Meet Libby Delana, author of Cold Joy

Libby DeLana illuminates the many physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of cold water in her new book, Cold Joy

Tell us about your new book and why we will love it?

Cold Joy is about plunging into cold water, but more, it is about how we meet ourselves in challenge. It is story, reflection, and invitation. You will love it because it is not about perfection, it is about showing up. It is about friendship, ritual, and courage. Cold water wakes the body and opens the spirit. The book holds both science and tenderness, facts and feelings, a reminder that joy is found in cold edges.

What is your relationship with swimming?

I don’t really swim, not in the usual sense. I get in the water to get cold. That is the ritual. Lakes, oceans, bays, all of it. The point is the chill, the way it wakes me. In Cold Joy, I write about how stepping into cold water became a steady companion, a way to be immersed in awe and wonder. The water holds our collective stories. It connects us, carries memory, and reminds us of our place inside the natural world.

What do you prefer, fact or fiction?

I love fact. I love knowing how things work, what research tells us about water, about the nervous system, about resilience. Cold Joy holds plenty of science. But I also love the intimacy of story, the way fiction folds us into lives we do not know. I lean toward fact in my own work, but I read both. Facts give grounding, fiction gives flight. Together, they create balance. I need both to feel fully awake to the world.

How does water inspire your writing?

Water is both subject and teacher. In Cold Joy, I write about how it teaches resilience, presence, joy. Cold water insists on attention. You do not scroll or wander, you are there. That attention inspires how I write. It asks for clarity and honesty. Cold water dipping opens space for ideas to surface. It washes the clutter away.

Where is your favourite place to dip?

Horseshoe Cove in Northern California: quiet, expansive and brimming with bird life. The tides shift, seals watch, light changes by the minute. It is where many stories in Cold Joy unfold. I love other waters, too. Merrimack River, Maine lakes, New Hampshire rivers. But Horseshoe Cove feels like a second home. Each swim there is different, each dip feels alive with texture. It is where I feel closest to the earth, most grateful for water’s gift.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I walk every morning, no matter where I am. That is non-negotiable. Cold water most days, too. Then I write. Not always pages of a book, sometimes notes, sometimes observations. Writing is daily, though the form shifts. I spend time reading, tending community, working with creative projects. A day is full of walking, water, words. That rhythm anchors me. Cold Joy grew from these habits, steady, simple, repeated with love.

Can you tell us about the next creative project?

Yes, I am working on This Morning Walk, a reflection on the practice of walking every day for more than a decade. Like Cold Joy, it is about ritual and presence, about ordinary acts becoming extraordinary. I am also playing with ideas about aging, calling it Ripe Peaches. Always there are notebooks filled with fragments. The next project will hold walking, friendship, and nature. Cold Joy is first, but the path keeps going.