“Don’t Stop the Carnival meets The Perfect Storm meets Cannery Row in this magnificent memoir that is so much more … I guarantee this is a page-turner … Highly recommended.”
—Homer Hickam, New York Times bestselling author of Rocket Boys/October Sky
PHOTO: Claudia @AstralVilla.com
“A great, important book—a memoir, a love letter, a farewell-to-paradise-in-the-face-of-climate-change story—combining reporting chops and poetry, both of which Holt has in boatloads.”
—William Knoedelseder, New York Times bestselling author of Bitter Brew and Fins
“Every so often, someone with a sharp eye and a way with words lands in a unique locale, pays attention and then nails it in print. Such is the case with Margie Smith Holt who fled to Coral Bay in 2004, and in a surge of liberation following a heartbreak, flung herself in to a world that seemed to exist beyond the bounds of time—until Hurricane Irma did its worst in 2017.”
NOT ON ANY MAP: One Virgin Island, Two Catastrophic Hurricanes, and the True Meaning of Paradise was published January 31, 2023, by re:Write Books. Pictured here: Author Margie Smith Holt in New York City. PHOTO: Patricia Baillargeon
The book launched on January 31. As an independent author I am writer, publisher, and chief marketer and am lucky to have a ton of (free) help from friends and family. College girlfriend Trish Baillargeon—she of the great waitressing advice (not giving any spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet…)—took photos of me and my memoir all over NYC and high school bestie Cynthia Friedman and her husband Josh of Josh Friedman Photography did the same in Philly.
Margie Smith Holt reads from her memoir, Not On Any Map, at the book launch party in Philadelphia.
Feeling the Philly LOVE with Josh Friedman, Steve Holt, and Cynthia Friedman.
Ellen Hutton, party planner extraordinaire, at Lou Bird’s in Philadelphia.
#ItsAPhillyThing
Philadelphia comrade Ellen Hutton—also featured in NOT ON ANY MAP—threw an amazing launch party at Lou Bird’s in Center City, where they served up Painkillers for friends, family, and my former colleagues in both the media and at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where I was working before decamping for St. John.
Back in the USVI
The launch party was originally scheduled for St. John last November but, as often happens in island life, the book wasn’t ready in time. Friends in Coral Bay turned out anyway for the “It’s Almost a Book!” book party. Food by Coral Bay Catering and small business support from Celia Kalousek of CEKA Ventures was so good, no one seemed to notice there wasn’t anything to read.
With St. John powerhouses Celia Kalousek and Erin Pryor Durrell.
NOT ON ANY MAP made it back to the island before I did. All through a dreary February and March up North, readers sent me pictures of my book on the beach, a sight I finally got to see in person in April when I returned for two terrific book signings at Pirate’s Cove in Coral Bay and Papaya Cafe & Bookstore in Cruz Bay. I even had my first fan encounter when a reader recognized me at a bar in Coral Bay.
At the book signing at Papaya Cafe and Bookstore on St. John with badass hiker Jennifer Knowles.
When your flight leaves before the book signing, but you randomly run into the author in Coral Bay, that’s so St. John. Not pictured: Artist Bryan McKinney, who drew the map in the book, tending bar behind us. PHOTO: Ellen Long
