OTRPR Archives - 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:

EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET receives rave reviews from Irish and mainstream press

We’ve been fans of Eamon Loingsigh’s writing for some time now. We had the privilege to work on his debut novel, LIGHT OF THE DIDDICOY, and now we’re excited to be helping to spread the word regarding his new work, EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET.

Reviews are starting to come in, and the Irish press, indy press — ALL the press — are loving this new novel. Check out what they have to say:

“In his beautiful, passionate prose, Loingsigh — an Irishman himself — continually reminds us of the motherland and the suffering of Irish emigrants. . . . EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET is a gangster story that reads more like “Robin Hood” than The Godfather because of these men’s inner strength and the love they have for each other. . . .
It’s also an intimate look at criminals whose lives have been hardened by oppression and weathered by storms, while inside their rough shells they hide soft hearts.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books

“When accomplished Irish American writers address the lives and experiences of the early 20th century Irish in New York they are recording, but also in a deeper sense also reclaiming a lost heritage. This is painstaking work that’s worth celebrating in its own right, but then to give us a vivid portrait of these flinty people in all their complexity and courage is a thing to cheer about. EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET, author Eamon Loingsigh’s new novel, is a follow up to Light of the Diddicoy, and it’s a high wire act of creativity and reclamation that deserves the widest possible audience.”

—Irish Central“

Loingsigh has an urgent story to tell. And he tells it well. This is a street-level history of how the other half has always lived, the kind of story rarely worried over in classrooms or political campaigns. Loingsigh’s great strength is his unsentimental take on the immigrant experience which—despite the rancor of today’s debate—often acquires a sepia tone when it is discussed in the past tense. EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET should be required reading for those who rail about how today’s immigrants “refuse to assimilate.”
–Brooklyn Rail

[EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET], a follow-up to his previous gripping novel The Light of the Diddicoy, is set on the rough-and-tumble streets in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, where Irish and Italian immigrants fight fiercely for control of the docks and all the jobs and money that comes with that control…On the surface, Loingsigh’s book mines Brooklyn’s gory and glorious Irish past. But it is also the quintessential read for 21st century Brooklyn. Not only is it all too plausible that Liam McGarrity’s grandchildren are cops of firefighters living in Marine Park. But consider all of those immigrants coming into Brooklyn these days. Love? Death? Money? Struggles in the homeland? Surely they can relate to a thing or two Liam had to endure as he was becoming an American in Brooklyn.

—Irish Voice

More reviews to come soon!

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Miami Beach Selects Thane Rosenbaum’s How Sweet It Is! For Its One Book, One City Initiative

The City of Miami Beach has announced that in recognition of its Centennial celebration, it will launch a citywide book club reading experience titled, One Book, One City. Its very first selection will be Thane Rosenbaum’s latest novel, HOW SWEET IT IS!, a literary, comedic tale set in Miami Beach in the summer of 1972. A novelist, essayist and law professor living in New York, Rosenbaum was raised in Miami Beach and is arguably the city’s most critically acclaimed author/native son.

Mandel Vilar Press will create a special and elegant paperback edition of HOW SWEET IT IS! just for Miami Beach’s Centennial, which will be available by the end of September. Readers will have plenty of time to read the novel and prepare for all of the fun events that will be taking place in November around the novel.

Citywide programming includes:

11/4 – Kick-off event with Thane Rosenbaum at the Jewish Museum, 7pm.
11/7 – Miami Beach Library Branch Read-A-Thon, 2-4pm in the auditorium
11/15 – Book reading at the Betsy Hotel with Thane Rosenbaum, 7:30-8:30pm.
11/17 – Miami Beach Library Branch Book Discussion with Thane Rosenbaum, 6:30pm – 7:30pm.
11/18 – South Shore Library Book Group Discussion, 6:30pm – 7:30pm.
11/25 – Miami Beach Bandshell, Food Truck Rally, appearance with Thane Rosenbaum and locals from the 1970s, 7:30 – 8:30pm.

Thane Rosenbaum will also discuss and sign copies of HOW SWEET IT IS! at the Miami Book Fair International on either the 21^stor the 22^nd of November.

Set during the historic and tumultuous year of 1972, HOW SWEET IT IS! follows the Posner family—two Holocaust survivors, Sophie and Jacob and their son, Adam—doing everything they can to avoid one another in a city with an infinite supply of colorful diversions. The book covers the antiwar movement, Watergate, sports (Super Bowl winning season, the Munich Olympics, and Muhammad Ali’s return to championship form), the rise of the counterculture, the desegregation of the south, the fading of the Jewish Mafia, the Rat Pack, and the wacky, poignant and hilarious gestalt of Miami in the 70s.

A Reader’s Guide for HOW SWEET IT IS! is available here .

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OTRPR announces innovative partnership with UK publicity firm, Literally PR

New York, NY (July 20, 2015) — Over the River Public Relations has been working on a collaborative and innovative partnership with a like-minded book publicity firm in the UK. Our aim is to provide authors a reliable and effective extension of the successful promotional campaigns OTRPR offers in the US. To that end, we are pleased to announce our partnership with Literally Public Relations Limited, a public relations company that offers a refreshingly different, creative and competitively priced approach to securing you and your books the attention they deserve.

“We aim to support authors, publishers, writers, brand owners, consumer goods businesses, chefs and technology companies of all shapes and sizes as they share their unique story with their perfect target audience. We achieve this not just through excellent and innovative PR strategies that have been tried and tested by our team over many years; we consider the entire process. We look at the role of the client/face of the company, the personality of the book/brand and the story behind the story. We assist with brand creation, profile development and, if required, we build a name for our clients as respected authors with a voice to be heard.”

—Helen Lewis, Founder and Director of Literally PR Ltd.

Literally PR Ltd. has worked with a range of clients including first-time authors, multinational publishing houses, technology start-ups and chefs. They love working with people who are passionate about their ‘product’ and want to take their journey to the next level. They have a range of services to suit all sorts of budgets and objectives.

If you’d like to know more about Literally PR and how they can help you expand in the UK market, please feel free to email us at info@otrpr.com. You can also find out more about the publicists behind Literally PR, what services they provide, and who they represent on their website: http://www.literallypr.com/.

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Kirkus Reviews calls RAISING GIRLS IN BOHEMIA “brutally provocative.”

Interest in Richard Katrovas’ memoir RAISING GIRLS IN BOHEMIA continues to grow. In this week’s issue, Kirkus Reviews weighs in on Katrovas’ essays, calling the book…

“A distinguished writer and English professor chronicles his experiences living and loving between American and Czech cultures….At times brutally provocative, Katrovas’ essays, which also grapple more generally with otherness, faith and the role of art in society, are nothing if not stimulating….ultimately humane.”

You can find out more about Richard and RAISING GIRLS IN BOHEMIA here: Three Rooms Press – Richard Katrovas

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

EXILE ON BRIDGE STREET receives rave reviews from Irish and mainstream press

More reviews to come soon!

Miami Beach Selects Thane Rosenbaum’s How Sweet It Is! For Its One Book, One City Initiative

OTRPR announces innovative partnership with UK publicity firm, Literally PR

Kirkus Reviews calls RAISING GIRLS IN BOHEMIA “brutally provocative.”

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