While this season’s titles focus largely on identity, fans of celebrity memoirs have offerings from Paris Hilton and Elliot Page, among others, to look forward to.
Top 10
Beyond This Harbor: Adventurous Tales of Heart and Home
Rose Styron. Knopf, June 13 ($32, ISBN 978-0-525-65902-0)
Poet, journalist, and Amnesty International USA cofounder Styron reflects on her marriage to Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist William Styron and their shared literary life.
King: A Life
Jonathan Eig. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 16 ($35, ISBN 978-0-374-27929-5)
Journalist and PEN/ESPN Award winner Eig takes an in-depth look at the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his lasting impact on social justice and American history. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
A Living Remedy: A Memoir
Nicole Chung. Ecco, Apr. 4 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-063-03161-6)
Chung recounts her father’s death from kidney disease, her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and the complicated bonds between a daughter and her adoptive parents. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Pageboy: A Memoir
Elliot Page. Flatiron, June 6 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-87835-9)
Umbrella Academy star Page opens up about coming out as transgender, his personal relationships, and his experiences in Hollywood. 750,000-copy announced first printing.
Paris: The Memoir
Paris Hilton. Dey Street, Mar. 21 ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-063-22462-9)
Socialite Hilton reveals the woman behind the carefully crafted public persona. 200,000-copy announced first printing.
A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining
Rachel Elizabeth Cargle. Ballantine, May 16 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-593-13473-3)
Activist and The Cut contributor Cargle crafts a guide to personal transformation that doubles as a toolkit for cultural liberation.
Sink: A Memoir
Joseph Earl Thomas. Grand Central, Feb. 21 ($28, ISBN 978-1-538-70617-6)
Thomas details growing up in a dysfunctional, abusive family and plunging headfirst into the world of geek culture to escape his grim environment.
True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times
Robert Greenfield. Crown, Apr. 11 ($30, ISBN 978-0-525-57595-5)
Former Rolling Stone editor Greenfield examines the meteoric rise of actor and playwright Sam Shepard, along with his relationships with pop culture trailblazers.
Women We Buried, Women We Burned: A Memoir
Rachel Louise Snyder. Bloomsbury, Mar. 7 ($29, ISBN 978-1-635-57912-3)
Guggenheim Fellow Snyder chronicles her path from being a teenage runaway to a globe-trotting reporter determined to amplify the voices of those who are ignored or silenced. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir
Maggie Smith. One Signal, Apr. 11 ($28, ISBN 978-1-982-18585-5)
Poet Smith recounts the breakdown of her marriage and her struggle to reach a place of self-forgiveness.
Memoirs & Biographies Listings
Abrams Image
Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto by Zachary Zane (May 9, $26, ISBN 978-1-4197-6471-4). Sex and relationship columnist Zane mines his experiences as a bisexual man in essays that deconstruct conventions and stigmas attached to sex, sexual identity, and relationships.
Abrams
Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It by Greg Marshall (June 13, $28, ISBN 978-1-4197-6360-1). Marshall recalls his Utah childhood and how he has navigated adulthood as a gay man with cerebral palsy.
Toxic: The Story of Nine Famous Women in the Tabloid 2000s by Sarah Ditum (July 25, $27, ISBN 978-1-4197-6311-3) examines the misogynistic celebrity culture of the 2000s and some of the women who were mistreated by the media.
Algonquin
Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult: A Memoir by Michelle Dowd (Mar. 7, $28, ISBN 978-1-64375-185-6). Journalism professor Dowd recalls growing up in an apocalyptic cult founded by her grandfather, and how she gathered the courage to escape.
Amistad
Top Billin’: Stories of Laughter, Lessons, and Triumph by Bill Bellamy (Apr. 25, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-323762-9). The actor and former MTV VJ offers a no-holds-barred look at his time at MTV in the 1990s. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Atria
Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Riesman (Mar. 28, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-982169-44-2) chronicles the ascent of former WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, from his impoverished Southern youth to his reign as a billionaire businessman and champion of the Republican Party.
Bold Type
Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA by Theresa Runstedtler (Mar. 7, $29, ISBN 978-1-64503-695-1) offers an “illuminating” reappraisal of the world of 1970s professional basketball, according to PW’s starred review, that foregrounds the racial equality and social justice efforts of Black players.
Catapult
Breakup: A Marriage in Wartime by Anjan Sundaram (Apr. 11, $26, ISBN 978-1-64622-115-8). Journalist Sundaram takes stock of the physical, mental, and emotional toll of war reportage as he grapples with his responsibilities as a husband and a father to a newborn.
Coffee House
In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation by Isabel Zapata, trans. by Robin Myers (May 9, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-56689-675-7), ruminates on motherhood, pregnancy, and in vitro fertilization.
Counterpoint
Life B: Overcoming Double Depression by Bethanne Patrick (May 16, $26, ISBN 978-1-64009-129-0). Expanding on an article published on Elle.com, Patrick excavates her maternal family history to understand how mental illness and trauma have shaped her identity.
Crown
When the World Didn’t End: A Memoir by Guinevere Turner (May 23, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-23759-5) describes how growing up in the Lyman Family cult irrevocably altered Turner’s idea of home and shattered her fragile understanding of the world.
Dey Street
Earth to Moon: A Memoir by Moon Unit Zappa (May 9, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-311334-3). The daughter of musician Frank Zappa recounts a whirlwind coming-of-age in 1980s California and forging a sense of self free from her father’s celebrity.
Pat in the City: My Life of Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules by Patricia Field (Feb. 14, $35, ISBN 978-0-06-304832-4). “Costume designer Field makes a sparkling debut with this recollection of her influential career,” according to PW’s review.
Dutton
Choosing to Run: A Memoir by Des Linden (Apr. 4, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-18664-0). Two-time Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Linden details the highs and lows of being a professional athlete and offers words of encouragement to help tackle life’s challenges.
Ecco
A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs (May 9, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-307310-4) combines memoir, criticism, and biography to explore the lives and works of nine influential women writers.
Twentieth-Century Man: The Wild Life of Peter Beard by Christopher Wallace (July 4, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-306641-0) provides a warts-and-all biography of naturalist and wildlife photographer Peter Beard, whose passion for adventure matched his thirst for decadence.
Grand Central
Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother & Daughter Ponder Life’s Big Questions by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd (Apr. 25, $30, ISBN 978-1-5387-2037-0). Academy Award–winning actor Dern and her mother, BAFTA-winning actor Ladd, reflect on life and their relationship. 500,000-copy announced first printing.
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-1-5387-0920-7). Former Brat Pack member McCarthy details his trek with his eldest son across Spain’s Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Grove
Orphan Bachelors by Fae Myenne Ng (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-0-8021-6221-2) examines the 1882 Exclusion Act and the immigration service’s mid-20th-century Confession Program, and how they shaped her family’s history and life in San Francisco.
Harper
Belonging: A Daughter’s Search for Identity Through Love and Loss by Michelle Miller (Mar. 14, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-322043-0). CBS journalist Miller details her search for her birth mother, a white-passing Chicana hospital worker who had an affair with Miller’s Black doctor father. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag by Sasha Velour (Apr. 4, $35, ISBN 978-0-358-50808-3) traces the cultural evolution of drag and its ability to serve as both artistic expression and collective activism. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
HarperOne
Chita: A Memoir by Chita Rivera (Apr. 25, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-322679-1). Three-time Tony Award–winning actor Rivera recounts the challenges she overcame during her life and career.
Hogarth
Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years by Heidi Julavits (June 27, $27, ISBN 978-0-451-49851-9). The founding editor of The Believer contemplates how to prepare her young son for life’s disappointments and heartaches while reflecting on her childhood in Maine.
Holt
Through the Groves: A Memoir by Anne Hull (June 20, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-8050-9337-7). Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Hull recalls her childhood in 1960s Florida, her parents’ dysfunctional marriage, and the growing pains of girlhood.
We Are Too Many: A Memoir [Kind Of] by Hannah Pittard (May 2, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-86904-3) puts a magnifying glass on the author’s marriage, which ended after her husband had an affair with her best friend.
Knopf
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg (May 2, $35, ISBN 978-0-525-65685-2) offers a portrait of the marriage between former South African president Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
Little A
A Place for Us: A Memoir by Brandon J. Wolf (May 2, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-5420-3646-7). LGBTQ activist Wolf chronicles his search for chosen family after leaving his rural Oregon hometown, and later turning grief into action following the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando.
Mariner
Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West by Bryce Andrews (Feb. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-358-46827-1) reconsiders the settling of the American West, and the roles violence and firearms played in it.
Norton
The Critic’s Daughter: A Memoir by Priscilla Gilman (Feb. 7, $28.95, ISBN 978-0-393-65132-4) recounts life in 1970s New York as the daughter of critic Richard Gilman and literary agent Lynn Nesbit, as well as the secrets uncovered after their divorce.
Pantheon
How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin (Mar. 28, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-31705-1). Expanding on his Huffington Post essay “I’m Still Here,” philosophy professor Martin recalls his suicide attempts and considers the philosophical roots of self-destruction.
Penguin Press
Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming by Ava Chin (Apr. 25, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-55737-1). Chin, an M.F.K. Fisher Prize winner, unearths her Chinese American family’s past and reckons with the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Random House
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-24238-4). The author ruminates on growing up in the 1970s, the beauty of the natural world, and his 2020 Central Park confrontation that made international headlines.
The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts (Apr. 18, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-51991-1). Journalist Potts researches poverty in rural Arkansas as she tries to make sense of the fate of her childhood best friend.
Scribner
The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike (Feb. 28, $30, ISBN 978-1-982131-83-8) chronicles the efforts of MIT molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins and others to get the university to acknowledge discrimination against women on its science faculty.
Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir by Beth Nguyen (July 4, $27, ISBN 978-1-982196-34-9). American Book Award winner Nguyen writes of new parenthood and coming to terms with her mother, who stayed in Vietnam at the end of the war.
Seven Stories
A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir of Chronic Illness by Emily Wells (Mar. 21, $20, ISBN 978-1-64421-276-9) combines memoir and literary analysis to detail a childhood marked by ballet dancing and a mysterious chronic illness, as well as the author’s eventual path to wellness.
Simon & Schuster
Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia by Hadley Freeman (Mar. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-982-18983-9). Guardian writer Freeman grapples with her history of anorexia nervosa and examines how treatments for the eating disorder have changed over the years.
Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton (June 6, $28, ISBN 978-1-66800-053-3) visits America’s dwindling lesbian bars and celebrates the sanctity of queer spaces.
St. Martin’s
The Education of Kendrick Perkins by Kendrick Perkins, with Seth Rogoff (Feb. 21, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-28034-3). Perkins, an ESPN commentator and former NBA player, opens up about his ascent from small-town Texas athlete to championship winner.
Tin House
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong (May 16, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-953534-67-5) reflects on identity and growing up on the 1980s Jersey shore as the daughter of working-class Asian American parents.
TOPPLE
Nobody Needs to Know by Pidgeon Pagonis (June 20, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-5420-2946-9). Activist Pagonis charts their path to self-acceptance as a person who was born intersex and challenges society’s misconceptions and stigmas about gender identity.
Univ. of Chicago
On Christopher Street: Life, Sex, and Death After Stonewall by Michael Denneny (Mar. 17, $22.50 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-226-82463-5). Christopher Street magazine cofounder Denneny spotlights the queer community of 1970s and ’80s New York City, incorporating as well his journal entries, articles, and interviews.
Viking
Don’t Call Me Home: A Memoir by Alexandra Auder (Apr. 25, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-29995-1). The actor recounts her upbringing as the daughter of Warhol muse Viva and French filmmaker Michael Auder, and considers the impact of family on self-fulfillment.
