Florida is a notoriously difficult region to capture in words, and writers often reduce the state to a swampland full of alligators and sand, or a mecca for theme park enthusiasts and retirees. However, at one point, Florida existed as a frontier just as wild and untamed as the western part of the United States, and Rawlings sought to show her readers this side of the southernmost state. Through her regionalist writing about central Florida, Rawlings brings a corner of the state to life that was previously unknown. Referred to as “Florida’s Steinbeck,” Rawlings focused her work on those who worked the land. Her works give readers a glimpse of Florida before urbanization, and bring to life its wildlife and lakes. Rawlings’s novels South Moon Under and The Yearling in particular capture the innocence of the untouched wilderness (Allen, Greg. “On Location: The Central Florida of ‘the Yearling’.” NPR, 21 July 2011).

Like many Florida residents, Rawlings was a transplant. Born in Washington DC, she developed a love of the outdoors while living on her father’s small dairy farm. After living in Wisconsin and Kentucky, Rawlings and her husband settled in New York where they both worked in publishing.