Crossword Genius

Writer favoured by a liberal American from east Florida? (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

peninsula

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'american from east florida?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.

'writer favoured by a liberal' is the wordplay.
'writer' becomes 'pen' (something which writes).
'favoured' becomes 'in' (I've seen this in other clues).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a liberal' becomes 'sula' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'pen'+'in'+'sula'='PENINSULA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for peninsula that I've seen before include "War-zone" , "Large land-mass projecting into a body of water" , "Scandinavia, perhaps" , "9 [WHATS THE POINT] of land" , "Near-island" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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