Parnassus Books welcomes Kitty Taylor and April Schmidt.
In the ten years since its electrifying debut, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love has become a worldwide phenomenon, empowering millions of readers to set out on paths they never thought possible. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Eat Pray Love and to answer her own burning question, “why was Eat Pray Love such a success?” Gilbert invited her fans to share short essays about the role her story has played in their lives. Riverhead Books is proud to publish an anthology of the best of these true stories in Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It: Life Journeys Inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Bestselling Memoir. Curated from nearly 2,000 submissions, and featuring an introduction written by Elizabeth Gilbert, this candid and captivating collection highlights the adventures of nearly fifty readers – people as diverse in their experiences as they are in age and background.
Eat Pray Love helped one writer to embrace motherhood, another to come to terms with the loss of her mother, and yet another to find peace with not wanting to become a mother at all. One writer, reeling from a difficult divorce, finds new love overseas; another, a lifelong caregiver, is inspired to take an annual road trip, solo. A man leaves seminary, embraces his sexual identity, and forges a new relationship with God. One writer's search for the perfect pizza leads her to New Zealand and off-the-grid homesteading, while another, in overcoming an eating disorder, redefines her relationship not only with food but with herself. The journeys these writers recount are transformative--sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, but always deeply inspiring.
Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It is a celebration for fans old and new, and a reminder of what has made Eat Pray Love such an enduring success.
April Schmidt is a mother, daughter, teacher, writer, yogi, seeker, autism warrior and more. She is passionate about friendship, family and sharing her story. April is currently blogging at www.thriveasyou.com, where she discusses life topics and what to do with all these doorways.
Kitty Taylor blends spirituality, feminism and a likely glass of red wine into nonfiction. Following graduate studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Kitty served as a hospital chaplain in Nashville, Tennessee, and found her writing niche as an essayist. Kitty currently lives and loves in the western North Carolina mountains.
