ALL SKATE: True Stories from Middle Life will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered what comes next and how to face it with humor, love, and strength. Don’t miss this masterful new release from Lori Jakiela, available March 14, 2025.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement: ALL SKATE: True Stories from Middle Life by Lori Jakiela
Cover Art by Lou Ickes
Pre-Order Now: https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/all-skate/186
Release Date: March 14, 2025
Publisher: Roadside Press
ALL SKATE: True Stories from Middle Life is a series of musings from one mid-life woman, wife, and mother on what it means to grow old in a country obsessed with TikTok, Instagram influencers, and that creepy Elon Musk and his Mars-bound robots. “What will you do / with your one wild and precious life?” the poet Mary Oliver asked, and the answer here is “everything.” From grade-school crushes to pandemic roller-skating disasters, from the dread of bathing suit season to the embrace of flawed and beautifully fragile bodies, from the uncomfortable joy of Swedish death-cleaning to the easy joy of holding on to the tiniest moments that matter, All Skate is one woman’s testimony to the eternal powers of humor, love, and kindness.
In this poignant and laugh-out-loud series of reflections, Jakiela invites readers into her world: from the heartbreak and hilarity of grade-school crushes to the pandemic roller-skating fiascos; from the dreaded anticipation of bathing suit season to the joyful embrace of flawed and fragile bodies. She takes on the challenges of Swedish death-cleaning with wit and delves into the smallest, most profound moments of human connection—testifying to the eternal power of humor, love, and kindness.
About the Author
Lori Jakiela is the author of seven books, most recently a memoir, They Write Your Name on a Grain of Rice: On Cancer, Love, and Living Even So (Atticus Books). Another memoir, Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (Autumn House Press), received the Saroyan Prize for International Literature from Stanford University. Lori’s essay collection, Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker: On Work and the Writing Life (Bottom Dog Press), has been adopted as a common text at Westmoreland Community College for the past two years. Many of the essays in All Skate: True Stories from Mid-Life have been published in places like Pittsburgh Magazine, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Washington Post, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Journal of the Plague Years, Pulse, and more. Lori’s other work has appeared in The New York Times/Modern Love column, The Chicago Tribune, Brevity/Creative Nonfiction, Full Grown People, The Rumpus, and more. Her author website is http://lorijakiela.net.
Pre-Order Your Copy Today
Be among the first to own this heartfelt and hilarious tribute to the power of aging with grace, grit, and gratitude. Pre-order ALL SKATE: True Stories from Middle Life now at: https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/all-skate/186.
Media Contact:
Michele McDannold
Publisher
roadsidepress01@gmail.com
