Rick Karlin

Rick Karlin has been a freelance journalist and editor for the past 40+ years. He is the Arts & Culture editor for Out South Florida. His most recent book, with historian Fred Fejes, Last Call South Florida, a history of queer bars from Palm Beach to Key West, has been ranked in the Top 100 LGBT travel books on Amazon since its release in late 2024. Last Call Chicago: 1001 LGBT-Friendly Taverns, Hangouts, and Haunts, written with Sukie de la Croix, was published in 2022 and also remains a top seller. His memoir Paper Cuts: My Life in Chicago’s Volatile LGBT Press was published in 2019. He is currently working on Last Call Boston. In recognition of his years as an LGBT community activist, he was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1997. He relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2013, where he lives with his husband, Gregg Shapiro, and their dog Miss Coco.