Patti Smith to release new memoir Year of the Monkey

Patti Smith has revealed details of an upcoming memoir, entitled Year of The Monkey. The book, illustrated with Smith's signature Polaroids, is set to be be released on September 24, and is available to pre-order to now.

The so-called 'punk poet laureate' took to Instagram to share the news, revealing that she "began writing it on New Year's Day, 2016 in cafes, trains and strange motels by the sea, with no particular design, until page by page it became a book." She also shared the book's artwork, featuring a cover photo by Barre Duryea.

 

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This is the cover of Year of the Monkey. I began writing it on New Year’s Day, 2016 in cafes, trains and strange motels by the sea, with no particular design, until page by page it became a book. It is Year of the Monkey. It will be published by Knopf in September. I’m very excited to have new work to report! Cover photo: Barre Duryea

Een bericht gedeeld door This is Patti Smith (@thisispattismith) op 30 Mei 2019 om 5:00 (PDT)

In a statement, Penguin Random House has described the book as "a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year."

The transformative year in question is 2016 -- a year of major political and cultural shifts in America that coincided with the Year of the Monkey on the Chinese calendar. The publisher explains that the year "evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America."

Smith has previously authored several books, including the National Book Award-winning Just Kids, which documented her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, and 2015's acclaimed M Train.

The punk music icon returns to these shores in August for a highly anticipated headline set at All Together Now in Waterford. You can also read her statement about the death of Derry-based journalist Lyra McKee here.