Acquisition: Julie Salmon Kelleher’s debut novel, THE SEA-GLASS SHORE

Forest Avenue is thrilled to announce the acquisition of Julie Salmon Kelleher’s debut novel, THE SEA-GLASS SHORE, for publication in fall 2026.

When Jack, librarian and curator of legends, meets Rona, she puts aside her sealskin to live as his human wife. Jack knows all selkie stories end the same: the seal-woman always finds her stolen skin and leaves. But he hasn’t stolen Rona’s skin, and they both believe their relationship is different. He doesn’t need to be that guy. She doesn’t need to run. But as their children grow into troubled teens, Jack and Rona begin falling into roles they’ve sworn to put aside.

Most selkie stories are about the beginning or the end, but this one is about the middle. How do you live with a family past of people disappearing into the sea? How do you avoid the same wrong act everyone has committed before you? And what is love—for a child, a spouse, a mortal world—in the face of history?

Set in a mythic, contemporary Pacific Northwest shaped by Native and European storytelling, artist communes, and corporate fakelore, THE SEA-GLASS SHORE is a domestic fable about the power of the past and the making of a daily present.

“Our reading committee swooned over THE SEA-GLASS SHORE and how Julie combines mythic elements with domestic ones,” said Publisher Laura Stanfill. “It feels true in the way the best fiction does. I can’t wait to tell everyone to read this novel.”

Forest Avenue is still working on submissions from the 2025 open period and will be announcing additional acquisitions.

Julie Salmon Kelleher grew up in five different towns in Washington State. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Reed College and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and currently teaches courses on humanities, nature literature, and fantasy writing in the Honors College at Western Washington University. Her publications include scholarship in Mythlore and Victorian Studies, and creative nonfiction on the folklore of Irish saints in LETTERS and Relief. Granddaughter to an Irish lawyer, an English teacher, a farm wife, and a logger turned dairyman, she lives with her family in a Cascadian college town, midway between the mountains and the sea.

Julie Salmon Kelleher is a Washington State author. Photo by Tiffany Brooks