Vicki Riley Biography

Vicki Riley is an award winning writer recognized for short stories and poetry and now her debut book Cayo Hueso Literary Writings And Artwork From Cayo Hueso. She grew up in Key West and is a member of the Key West Writers Guild and Authors Guild. Vicki’s past writing and teaching experience includes leading a Florida Writers Association (FWA) writing and critique group for over a decade and a career as a high school educator specializing in British and American literature, TV production, cinematography, and creative writing. She founded her school’s first literary magazine, Visions.

Notes From the Author

Writers are a blend of loves. Reading, vocabulary, sentences, maybe grammar, the written word always, but then curiosity shapes our writing subjects. My interest gravitates to the human heart, its struggle, and to the Key West landscape. The island is both the “home” of my soul and a transformational setting for fiction. Imagine a northern fishing village with a lighthouse and quaint historic houses, both mansions and smaller. Then set that vision upon coral rock with adjacent reefs offshore in tropical water. As the final island town of Florida, it functions as a high-stakes end of the road for many. Its two-by-four-mile size demanded minimalism long before residents knew the word. It’s pricey to live in Key West; people sacrifice to stay. But in every sunrise and sunset there is a Monet or van Gogh. Old Town gardens flower forth bits of Renoir, Klimt, and Cezanne. Sunlight changing from dawn to dusk needs no filmmaker for depth or shadow, highlighting the island’s beauty and the villagers’ strength of purpose, survival. Much of what I write embeds a tribute to the past and hope for the future. Minority or women’s struggles ride the arcs of my stories. My characters reflect the eclectic array of edgy, unconventional, spirited individuals on the island. Stories collected in this book are dedicated to them and to all who gather sand in their shoes.