Author Description

<p><b>Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography </b><br><b>Named a Best Book of the Year by <i>The Observer</i></b><br><br><b>Back in print, a “fusion of cool, clear-eyed prose and watercolors, photographs and painted portraits” (</b><i><b>Time Out New York</b></i><b>) by celebrated author and artist Leanne Shapton, on a sport that has shaped her life. </b><br><br>Intimate with chlorinated space; weightless yet limited; closed off to taste, sound, and most sight; acutely aware of the clock: this is a swimmer’s state. When ten-year-old Leanne Shapton joins an Ontario township swim team with her brother, she finds an affinity for its rhythms—and spends years training, making it to the Olympic trials twice. <br><br><i>Swimming Studies</i> reflects on her time immersed in a world of rigor and determination, routine and competition, pairing together contemplative essays and paintings. Vivid details of an aquatic life appear: adolescence in suburban Canada, dawn risings for morning practice, bus rides with teammates, a growing collection of swimsuits, dips in lakes and oceans. When she trades athletic pursuits for artistic ones, the metrics of moving through water endure. <br><br>In these elegant and potent meditations, Shapton renders swimming as a mode of experiencing time, movement, and perspective, capable of shaping our lives in every environment.</p>