Rose, Isabel 1968–

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Rose, Isabel 1968–

PERSONAL: Born 1968; married (divorced); children: one. Education: Graduated from Yale University, (summa cum laude); Bennington College, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Doubleday Press, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Novelist, screenwriter, actor, and singer. Worked as a singer in New York, NY; actor in numerous stage productions and in film Anything but Love.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named Best Up and Coming Actress, San Diego International Film Festival.

WRITINGS:

(With Robert Cary) Anything but Love (screenplay), Samuel Goldwyn, 2003.

The J.A.P. Chronicles (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel.

SIDELIGHTS: Isabel Rose worked for years as a stage actor and then as a singer before cowriting her first screenplay and penning her first novel. Anything but Love, which she cowrote with Robert Cary, is an independent film that tells the story of Billie Golden, a struggling cabaret singer who lives with her alcoholic mother while dreaming of fame and fortune. Billie is fond of the clothing styles depicted in the movies of the 1940s and 1950s and sings old-style torch songs. As Billie struggles to make it, she finds herself involved with two men and must decide which is the right one for her. In a review for About.com, Rebecca Murray called the film "a loving tribute to the beauty and style of movies from the '40s and '50s."

Rose's novel The J.A.P. Chronicles tells the tale of a group of women who once attended the exclusive summer resort for Jewish kids called Camp Willow Lake. Former camper Ali Cohen has returned to the camp years later as a successful documentary filmmaker out to make a movie about her youth. But Ali's life at camp was not especially a happy one since she was a social outcast and tormented by the other girls. As a part of her documentary, she hopes to find out what happened to the other girls at the camp over the years, and learns that their once-promising futures have often not materialized. "It's chick-lit for sure, but Rose gives it some extra oomph, and following the roller-coaster plot provides quite a rush," wrote a Kirkus Reviewscontributor. Sarah Rachel Egelman, writing for Bookreporter.com, noted that the book "has charming moments and is often witty." In a review on the Romantic Times Web site, Tara Gelsomino wrote that the various women's "stories are heartbreaking and hilarious by turns."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Back Stage West, November 6, 2003, Dany Margolies, "All's Swell: Isabel Rose Hearkens Back to the Heyday of Movie Musicals to Make Her Very Modern Dreams Come True," p. 10.

Daily Variety, October 1, 2003, Lily Oei, "Book Deal Smells Sweet to 'Love's' Rose," p. 5.

Entertainment Weekly, November 28, 2003, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Anything but Love, p. 102.

Hollywood Reporter, December 4, 2003, Kirk Honeycutt, review of Anything but Love, p. 24.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005, review of The J.A.P. Chronicles.

Publishers Weekly, October 6, 2003, John F. Baker, "Doubleday's Deb Futter Bought a First Novel by a Young Actress/Screenwriter Whose First Movie (Anything but Love) Comes out Shortly," p. 11; March 14, 2005, review of The J.A.P. Chronicles, p. 44.