Category Archives: Memoir

My Seven Black Fathers

Picador
Paperback
240 pages • $18.00
ISBN: 9781250867186

A Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Me Whole

Will Jawando

“A manifesto on the importance of intergenerational mentorship in the Black community.”

—Manuel Betancourt, The New York Times

As a boy growing up outside DC, Will, who went by his Nigerian name, Yemi, was shunted from school to school, never quite fitting in. He was a Black kid with a divorced white mother, a frayed relationship with his biological father, and teachers who scolded him for being disruptive. Eventually, he became close to Kalfani, a kid he looked up to on the basketball court. Years after he got the call telling him that Kalfani was dead, another victim of gun violence, Will looks back on the relationships he had with a series of extraordinary mentors who enabled him to thrive. Among them were Mr. Williams, the rare Black male grade school teacher, who found a way to bolster Will’s self-esteem; Deen Sanwoola, the businessman who helped him bridge the gap between his American upbringing and his Nigerian heritage, eventually leading to a dramatic reconciliation with his biological father; and President Barack Obama, who made Will his associate director of public engagement at the White House. Without the influence of these men, Will knows he would not be who he is today: a civil rights and education policy attorney, a civic leader, a husband, and a father. Drawing on Will’s inspiring personal story, My Seven Black Fathers offers a transformative way for Black men to shape the next generation.

Will Jawando is an attorney, an activist, a community leader, and a councilmember in Montgomery County, Maryland, a diverse community of more than one million residents. Called “the progressive leader we need” by the late congressman John Lewis, Jawando has worked with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Sherrod Brown, and President Barack Obama. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post and The Root and on BET.com, and his work has been featured in The New York Times and New York magazine and on NPR, NBC News, and MTV. He regularly appears on CNN, MSNBC, and other media outlets.

All Boys Aren’t Blue

Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR
Hardcover
320 pages • $18.99
ISBN: 9780374312718

A Memoir-Manifesto

George M. Johnson

“An exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects.”

—Jennifer Harlan, The New York Times Book Review

In their groundbreaking young adult memoir, prominent writer and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson shares both glorious and gut-wrenching memories of growing up Black and queer in America. From getting bullied at age five, to visiting flea markets with their loving grandmother, to the thrilling frontiers of first relationships, Johnson’s early life is a profound tapestry of everyday experiences. As a rising star in cultural criticism, Johnson turns their passion for exploring intersectional identities to their own life by weaving questions of gender, masculinity, brotherhood, family, and Black joy throughout their stories. Posing the same questions to the reader, they invites us to consider what social influences have governed our own lives. Most central to Johnson’s journey is how to reconcile their Blackness and their queerness—identities that are sometimes at odds in their story. The answer is a reassuring testimony for queer men of color: They are equal parts to a whole and perfectly designed person. The bravery with which Johnson shares their story is breathtaking. All Boys Aren’t Blue establishes their legacy as an essential voice among young adults for generations to come.

George M. Johnson is a writer and activist based in New York. Johnson has written on race, gender, sex, and culture for Essence, The Advocate, BuzzFeed News, Teen Vogue, and more than forty other national publications. They have appeared on BuzzFeed’s AM2DM as well as on MSNBC.

All Boys Aren’t Blue has been adopted for First-Year Experience programs at:

Kean University (NJ)

Normal Sucks

St. Martin’s Griffin
Paperback
256 pages • $17.99
ISBN: 9781250771261

How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines

Jonathan Mooney

“As an accessible primer on reassessing disability and mental health, it’s invaluable, and as an exploration of what it’s like to grow up feeling different, it’s incredibly cathartic.”

—Vanity Fair

Growing up, it didn’t take long for Jonathan Mooney to figure out he was considered not normal. He was a neurodiverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD who didn’t learn to read until he was twelve, and trying to fit into the box of normalcy cost him his education, his sense of self, his friendships—and nearly his life. The realization that he wasn’t broken but the idea of normal was saved Mooney’s life. Framed as a letter to his own sons, Normal Sucks blends memoir, anecdote, and expertise to show us what happens to kids and adults who are trapped in environments that shame them and tell them, in both subtle and heartbreakingly blatant ways, that they are “not normal” and that they are the problem. Diving into the history of the concept, Mooney explores how people in power have used the term normal for centuries to keep diverse and outsider perspectives silent and compassionately investigates the lasting effects of shame, segregation, and oppression. But Mooney also offers hope—and a way forward—arguing that if we can reorient the ways in which we think about diversity and ability, if we can finally admit that “normal sucks,” then we can truly start a revolution. This inspiring book will move and empower us all to embrace and celebrate our differences.

Jonathan Mooney’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, HBO, NPR, and ABC News, and he continues to speak across the nation about neurological and physical diversity, inspiring those who live with differences and advocating for change. His books include The Short Bus and Learning Outside the Lines.

Normal Sucks has been adopted for First-Year Experience programs at:

Georgia Southern University; Onondaga Community College (NY); University of the District of Columbia; Western Carolina University (NC)

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My Side of the River

St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover
272 pages • $29.00
ISBN: 9781250277954

A Memoir

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

“Elizabeth Camarillo’s My Side of the River is the book that everyone should read to understand the depth of the strength and achievements of Latinos in the United States. Poignant and tender, hers is an inspiring journey that will most certainly illuminate the path for many others.”

—Rafael Agustin, author of Illegally Yours

Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips as she entered her freshman year of high school as the number one student. But suddenly, Elizabeth’s own country took away the most important right a child has: a right to have a family. As her parents’ visas expired, they were forced to return to Mexico, leaving Elizabeth responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being “a statistic,” she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide. Armed with only her passport and sheer teenage determination, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied, homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws. My Side of the River explores separation, generational trauma, and the toll of the American dream. It’s also, at its core, a love story between a brother and a sister who, no matter the cost, is determined to make the pursuit of his own dreams easier than it was for her.

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, as a second-generation immigrant. She graduated high school at the top of her class and in 2018, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics. She worked as a banking analyst at Wells Fargo and is now a product manager at a Big Tech company, where she uses her background and knowledge to empower communities. She has been featured on NPR’s Latino USA and delivered a viral Ted Talk on finding opportunity and stability in the U.S. while examining flaws in narratives that simplify and idealize the immigrant experience. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Somebody’s Daughter

Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book
Paperback
224 pages • $17.99
ISBN: 9781250203229

A Memoir

Ashley C. Ford

“Somebody’s Daughter is the heart-wrenching yet equally witty and wondrous story of how Ford came through the fire and emerged triumphant, as her own unapologetic, Black-girl self.”

—Bridgett M. Davis, The New York Times

Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down. Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor, Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration and explores how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK. She was also the host of the first season of Audible’s literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine‘s 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine‘s Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York‘s New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019).

The Death of My Father the Pope

Picador
Paperback
304 pages • $18.00
ISBN: 9781250858900

A Memoir

Obed Silva

“The Death of My Father the Pope details Silva’s compelling journey back to the homeland in Chihuahua, Mexico, to bury his father and make peace with their unresolved embattled relationship.”

—Rigoberto González,San Francisco Chronicle

A man mourning his alcoholic father faces a paradox: to pay tribute, lay scorn upon, or pour a drink. Weaving between the preparations for his father’s funeral and memories of life on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border, Obed Silva chronicles his father’s alcoholism—a lifelong love that ended only at the age of forty-eight, at his death, having poisoned himself one Carta Blanca at a time. Addiction respects no borders; the havoc Silva’s father wreaked on his family not only followed them north, where mother and son moved to escape his violent, drunken rages, but also would make its effects felt even from the grave. With a wry cynicism; a profane, profound anger; an antic, brutally honest voice; and a hard-won classical frame of reference, Silva channels the heartbreak of mourning while wrestling with the resentment and frustration caused by addiction. The Death of My Father the Pope is a fluid and dynamic combination of memoir and an examination of the power of language and is the introduction of a unique and powerful literary voice.

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico Obed Silva immigrated to the United States as a toddler. After years in the gang lifestyle—which left him paralyzed from the waist down, the result of a gunshot wound—he discovered the power of book learning, earned a master’s degree in medieval literature, and is now a respected English professor at East Los Angeles College. The Death of My Father the Pope is his first book.

Uphill

Henry Holt Paperbacks
Paperback
256 pages • $18.99
ISBN: 9781250624369

A Memoir

Jemele Hill

“With a skilled hand, Hill captures the nuances of workplace discrimination and its toll while also providing a guide for others—especially women of color—to persevere.”

—Rajpreet Heir, The New York Times

When Jemele Hill called President Trump a “white supremacist,” the world came crashing down on her. But she didn’t buckle. Growing up in Detroit, Hill had faced tougher adversaries than a tweeting president. Born to a teen mother and a heroin-addicted father, Hill had the kind of childhood that seemed to destine her for inheriting her mother’s and grandmother’s pain. Yet within herself Hill found the steel will to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma. She escaped by writing. Once Hill started to speak her mind with truth and conviction, she began rising—and never stopped, becoming one of America’s most recognizable, trusted journalists. In this unapologetic, eloquent, and empowering memoir, Jemele Hill finally shares her whole journey Uphill.

Jemele Hill is the Emmy Award–winning former cohost of ESPN’s SportsCenter and 2018 NABJ Journalist of the Year. Hill is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, where she covers the intersection of sports, race, politics, and culture. She is also the producer of a Disney/ESPN documentary with Colin Kaepernick. She grew up in Detroit, graduated from Michigan State University, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Hometown Victory

Flatiron Books
Hardcover
240 pages • $28.99
ISBN: 9781250807632

A Coach’s Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home

Keanon Lowe with Justin Spizman

The buzz from the stands falls away as Coach Lowe looks around the huddle. In his players’ eyes, he can see two things: this team hasn’t won a single game in twenty-three tries, and now they’re looking to him to change that. Only months before, Coach Lowe was standing on a sideline next to Colin Kaepernick, with a plum NFL coaching job and a burgeoning career. But then his childhood friend and former teammate suddenly died from an opioid overdose. He dropped everything and returned home to a neglected neighborhood on the east side of Portland, Oregon, where he picked up a job coaching football at Parkrose High School. The lessons Coach Lowe brings to the field come from his own life defining experiences: stepping up to be the man of the house at eight years old, finding crucial support and mentorship on a football team, and learning to lead during a sparkling college career. Now, as the underdogs kick off their season, it’s time to see if hard work and tough love pay off. Especially as the school community grapples with an unimaginable shock and tragedy. With the heart of favorite football classics—The Blind Side, Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans—Coach Lowe’s journey at Parkrose is the true account of a life spent striving forward, even when the odds are stacked against you. Hometown Victory is a story about gratitude, service, and most of all, hope.

Keanon Lowe is a football coach and former Division I football player for the Oregon Ducks. He gained widespread media attention in May 2019 after disarming an active school shooter and embracing him until the police arrived. After playing as a wide receiver for half a decade, Lowe went to work in Philadelphia as an analyst for the Philadelphia Eagles and then as an offensive analyst for the San Francisco 49ers. He was the head coach for both football and track and field at Parkrose High School.

Justin Spizman is an award-winning and bestselling author, ghostwriter, and editor. He has worked on We Rise with Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Taking Your Team to the Top with Ted Sundquist, and is the coauthor of Don’t Give Up . . . Don’t Ever Give Up: The Inspiration of Jimmy V. Justin lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his family.

Crossing the Line

St. Martin’s Griffin
Paperback
304 pages • $17.99
ISBN: 9781250837165

A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever

Kareem Rosser

“Crossing the Line is truly a special book. It will not just
leave you with hope, but also ideas on how to make that
hope transferable. Kareem’s remarkable story is one that
should be read and understood by all.”

—Wes Moore, former White House Fellow, and New York Times bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore

Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom,” a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of the Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after-school job in exchange for riding lessons. What starts as an accidental discovery turns into a love for horseback riding that leads to the Rossers’ newfound passion for polo. Pursuing the sport with determination and discipline, Kareem earns his place among the typically exclusive players in college, becoming part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team—all while struggling to keep his family together. Crossing the Line is a story of the bonds of brotherhood, family loyalty, the transformative connection between man and horse, and overcoming impossible odds.

Kareem Rosser is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. in economics from Colorado State University (CSU). While at CSU, he led his collegiate polo team to a national polo championship. At the same time, he was honored as the Intercollegiate Polo Player of the Year. After graduation, Kareem began working as a financial analyst at an asset management firm. Also, he serves as the Executive Director of a nonprofit fundraising arm called Friends of Work to Ride.

Crossing the Line has been adopted for First-Year Experience programs at:

Arcadia University (PA); Elms College (MA); and South Dakota State University

Brothers on Three

Celadon Books
Paperback
384 pages • $19.99
ISBN: 9781250210692

A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana

Abe Streep

“Streep draws out the adolescent boys—no small feat—and writes evocatively about their community, their dreams beyond their tiny town and the pull that keeps them close. What emerges is an immersive portrait of a small tribal town where shared history runs deep, opportunity feels elusive, and basketball is a visceral expression of collective pride, hope and grit that Streep says sits ‘somewhere between escape and religion.’”

—Sam Dolnick, The New York Times

March 11, 2017, was a night to remember: in front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members, and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to the Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in Montana history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on—senior year was just beginning. In Brothers on Three, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches, and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future. Brothers on Three is not simply a story about high school basketball, state championships, and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood.

Abe Streep has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Outside, The California Sunday Magazine, Wired, The Columbia Journalism Review, and Harper’s Magazine. His writing has been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing; and noted by Best American Essays; and Best American Science and Nature Writing. He was a recipient of the 2019 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for deep reporting on underrepresented communities.