With razor-sharp wit and unabashed honesty, Michele Carlo takes readers on her hilarious and shocking ride of growing up as red-headed, freckle-faced Puerto Rican in the Italian 'hood of the Bronx—when it was burning—on through her adult life in Brooklyn where she eventually learns to accept herself, her family, and her cultural identity.

About Fish Out of Agua:
Fish Out of Agua is a loving and laugh-out-loud coming-of-age memoir for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, tried drugs, hated her parents for a day, lost her virginity, struggled to support her new (albeit modest) adult life, or even dreamt of big-city life. Readers will relish Michele Carlo's warm and distinctive retelling of her many rites of passage. By turns heartbreaking and humorous, she recalls the family calamities, fumblings of first love, and all the people and events that shaped her. From her "playground battlefield" in the not-so-wholesome summer of '69 to many adrenaline-fueled, graffiti-filled afternoons, to her emergence as an artist with a unique and alluring voice, Michele's story is an homage to a New York City gone by—and an iconically American, unforgettable portrait of growing up.

About the author:
Michele Carlo is a writer, performer, and comedic storyteller who has lived in four of the five boroughs of New York City. Her stories have been published in Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, Lost and Found: Stories from New York, and Smith Magazine. She has often appeared with The Moth and other NYC storytelling communities. Like almost every other writer in NYC, Michele is a Brooklynite (since 1988) with no plans of leaving anytime soon.