Biography
Photo by Susan Cross
Darlyn Finch is that rare animal: a Florida native, born and raised in Jacksonville. She attended Ed White high school before obtaining her Associate of Arts degree at Florida Junior College. She holds a bachelors degree as an English major, Writing minor from Rollins College in Winter Park. Darlyn graduated in 2009 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Nonfiction/Poetry from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky.
She is the proud mother of a daughter, Rachel Shannon, who earned a bachelor of science degree in physics at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg before finding work as an engineer at a power generation company in Orlando.
By day, Darlyn works as a tech writer for that same power generation company (keeping the lights on, so to speak.) At her day job, she serves as a team captain for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk for a Cure, and works on the Diversity Council. After work, she enjoys creative writing.
Darlyn teaching in London
A poet known for her saucy style and engaging readings, she is also a gifted storyteller. Her work has appeared in literary journals, newspapers, and online. Her poems have been featured on Poetic Logic on WMFE-FM, and been read by Garrison Keillor on the Writers Almanac. She was interviewed on World Radio Paris. She is a repeat winner of the Mt. Dora Festival of Art and Literature, Cultural Liaison for the Society of American Travel Writers Institute, and the eponymous “Scribbler,” author of the Scribbles literary newsletter.
From December 2006 through February 2007, she was the 19th Kerouac Project writer in residence, living and working in the house where Jack Kerouac wrote Dharma Bums and learned that On the Road was about to be published. Below is a video of her farewell reading at the Kerouac house courtesy of Growing Bolder.
She has worked in the Sports Department of the Orlando Sentinel, and has also published articles in the Florida Times Union/Jacksonville Journal and the Sandspur. She has been a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the National League of American Pen Women.
Her first book, Red Wax Rose, a poetry and short story collection, was published by Shady Lane Press in February, 2007. Her second, Three Houses, a collection of love poems with collaborator Brad Kuhn, she published through Scribbles in February, 2008. She is working on a novel.