Queer author, Marissa Alma Nick is set to release her debut novel, REBEL IN VENUS, on May 26 on Amazon.com.
Marissa Alma Nick illuminates queer experiences with an authentic perspective on emerging concerns including mental health, trauma, sexual assault, abuse and gaslighting. More than anything, it’s a book about empowerment, self-realization, self-acceptance and self-love – a coming-of-age story, about a woman who is realizing she can no longer outrun herself.
The book is available for pre-order until May 26: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1667892630
REBEL IN VENUS takes place over one ‘girl’s night in’ spent between best friends, Maria and Layla. Over the course of the witty and unexpected evening, Layla’s memory is jolted, and her once carefully repressed past begins to return to her, triggering a sequence of events that ultimately jeopardizes Layla’s unconventional life. In REBEL IN VENUS, the bold, and sometimes brutally honest stories that unfold, are filled with sexual revelations, high-school humiliations, unwanted pregnancies, unwavering friendships, sex work, divorce, and loss. As the confessions unfold, Layla’s anguished past starts to crystallize and challenges the strength of her friendship with Maria, as well as Layla’s own life. Will Layla learn to save herself in time? Or will her past win over her ability to see a future?
Marissa playfully blends literary genres, to bring to life the dynamic world that is Layla’s past, and present. And through Layla’s story, she points out how easy it is to wrap ourselves up in a cloak of shame, especially when we don’t yet understand why what we’re so ashamed of, or rather… that there isn’t anything to be ashamed of. Marissa expresses the power we hold in our vulnerability, and the strength we can find in expressing it.
What inspired her to write the book?
Marissa has always been known as a dancer/choreographer but on December 4 of 2019, while performing, she tore her meniscus and found out she would require surgery to repair it, and would be recovering for a full year putting her dancing career on hiatus. To make matters worse, on the first of the year 2020, her best friend tragically committed suicide. Then, two months later the world shut down with Covid 19. Marissa was sort of forced by life to sit down and write this book.
It was as if she was creating a lifeboat for herself, so she could give herself a sense of purpose to keep going and not give up in the face of these life-changing adversities.
The jewish Cuban-German author graduated from the New World School of the Arts, received her BFA from the University of South Florida, and was selected for the Creative Capital Continued Education Program (host: Miami Dade Department of Cultural Affairs). She’s moved to Los Angeles straight out of college, and signed to MSA dance agency where she worked as a freelance dancer in various music videos, commercials, tv shows, and movies. Then in 2012, Marissa moved back to Miami to start her own dance-theatre company Alma Dance Theater and became the founding artistic director for the festival: ScreenDance Miami. While in Miami she’s been an adjunct professor for the University of Miami’s Musical Theater Department and has produced, choreographed, and directed live shows for Art Basel Miami, Faena Miami, Tigertail Productions, Vizcaya Museum, Perez Art Museum, Showfields Miami, and Together Arts.
The queer indie author comes from a long line of mob bosses. Her father is Jewish Cuban of afro Caribbean decent. He was born in Cuba and migrated during the Castro regime, quite dramatically because Marissa’s grandfather worked for Batista, known for running the hotels/casinos. Her mom is of German heritage and was born in Hollywood Florida. Her grandfather was also a mob boss in Florida known as The Silver Fox and was even on the cover of newspapers as top 10 mobsters in Florida. Somehow her parents met in Atlanta and never intended to have children. Marissa’s mom was told she couldn’t have kids with her one ovary but she obviously proved the doctors wrong.
REBEL IN VENUS is a powerful, and honest story of redemption, an intimate portrait of friendship, the impact of trauma, the power of our first love, and the unforgettable experience of our first love lost.
“I read in the Washington Post article about how teen girls are at an increased risk of suicide today,” says Marissa Alma Nick.
“Layla, the protagonist of REBEL IN VENUS, I believe may have been written for them, to give them hope, to allow them to feel seen, and to see themselves as their own hero. Possibly, REBEL IN VENUS can inspire them to believe they have a right to unburden themselves from internalized shame, and self-hatred.”
Marissa Alma Nick will host a book signing event at BooksandBooks on June 2nd at 7:00 pm in Miami, FL at their staple location: 265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33134.
For more information go to: https://www.rebelinvenus.com/