Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact information and to schedule an interview:
Shelley Gilbert
914-762-0681 phone/fax
Email:
shelley@shelleyjoygilbert.com
OSSINING WRITER ANNOUNCES THE PUBLICATION
OF HER DEBUT AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL
Fifteen years in the making, Swimming Naked with Jellyfish is the coming-of-age story of a girl who hates semicolons, loves extremes and lives her life exposed
Ossining, NY, September 4, 2008 — Shelley Gilbert, writer, artist and 27-year Ossining, NY resident, announces the publication of her debut autobiographical novel, Swimming Naked with Jellyfish, 339 pages, trade paperback. Fifteen years in the making, the novel was published in August 2008 with BookSurge.com, an Amazon.com-owned online publisher, and is selling on Amazon.com and BookSurge.com. She is currently writing the sequel. The following is praise for Ms. Gilbert and Swimming Naked with Jellyfish:
"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"
Ms. Gilbert will be appearing at the Ossining Public Library on Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 7:00-9:00 P.M., in a Speaking Engagement and Book Signing. The theme of her talk is: "How To Write Your Memoir — The Vignette Method." Her non-outline method breaks down the process of writing one's life story into small bites and offers the writer immediate results.
This novel is Ms. Gilbert's second book. Her first is the gift-quality coloring book for adults, Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, selling on Amazon.com since 2002. This unique book, which sold at the Katonah Museum of Art Gift Shop, contains 30 drawings and 30 poems by Ms. Gilbert. The author has also been a visual artist for over 30 years. 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, visit the Press Kit page on her website: www.shelleyjoygilbert.com.
