About the Book: With age 40 and Y2K looming, Nate, Nora, and Lulu find their lives unraveling, their aspirations dashed. Nate, dead broke, in his eighth year of graduate school delves into yoga. Nate's ex-girlfriend Nora finagles a position in Finland where she tries on men like miniskirts and embraces sisu, the Finnish concept of perseverance, in pursuit of motherhood. And yogi Lulu, Nate’s talented teacher, yearns to get to the bottom of her nightmares of childhood abuse as she travels to her hometown, New Orleans, to care for her ailing mother. OFF THE YOGA MAT explores jealousy, bends of the body, and the courage to confront traumatic memory. Told in alternating chapters by Nate, Lulu, and Nora, the novel takes the reader on three risky coming-of-middle age journeys through sensuality, emotional evolution, and breathing deep.

About the Beverage: When asked about her pairing, Cheryl shared that “my novel OFF THE YOGA MAT is set in New York City, New Orleans, and Finland. I was a Fulbright professor in Finland and had a transformative experience, so I wanted one of the story arcs set there. Like my character Nora who goes to work for Nokia, I drank Lonkero, a gin drink with grapefruit and Juniper berries. Nora is attracted to a man who considers himself the Finnish academic version of Bob Dylan, cryptic, smart, unobtainable. There are scenes set in one of my favorite bars in Tampere drinking this long drink during what turns out to be a long and pivotal evening in the novel, full of music and longing.”

About the Author: Cheryl J. Fish is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, single mom, and environmental humanities scholar from New York City. Her debut novel OFF THE YOGA MAT, the story of three characters coming-of-middle age and reinventing themselves as the year 2000 (Y2K) approaches, was published by Livingston Press/UWA in Oct. 2022. She is the author of THE SAUNA IS FULL OF MAIDS, poems and photographs celebrating Finnish sauna culture, the natural world, and friendships, and CRATER & TOWER, poems reflecting on trauma and ecology after the Mount St. Helens Volcanic eruption and the terrorist attack of 9/11. Fish has been a Fulbright professor in Finland and is a co-editor with Farah Griffin of A STRANGER IN THE VILLAGE: TWO CENTURIES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN TRAVEL LITERATURE. She was a guest blogger for Environmental History with her piece “Indigenous Art Collectives: Environmental/Social Justice Protests Through Artvism and Direct-Action Protest.” Fish is a creative writing editor of the journal Ecocene, a professor of English at BMCC/City University of New York, and a docent lecturer at the University of Helsinki. Her website is cheryljfish.com and she is @cheryljoyfish on Twitter and Instagram.

OFF THE YOGA MAT is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle, Livingston Press, Bookshop, or ordered from your local bookstore.

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