Swinging on the Garden Gate (Second Edition)

A Memoir of Bisexuality and Spirit

By: Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, Karen Oliveto

Narrated by: Jenna Rose Stein

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

• Foreword by Bishop Karen Oliveto. Oliveto is the first openly lesbian bishop to be elected in the United Methodist Church.
• Resonates with young people as it is both a memoir of coming of age and of coming out.
• Listeners looking for queer stories—Cultural shifts in the last twenty years have greatly impacted the book industry and book-consuming public. People are actively looking for queer stories and this memoir of bisexuality and spirituality is one of a kind.
• Award-winning and beloved writer and teacher—since the initial publication of Swinging on the Garden Gate, Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew has gone on to become a respected teacher and writer. She has published award-winning books on the craft of writing spiritual memoir and revision as a spiritual practice and so it is a wonderful tribute to her career to introduce into audio her own stunning memoir.

©2021 Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew (P)2024 Skinner House Books

Critic reviews

“In this beautifully written book, Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew invites the reader into her life. With great vulnerability, she provides a window into her world as she seeks a path that will lead her home to herself as a bisexual woman and an at-one-ment with God. Elizabeth doesn’t sugarcoat or sweep things under the rug. Instead, she holds her many experiences up so that the Divine Light might reveal the dazzling beauty, unexpected grace, and sacred wisdom held within them. May Elizabeth’s story be an invitation to examine your own story.”—from the foreword by Bishop Karen Oliveto

“This intimate memoir of unfolding sexuality and spirituality invites us to behold and experience beautiful queerness manifesting the image of God. It is also gift for anyone, of any sexual orientation, who dares to imagine a faith conjoined with erotic longing and love.”—Rev. Heidi Neumark, author of Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx, Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan, and Executive Director of Trinity Place Shelter for LGBTQ+ Youth

“The most important decision anyone can make is to live ‘divided no more,’ to cease acting on the outside in ways that contradict truths one holds deeply on the inside. Swinging on the Garden Gate is a memoir of one woman’s journey into the undivided life. Written with honesty, grace and power, this book is a joy to read, and more. Read carefully, it will call us toward congruence in our own lives, toward an incarnation of truth that will set us—and our world—free.”—Parker J. Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak, Healing the Heart of Democracy, and On the Brink of Everything