The Salt God's Daughter

Set in Long Beach, California, beginning in the 1970s, The Salt God’s Daughter follows Ruthie and her sister, Dolly as they carve out a life in a place filled with natural beauty, meteorological myths, and exotic folklore. Raised by a mother drawn to the ocean and guided by the moons, their heritage is a mystery and their mother often absent, forcing the two girls to confront the social and sexual mores of the time on their own, caught in the riptide of a culture that alternately glorifies and demonizes female sexuality. Ruthie's daughter, Naida, is born into this conflicting landscape with a secret she tries to keep hidden, bullied and harassed by her peers as she seeks out the father she never knew. Woven with a traditional Scottish folktale and hints of Jewish mysticism, this examines how far we’ll go to find our place in a world that is often hostile to those who are different.

Ilie Ruby grew up in Rochester, NY and lived in Long Beach, California, where she was a fifth grade teacher. She is the winner of the Edwin L. Moses Award for Fiction, chosen by T.C. Boyle; a Kerr Foundation Fiction Scholarship; and the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Creative Achievement in Fiction. She is also the winner of the Wesleyan Writer's Conference Davidoff Scholarship in Nonfiction and the Kemp Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship. She graduated from the Masters of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California where she held the position of fiction editor of The Southern California Anthology.