Blog - Over The River PR

Get to know Jamaican American author, Donna Hemans

We’ve been working with Donna Hemans, a wonderful Jamaican American writer who is gaining visibility in the literary world. Her new novel, TEA BY THE SEA is a story of a family uniting and unraveling told seamlessly and with smart, clear prose. From Brooklyn to the island of Jamaica, TEA BY THE SEA traces Plum Valentine’s circuitous route to find her daughter and the child’s father, who walked out of a hospital with the day-old baby girl without explanation. Seventeen years later, weary of her unfruitful search, Plum sees an article in a community newspaper with a photo of the man for whom she has spent half her life searching. He has become an Episcopal priest. Her plan: confront him and walk away with the daughter he took from her. Instead, Plum finds herself locked in his church with her daughter and by the time it’s all over, Plum is the one in the back seat of a police car facing charges. TEA BY THE SEA is a poignant, multilayer story, that is beautifully written and touches on so many important and relevant issues including immigration, family secrets, mother-daughter relationships, parental kidnapping , betrayal and motherhood.

The novel has received some great attention. Donna was interviewed on Zibby Owens’ popular, Mom’s Don’t Have Time To Read Books podcast, the book was included in The New York Post’s “Best Books of the Week,” and The Rumpus ran an engaging interview with Donna called “An Exploration of Belonging.” Donna’s original essays have also recently appeared in Electric Literature: I Can Only Save My Grandparents’ Home by Preserving It in Fiction and in Ms. Magazine: Picking Meat From Tiny Bones: Coping with Coronavirus, Isolation and Aging Parents.

The bloggers also love TEA BY THE SEA. Check out the blog tour’s full schedule of reviews, interviews and more:

Congratulations to Dame Hermione Lee, winner of the 2020 BIO Award

The Biographers International Organization (BIO) recently announced that Dame Hermione Lee, Professor Emeritus of English Literature, University of Oxford, had won the 11th BIO Award. This prize is bestowed yearly by BIO to a distinguished colleague who has made a major contribution to the advancement of the art and craft of biography.

One of the leading literary scholars and critics of our time, Lee is best known for her Virginia Woolf (1996), widely considered the definitive biography of that author. The book won the British Academy’s Rose Mary Crawshay Prize.

Comfortable with literature from both sides of the Atlantic, Lee has written biographies of two American novelists, Edith Wharton and Willa Cather, and also a critical study of Philip Roth. In addition, she has written a biography of the Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen and, most recently, of the British novelist, poet, essayist, and biographer Penelope Fitzgerald. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life was the winner of the 2013 James Tait Black Prize and BIO’s 2015 Plutarch Award…[READ MORE]

By otrpr Leave a Comment

CITIZEN 865: The Hunt for Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in America by Debbie Cenziper

CITIZEN 865 by the Washington Post investigative journalist Debbie Cenziper (Hachette Books; 9780316449656, $28) is the powerful, character-driven story of the search for the men of an obscure SS training camp in Trawniki, Poland who helped the SS murder 1.7 million Polish Jews. The Office of Special Investigations (OSI), a small unit in a far-flung office inside the Department of Justice, would identify more than a dozen men who were hiding in plain sight in cities and suburbs across America, including Miami, Chicago, and New York.

Cenziper interviewed many of the unheralded and heroic government historians and lawyers – including former director of the Office of Special Investigations Eli Rosenbaum and historians Peter Black and Elizabeth “Barry” White – who relentlessly pursued these so-called “Trawniki Men” and, nearly five decades after the war’s end, helped uncover the details behind the school for mass murder where they were trained, armed and empowered by the Third Reich. She juxtaposes this hunt with the story of 2 of only 200 Jews from Lublin, Poland who evaded this same killing force and settled in the United States unknowingly alongside their former captors, and whose children contributed to Cenziper’s research. It is “a story about darkness, but also about light,” Cenziper writes.

The book has received great media attention. Here are some highlights:

The Washington Post

Washington Independent Review of Books

Forward.com

The Jewish Exponent

The Times of Israel

The Jewish Book Council

Too Jewish Radio Podcast

Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb

By otrpr Leave a Comment

Broadway legend and author, Harold Prince, has died at 91

To call him a legend is an understatement. From the mid-fifties to 2019, Mr. Prince did more than anyone to define the content, form, and parameters of the modern Broadway musical. West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and Phantom of the Opera — Harold Prince was the theater genius behind all of these iconic musicals. Over the course of his amazing career, he received more Tony Awards than any other individual — a total of 21.

We had the great privilege to work with Hal Prince on his candid memoir, SENSE OF OCCASION (Rowman & Littlefield |Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2019). Harold Prince was the true Prince of Broadway, and his passion for musical theater will live on.

By otrpr Leave a Comment

Lovable Jen Dixon is back in the hilarious follow-up to Class Mom! YOU’VE BEEN VOLUNTEERED by bestselling author, Laurie Gelman, launches today!

Laurie Gelman (yes, her husband is that Gelman of Live with Kelly and Ryan fame) has written another funny AND relatable tale that takes place three years after Class Mom. Somehow Jen Dixon has ended up as the class mom once again—this time for her son Max’s third grade at one of Kansas City’s great bastions of primary education, William H. Taft Elementary. While juggling hearth, homework, and hubby Ron, she’s been saddled with even more school responsibilities plus a micromanaging PTA president. Add that to dealing with her grown daughters’ sudden displays of independence (must all millennials get piercings?) plus her aging parents’ need for some parenting of their own, and she finds herself pulled in too many directions for one middle-aged, minivan-driving temptress to handle.

Gelman is a New York City-based writer and mother of two who spent 25 years as a broadcaster in both Canada and the US – including stints on Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, and The Mom Show – before trying her hand at writing novels. Her first book, Class Mom garnered rave reviews from several places including The New York Times, People magazine, and Good Housekeeping, and it was recently included in Parade’s list of books Mom will love . Gelman’s writing has been compared to Lauren Weisberger’s, Maria Semple’s and Sophie Kinsella’s.

This is a fun book – a perfect summer read or comical book to ease you into the stressful Back to School season.

To celebrate the release of YOU’VE BEEN VOLUNTEERED, Laurie is participating in a month-long book blog tour that features reviews, author Q&As, and features. We hope you will follow along and enter to win the daily prizes. You’ll find all the details here:
http://lauriegelman.com/blogtour.html

Happy Publication Day, Laurie! It’s been a pleasure working with you!

Get to know Jamaican American author, Donna Hemans

The Livre Café | 6/1

Book of Cinz | 6/8

Suzy Approved Book Reviews | 6/14

Gail Renatta | 6/21

Beth’s Book Nook Blog | 6/28

Congratulations to Dame Hermione Lee, winner of the 2020 BIO Award

CITIZEN 865: The Hunt for Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in America by Debbie Cenziper

Broadway legend and author, Harold Prince, has died at 91

Lovable Jen Dixon is back in the hilarious follow-up to Class Mom! YOU’VE BEEN VOLUNTEERED by bestselling author, Laurie Gelman, launches today!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET IN TOUCH?

Follow Us