Renee Garrison

Renee Garrison discovered her love of journalism while writing for her high school newspaper and graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Mass Communications. She spent 18 years as a staff writer for The Tampa Tribune. During the decade she worked as the newspaper’s architecture critic, Renee won two awards from the American Institute of Architects.

After moving to Orlando, she visited her former home in the Sanford Naval Academy, which closed its doors in 1976. Memories flooded back, and a book was born. “The Anchor Clankers,” won a gold medal in the 2017 Florida Authors and Publishers Association (FAPA) President’s Book Awards Young Adult/Coming of Age category. In 2020, she was asked to join the Board of Directors of FAPA and served as the organization's president in 2022.

She was surprised by the questions she received during book signings and book club appearances. Most of them dealt with having an alcoholic parent. That’s why the sequel, “Anchored Together,” is a coming-of-age story in which both main characters must deal with dads who abuse alcohol. That book won a gold medal in the 2021 FAPA President's Book Awards.

She wrote her first mystery novel, "The Harbormaster," with her husband, Robert, who retired from a banking career and spent nearly a decade as the harbormaster of a marina on Florida's east coast. Inspired by news coverage of an actual boat explosion (and her early devotion to Nancy Drew books), Renee crafted the coastal noir about a reluctant-hero-turned-amateur-sleuth.