Each year, beginning in 2008, the Florida Heritage Book Festival has presented the Literary Legend Award to one or more honorees. As the term implies, the Festival seeks candidates who have strong credentials and a significant following. Their body of work speaks for itself, but specifically the ideal candidate would meet the following criteria:

• Must live in or write about Florida, with preference given to authors who do both.
• Has a body of work over a period of time that is exceptional in quality.
• Has received well-recognized awards for their work.
•  Fiction, Non-fiction, Children, Young Adult – authors in all genres are considered.

The 2020 FHBF Literary Legend is the award-winning journalist and bestselling author, Craig Pittman. Pittman is a Florida native and an award-winning journalist at the Tampa Bay Times. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country as well as three other books. His newspaper work has won the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida four times. Twice he has won the top investigative reporting award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, a national organization. He has twice won the top reporting award, the Charlie, from the Florida Magazine Association for freelance stories for Sarasota magazine. His book Oh, Florida! won the gold medal for Florida non-fiction from the Florida Book Awards. His fifth book, Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther comes out in January 2020. He currently lives in the St. Petersburg area.

Pittman's books will be available for purchase and an author signing will take place following the award presentation.