Press Kit         Download PDF >

— Fact Sheet —

Shelley Gilbert
Swimming Naked with Jellyfish

DEBUT AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL

• Title: Swimming Naked with Jellyfish
• Author: Shelley Gilbert - www.shelleyjoygilbert.com
• Publisher: BookSurge, an Amazon-owned company, and Shelley Gilbert
• Category of Book: Autobiographical Novel
• Genre of Book: Coming Of Age
• Edition Type: Trade Paperback
• Publication Date: August 2008
• Page Count: 339
• Word Count: 76,000
• Selling Price on amazon.com and booksurge.com: $15.99
• Where Selling: amazon.com and booksurge.com
• ISBN 13: 978-0-9718317-1-1 (ISBN 10: 0-9718317-1-8)

• One Paragraph Synopsis:

  Swimming Naked with Jellyfish, Shelley Gilbert's coming-of-age debut autobiographical novel, is the story of Iris Andrea, who confronts her grief over multiple loss of family by writing her memoir. She flashes back to growing up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, 1950s-60s, then fast forwards to an immediate presence of understanding. In her effort to discover her identity and self-worth, she digs up intense childhood anger for her beloved tyrant father, passive mother, jealous sister but she also finds love. She powerfully narrates her encounters with her violent father and rebellion against the trapped submissive females of her family by escaping with the uninhibited males. She discloses an insecure, sensual adolescence throbbing in the birth of Rock and Roll, all her firsts, her taste in men, shame and attempted suicide, failed marriage, great passion and tragedy. Iris realizes she's always searching to fill the holes in her whole.

• One Paragraph Author Bio:

  Shelley Gilbert, author, spent 14 years writing her coming-of-age autobiographical novel, Swimming Naked with Jellyfish, 76,000 words. Her debut novel has received good reviews from Little, Brown and Company and from author Benjamin Cheever. She is currently writing the sequel. Also a visual artist for 36 years, she created and published her first book, the gift-quality coloring book for adults, Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, selling on Amazon.com since 2002. This unique book contains 30 drawings and 30 poems by Ms. Gilbert. Her collage is award-winning and her tape paintings showed in a Madison Avenue art gallery juried collection. Ms. Gilbert was born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and graduated from SUNY Empire State College, NY with her bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. She lives in New York with her husband, Hank Teller. For more information, please visit Ms. Gilbert’s website: www.shelleyjoygilbert.com.

• Good Reviews:

  "Shelley Gilbert's prose is wonderfully vivid and straightforward...the writing is compelling...and though the story confronts rather grave issues, Iris’s witty, accessible tone makes an ideal balance that encourages readers to keep the pages turning."

  —Zainab Zakari, Editor
  Little, Brown and Company

  "Shelley Gilbert is a wonderful writer. She's brave, intelligent and it's clear that she takes great pleasure in the language. This is good work. Sometimes even dazzling."

  —Benjamin Cheever
  Author,Strides: Running Through History With an Unlikely Athlete