Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad to write memoir; Knopf to publish

After swimming from Cuba to Florida in a record-breaking trip that took more than four days, 64-year old Diana Nyad said, “you’re never too old to chase your dream.� She’s now got a chance to put that in writing -- she’ll be publishing a memoir with Knopf, the publisher announced Monday.

“At first blush, this sounds like the story of an epic endurance achievement,� Nyad said in a statement. “But the narrative will follow that drama and expose a lifelong search for meaning ... a hope that life is richer for reaching for the stars, a belief that the noble goal is to arrive at the end with no regrets. The Cuba swim is at long last behind me. The telling of the story lies ahead.�

Nyad had tried to swim from Cuba to the U.S. on four previous occasions, but had been foiled by bad weather and jellyfish stings. Her swim, the first ever without a protective shark cage, was aided by a team that pulled a guideline for her to follow, provided her with nourishment and generated an electrical field around her to keep sharks away.

Nyad has been a prominent endurance swimmer since 1975, when she swam around the island of Manhattan in less than eight hours hours. She is a commentator on television and public radio and has authored three previous books.

In a preview of her new memoir, Nyad writes, “When I turned 60, I was taking the usual ‘life inventory’ of that age. No longer the ego driven youth accounting of what awards I had won, what Halls of Fame I had entered, what accolades I had garnered. My mom had just died, so I was staring in the proverbial mirror, throat tightening, clock ticking. Who was I? What were my values? Was I a person I could truly admire? Was I living a life I could deem worthy? I decided to find something, some quest that would demand my unwavering commitment.�

The book, as yet untitled, is tentatively scheduled for release in 2015.

ALSO:

‘Lord of the Flies’ still a terrifying favorite

50,000 books to be donated to kids by Capital One

Daniel Alarcon’s ‘At Night We Walk in Circles’ is a layered world

Carolyn Kellogg: Join me on Twitter, Facebook and Google+