Five Questions with WRBH Development Director Amy Collins

Jacksonville, Florida. 

Most recently I’ve worked primarily as a freelance writer. From 2014 until the end of last year I was the primary voice behind the blog for menswear designer Billy Reid, but also wrote a number of  journalistic pieces on wine, booze, food and restaurants, and profiles of interesting people – usually musicians – for various publications. Before becoming a writer I sold wine for an importer/distributor in New York City and spent about a decade in the wine business. 

Probably Beaujolais. It’s generally a lighter style red, versatile, can take a chill, and typically falls in the sweet spot range of $20-$25.  

I’m currently reading: And So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut – A Life by Charles J. Shields and Miami by Joan Didion, plus the current issue of The New Yorker. 

 

Favorite authors include Mary Karr – everything she’s written, poetry included; Earnest Hemingway, especially The Sun Also Rises; James Baldwin – everything he’s written but especially Giovanni’s Room; Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint is a favorite but I’ve enjoyed several of his books; Annie Dillard – everything but especially Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and For The Time Being; Megahn Daum – I love her essays; J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, which I start reading again this week for WRBH; Elizabeth Strout’s first three novels are beautifully written and poignant; this goes on…

 

 Curious, candid and determined. 

 

 I love strolling along the Mississippi in Crescent Park, but spending an afternoon lounging in bed with a book is gold. It transcends time and place.