Press Release: Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caroline Sill
“Failure leads to soul-searching, suffering, and setbacks, but toward the end of the story, something happens: an epiphany, a catharsis, a near-death experience, an encounter with a wise native or homeless person. No matter what the particulars are, spiritual memoirs always suggest that there is a butterfly emerging from the cocoon at the end of the journey, and that was what I wanted. I wanted miracles and transformation. . . . My story wasn’t exactly like that.” —from Yoga Bitch
YOGA BITCH
One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment
By SUZANNE MORRISON
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“Brings the higher path down to earth with refreshing honesty.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Thoughtful, honest, and hilarious.” —Publishers Weekly
“Suzanne Morrison’s memoir is a glorious mash-up of a book. It’s all at once a gimlet-eyed look at the ridiculousness of yoga culture, a somewhat reluctant spiritual journey, and a beautifully observed travelogue. But at its core (to use a very yoga-ish word), Yoga Bitch is a love story. Like Austen’s heroines, Suzanne Morrison has to figure out who she loves in order to know who she is. The result is an unabashedly romantic book, in the very best way—like watching your funniest, most sardonic friend realize that she’s head-over-heels in love.” —Claire Dederer, Author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Poses
“Suzanne Morrison has been through the yoga wars, she has the literal scars to prove it, and she’s produced a hilarious and thoughtful memoir.” —Neal Pollack, author of Stretch
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Before she discovered yoga, Suzanne Morrison’s idea of exercise was walking to the corner store to buy a pack of cigarettes, rearranging bookshelves, and having sex. Living in Seattle as a student, she spent most of her time reading or out having cocktails with friends. But when she turned twenty-five, a month after 9/11, Suzanne started to have panic attacks about dying and decided it was time to get some spiritual perspective on life.
Her savior is revealed to her as a tall, tan, and blonde yoga instructor named Indra, who convinces Suzanne after minimal yoga training to pack her bags, leave her boyfriend, and head to Bali for a two-month intensive yoga-teacher-training program. Suzanne chronicles her journey in her first book: YOGA BITCH: One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment (Three Rivers Press; Trade Paperback Original; on sale: August 16, 2011; $15.00), (based on her acclaimed one-woman show of the same name), an insightful and wholly entertaining tale of her attempts to cast aside her fears, neuroses, and materialism in order to find a path to enlightenment and inner peace.
Suzanne’s search for fulfillment is about as universal as you can get. YOGA BITCH will appeal to anyone and everyone who’s ever set about on the rocky road to live better, feel better, and be better. Take equal parts Elizabeth Gilbert, Dani Shapiro, and the “Oprah lifestyle culture,” add sardonic humor, and pour into a highball glass. Hilarious and utterly absorbing, YOGA BITCH will have you rolling with laughter at Suzanne’s shockingly candid voice when detailing her adventures and misadventures.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A writer and solo performer currently living in Seattle, SUZANNE MORRISON started Yoga Bitch as a long-running one-woman show of the same title, which played in New York and London as well as across the country and around the world. A 2009 and 2010 recipient of 4Culture and Artist Trust grants for solo performance, Suzanne is developing a new show, Optimism, about her adolescent fascination with Ted Bundy, who was a friend of her parents, and she is at work on a new memoir, Your Own Personal Alcatraz, about coming of age on an island in the middle of Lake Washington. You can find Suzanne at the Huffington Post, where she blogs about the reading life, and at her own blog, suzannemorrison.blogspot.com, where she writes about absolutely everything she’s reading, writing, and rehearsing.
ABOUT THE BOOK
YOGA BITCH
One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment
By Suzanne Morrison
Three Rivers Press • on sale date: August 16, 2011 • ISBN: 978-0-307-71744-3 • Price: $15.00
For more information, or to schedule interviews with Suzanne Morrison, please contact:
Caroline Sill, 212.782.8943 or csill@randomhouse.com.
Visit us on the Web at www.crownpublishing.com or