Carlos Frias

Carlos Frias is a natural observer who spent his formative years as a journalist traveling the South, primarily as a sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This "Southern Fried Cuban" has known the country on an intimate level. Today a columnist and features writer for The Palm Beach Post, Frias says he is "assembled in America from Cuban parts." He grew up just north of the Dade-Broward County "border," born of Cuban exiles but raised among the "gringos" as Little Havana glittered in the distance. Fully bilingual, he travels easily between those worlds. In 2006, he journeyed through Cuba, where he reported the basis for his book "Take Me With You: A Secret Search For Family in a Forbidden Cuba" in a five-part series of first-person stories about his family for which he was named the Best of Cox Newspapers Writer of the Year. The judges called the series "storytelling that raises journalism to the level of art." For "Take Me With You," he was awarded the Mariposa Award for best debut book.