FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Mike O’Mary, Dream of Things, 847-321-1390, mike@michaelomary.com
Swimming with Maya by Eleanor Vincent released in trade paperback and e-book editions by Dream of Things
A story about the unique and complicated relationship between mothers and daughters, and a celebration of how that relationship continues to exist beyond the grave
Downers Grove, Ill. – Swimming with Maya: A Mother’s Story by Eleanor Vincent is now available in trade paperback and e-book editions from book publisher Dream of Things.
Previously available only in hardcover, Swimming with Maya demonstrates the remarkable process of healing after the traumatic death of a loved one. At age 19, Maya mounts a horse bareback as a dare and in a crushing cantilever fall, is left in a coma from which she will never recover. Author Eleanor Vincent’s life is turned upside down as she struggles to make the painful decision about Maya’s fate.
Ultimately Eleanor chooses to donate Maya’s organs. Years later, she is able to hear Maya’s heart beat in the chest of the heart recipient. Along the way, Eleanor re-examines her relationship with her daughter, as well as Eleanor’s traumatic life as a child and young woman. In a story that has been called “heartbreaking and heart-healing,” Eleanor Vincent illuminates the kind of courage, creativity, faith, and sheer tenacity it takes to find one’s balance after unthinkable tragedy.
Praise for Swimming with Maya:
- “Powerful prose with a meaningful and memorable message.” –Lee Gutkind, Founder: Creative Nonfiction Magazine
- ‘‘An important addition to the literature of loss and restoration.” —Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Maxine Kumin
- “Vincent’s poignant decision to donate Maya’s organs will resonate with even hard-boiled readers…” –Booklist
Swimming with Maya ($14.95 trade paperback, $2.99 e-book, Dream of Things, 338 pages, ISBN 9780988439047) is available from Ingram Book Company and from Dream of Things (dreamofthings.com).
About the Author
Eleanor Vincent was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College in 1970, attended the University of Minnesota School of Journalism, and completed her MFA degree in creative writing at Mills College in 1995. Her work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News and a variety of anthologies including At the End of Life: True Stories About How we Die, Impact: An Anthology of Short Memoirs, and This I Believe: On Motherhood. Her poetry and essays have been published by Five Fingers Review, The Santa Barbara Review, and the Napa Review. She lives in Oakland, California. Visit her at www.eleanorvincent.com.
About Dream of Things
Founded in 2009, Dream of Things is a book publisher and online book store that focuses on memoirs, anthologies of creative nonfiction, and other books that align with its mission to publish “distinctive voices, meaningful books.” For more information, visit dreamofthings.com.
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