.png)
GAIL SPILSBURY
Gail Spilsbury founded Bergamot Books in 2003 to develop, edit, and print art historical books. In 2011, Bergamot expanded to handle print-on-demand and e-books in the humanities, in addition to offering full editorial services to authors and publishers.​ Gail has been a career book editor for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, National Geographic, and the Peabody Essex Museum. As editor in chief for Bergamot Books, she has helped numerous authors develop and write their books.
​
Gail is the author of the novel Natalie & Antonella in Rome (also translated into Italian); There Are Places (short stories); Visits (chapbook); That Year in Boston (novel); Sabina Quartet (novel, also translated into Italian); two children’s books Tiger of the Caesars and Sid’s Book about Me; and two cultural landscape histories, A Washington Sketchbook and Rock Creek Park.​ Three of Gail’s screenplays have been optioned, and she has written numerous film reviews for the Boston City Paper, archived here. She wrote the contemporary fiction podcast series Red Line (also available on iTunes “Redline Boston Fiction Series”), and recorded two readings of her work: “Remembering Margaret Fuller” and “Visits,” both available on YouTube.
​
Gail lives in Boston and recently taught at Emerson College in the Writing, Literature, and Publishing department.
TITLES
In Rome, two dynamic European interpreters with differing generational view of men, love, and relationships agree on one thing—upholding their freedom and equality as women. All is torn asunder when they meet soulmates, opening the possibility that love can transcend traditional gender roles.
​
Also available in Italian translation.
These stories, set during the 1970’s social revolution, share truths about our collective lives. The protagonists are coming-of-age women, excited to impact the new paradigm of equal rights, freedom from sexual harassment, and dismantlement of the patriarchy that has held them back. Each story creates a living stage of families, lovers, and society mired in timeworn conflicts, yet the young women in their struggles for selfhood demonstrate human resiliency and the ability to gain wisdom and a path toward wholeness in life’s mysterious journey.
Visits is the story of a family going through the death of an elder member. It’s set in Pennsylvania’s “Schuylkill Valley,” a region of early German settlers who came to be known as the Pennsylvania Dutch (Dutch for Deutsch). Seen through a granddaughter’s eyes.
"From the first pages that dropped me into the world of a Schuylkill family and connected me with nature that formed and mirrored them, I was engaged. The emotions and experiences of Ellie, the ganddaughter/narrator became mine as I struggled to understand and process the always complex world of an intergenerational family. Highly recommended!"
"Beautifully written, captures the moment when families are suddenly dividing because of different goals, ambitions, social status, and lifestyles."
—Jarek Anders, literary critic
—Amazon customer
You won’t find it easy to resist Tiger’s droll voice as he tells the story of his early childhood adventures in Rome, Italy, with his American-Costa Rican family.
"Cat lovers will delight in meandering through Tiger’s “autobiography” as he recounts the adventures of his youth as the mischievous, much-indulged, and much-adored pet of a multigenerational and multicultural family residing in Rome."
—Amazon customer
Red Line is an audio fiction serial about Pia, a millennial, whose heart is set on living in Boston near the Red Line and the twists and turns in her new job and and new love life.
"More Please! Found this and listened to all of it over three days!"
—Amazon customer
Sid lives in Rome, Italy, and has so many passions. One day he receives a book that intrigues him so much that he can work on nothing else. Then something happens that prevents him from concluding his adventure with the book—that is, until Christmas comes around and a near miracle happens.
"I read this book during a recent first trip to Boston. It was such a captivating guide through the city’s lovely parks and historic sights that I was completely smitten with Boston as well as the story. The novel is a complicated love story very deftly navigated by the author. Set in the publishing world, it’s a fascinating picture of that fast-paced world and its brainy people. Ardent readers will enjoy the many references and allusions to great novels and films."
—Amazon customer
Four seasonal tales set in the olive hills outside Rome—Sabina Quartet currently in Italian translation only, needs an English edition for Italiophiles!
"Sabina Quartet, its exotic pulse, its quixotic characters, its vividness of place born of an elegant prose and sense of connection, its slow, sensuous seduction—all of this and more brings to the reader an intimacy of irresistible charm and insight."
Washington, DC, lovers and history buffs, this is the book for you, rediscovering the lost history of the Capital City’s cultural landscapes. It includes beautiful drawings by a famous Brooklyn gynecologist named Robert L. Dickinson, who also helped Margaret Sanger launch Planned Parenthood
A timeless treasure—both the park and this homage to it.
MEDIA
Gail’s article in the Boston Globe on Monhegan, Maine’s historic colony of plein air painters
Gail’s film reviews for the Boston City Paper are archived at gailspilsbury.blogspot.com, sample review
"A Portuguese Novelist Writes in English," in It’s All About Arts Magazine
Cartographer Gene Schele writes about the Washington Sketchbook