in Wisconsin. I wrote a couple of studies on the feminization of poverty for the Green Bay area United Way. I’ve done some freelance editing of theses and dissertations, and tutored a variety of subjects, mostly writing-related. I was research director for four Congressional campaigns, and in that context wrote press releases, information kits, campaign statements, newsletters and other materials. I’ve done newsletters and other material for several groups.

In the years before I returned to graduate school, I worked for a food brokerage in Tampa. While there I was responsible for a wide variety of business communication, including product promotions, sales materials, correspondence, memos, price lists, sales and business plans, brochures, job descriptions, scheduling, agendas, directories and other material.

I’m a voracious reader, particularly of nature writing, European and Asian history, environmental history, natural history, science, essay collections, popular culture, the arts, with the occasional novel thrown in. I am particularly interested in the Russian far east, Mexican art, the Ottoman era, early American literature and military history. My favorite writers are Barbara Kingsolver, Barry Lopez, Ellen Meloy, Bill Bryson and Rebecca Solnit. My favorite artists are Durer, Velasquez, Winslow Homer and Shigeo Fukuda. I’m a bird and butterfly watcher, both vices easily indulged in Florida. I’m a diehard fan of the Rays.  The only things on tv I watch are baseball games, weather and the cooking channel.

I live happily in Kenwood in St Petersburg with spouse Lynn, three cats, two parrots and a very large standard poodle.