Winner of the 2022 Firebird Book Award in Biographical Fiction and Women's Fiction.

Singer-songwriter Carol Selick traces her coming of age in the tumultuous Sixties and early Seventies in a new autobiographical novel, "Beyond the Song." Beginning each chapter with lyrics she wrote and still performs today, she breezily describes the development of her alter-ego, Carol Marks, as she rebels against her strict suburban upbringing and joins the counter-culture, hoping to make it in the music business.

The author graduated from Rutgers and now performs a repertoire of jazz, rhythm and blues, pop, and her own work. Selick taught piano and voice for many years, and her recordings include "Life is Believing in You" and "Just Gonna Think About Today." She recently recorded "Come On Down" with her jazz trumpeter husband, Gordon James, which includes original New Orleans style music.