Healing and growth happen in the strangest places . . .

Spanning three years of her life, Grace Hayden's memoir, Fish Food: A Feminist Moby Dick, documents her recovery from trauma involving love and loss. Unable to medicate childhood wounds with alcohol and drugs, Hayden grapples with sex addiction as an obstacle to finding the love and peace she craves. Like Ahab's wounding by the white whale, Hayden humanizes the healing journey, transforming the pain that lingers just below the surface. For her, fly-fishing for muskie in Minnesota and Wisconsin is what allowed her to reconnect with her authentic self; the waters she fished provided transformation. This book—moving, honest, and humorous—is an invitation to follow your bliss.

Grace Alexandra Hayden lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she sells real estate, writes, and fishes. Her screenplays have placed at the Catalyst Content Festival and the Austin Film Festival. Fish Food: A Feminist Moby Dick, a memoir, is her first book.

"Grace Hayden's Fish Food is a story of love and loss, the journey of one woman overcoming generational cycles of brokenness and addiction. But along the path to healing, Grace must overcome a new addiction—men and sex and BDSM—in order to finally become unapologetically herself and fulfill her dream of becoming a fly-fishing guide. This is a moving, sometimes funny, sometimes oh-please-don't-do-that memoir of one woman finally learning to love herself." - Kate Hopper, author of Ready for Air and Use Your Words

"Full of place, philosophy, food, sex, spirits, and healing—not that kind of feel-good miracle of healing, but the catch and release of life. This is the story of the work." - Heid E. Erdrich, author of Little Big Bully and granddaughter of butchers from Little Falls, Minnesota

"Humorous, heartfelt, and achingly honest, Grace Hayden's memoir, Fish Food, recounts the story of her journey from lost little girl to self-realized woman through authentic stories and potent language. Part spirit quest, part confession, at times both tragic and comic, Hayden confidently leads us to places in the river only she can go and plumbs the depths to reveal many hidden truths and treasures." - John Matthew Gillen, author of American Blasphemer: A Novel