Leoma Lovegrove PHOTO PROVIDED

Gulf Coast Writers Association Inc., Southwest Florida’s 28-year-old meeting ground for writers, editors and their associates, announced this week that Leoma Lovegrove, internationally known artist, has painted the artwork for the cover of “Storm Stories–Hurricane Ian,” its anthology of personal experiences during the storm as recounted by local residents and photographers. The book is planned for publication on Sept. 1.

Lovegrove has also contributed her own storm story to the anthology. It describes the destruction of her home and businesses on Matlacha.

Earlier GCWA announced that Robert N. Macomber, well-known author of naval historical fiction, has written the foreword to the anthology of stories, poems and photos. Macomber, a Pine Island resident, had to be evacuated after the hurricane exploded his home.

In her essay in the book, Lovegrove details the storm’s destruction and her losses, including her sketchbooks accumulated over 45 years.

“After the Ian wave hit, our home on Matlacha was a total loss,” she says. “Part of the house washed out to sea, so all of our personal belongings now reside in the Gulf of Mexico.”

But she vows to be undeterred.

“This hurricane has turned me into a category seven,” she said “and with this new energy I will work to get back to square one.”

She added, “What the hurricane taught me, like all of us here in Southwest Florida, is that we can’t give up. ‘Always Forward’ was my mom’s lifelong motto. They say moms are always right, and mine surely was. I’m adopting her motto as my own. Always Forward.”

She now lives in North Fort Myers and has announced plans to relocate her gallery and international headquarters to a 3,000-square-foot historic building on Dean Street in downtown Fort Myers with an opening planned for the first week of January 2024.

“Storm Stories-Hurricane Ian” will be available as a trade paperback and hard cover at local book stores, the gift shop at the Alliance for the Arts and the Alliance’s popular monthly Night Market, and Leoma Lovegrove’s Art Gallery in downtown Fort Myers. It also will be available in other Southwest Florida outlets, including Copperfish in Punta Gorda and Annette’s Book Nook on Fort Myers Beach.

It will be obtainable online from Amazon.com in e-book, paperback and hard cover versions by Sept. 1.

Pre-publication orders for the e-book on Amazon are now being accepted.

“We welcome Leoma’s eye-popping artwork and her personal story,” said Jeanne Meeks, the south Fort Myers resident and author who heads this special publishing project for GCWA.

Adds Meeks in an up-front Acknowledgment in the book, “The minute I asked Leoma Lovegrove to submit the story of her Matlacha art gallery’s storm damage, she enthusiastically supported our project. She has already set her huge social media power into action, pre-ordered books for her new gallery, and donated the beautiful artwork which graces our cover.”

The GCWA’s website is gulfwriters.org.