The very concept of New York City conjures up a wealth of emotions in many people. For writer Joanie Strulowitz, it has always been a place of magic: an enticing playground, a cascade of art, a wonderland of fascinating characters, a youth serum to keep her feeling forever young.
Believing herself to be a New Yorker who just happened to be born in Iowa, Strulowitz felt the tantalizing call of Manhattan from the time she was four, and eventually made her home there. In this love song to the City, she pays adoring tribute to the essence of Manhattan from its intense pace and the pounding excitement in the air to the funky charm and even the glittering pavement that provides a stage on which it all unfolds.
The City is her laboratory, her art studio, and the extraordinary inspiration for this collection of captivating vignettes. In each short but sublime piece, Strulowitz evokes the luminous ambiance that has lured artists and adventure seekers to the island metropolis for generations: enthralling chance encounters, the slightly terrifying exhilaration of first subway rides, the soothing clink of silverware in a favorite sidewalk cafe, the urge to break into song when discovering a perfect little boutique.
Anyone who has lived in New York City, played tourist there, or just dreamed of paying a visit will find something to love in this transcendent appreciation of the jewel-encrusted celebration of life and art that is Manhattan.
Meet Joanie Strulowitz
ALTHOUGH JOANIE STRULOWITZ is seasoned in numerous aspects of the arts and business, writing has always been her baby. While raising her two daughters in Iowa, she joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Years later, after finding her first apartment in Los Angeles, she discovered that–magnetically–the SCBWI offices were two blocks from her front door.
Originally from Iowa and later Chicago, Strulowitz moved to New York because, as she explains in My Love Affair with Manhattan (Vignettes of a Life in the City), “My soul has always lived there, and my body needs to catch up.”
With a memory that is largely emotive, she recalls almost every square inch of how she felt growing up. As an observer who always thought something was wrong with her because she didn’t fit in, she discovered that writing books, and being involved with all of the arts, help to make sense of life.
Now she seeks to be the voice she searched for, so the lessons she learned can help others to find the gifts in their differences–and to believe in themselves and their dreams.
Today you can find her (and her black turtleneck) in Los Angeles, writing a chapter on her grocery bag while walking home, or completing her YA fantasy novel during Pilates sessions.