Viola Davis wrote a memoir and it's coming out in less than a year

‘This is my story… straight no chaser.’
July 21, 2021 9:19 a.m. EST
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Viola Davis is putting pen to paper and sharing her story with the world. The prolific Emmy, Oscar and Tony-winning actor has announced that her memoir, Finding Me, is dropping next April.

The book spans Davis’ life story, told in her own words, tracing her journey from Rhode Island, where she grew up in poverty and with family violence, all the way to her notable, present-day career. “I believe that our stories, and the courage to share them, is the most powerful empathetic tool we have,” she said in a statement. “This is my story… straight no chaser.”

Davis also announced the news to her fans on Instagram, sharing a screenshot of the Essence article first announcing the book. “From my heart….both excited and terrified to share,” she captioned the post. 

Finding Me goes on sale April 19, 2022 and will be published by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, in partnership with Ebony Magazine Publishing. Those backing the project describe it as a “true hero’s journey."

“Deeply personal, brutally honest, and riveting, Finding Me is a timeless and spellbinding memoir that will capture the hearts and minds of Ms. Davis’s legions of fans around the world,” HarperOne added.

Those legions of fans have come to Davis’ works through all kinds of platforms, whether it be her starring TV role in the recently ended How to Get Away With Murder, her stage work on plays like Fences and King Hedley II, or her big screen gigs with movies like Fences, The Help and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

It was Davis’ recent Best Actress Oscar nomination for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, that made her the most-nominated Black actress in the history of the Academy Awards with four official nods (a record she calls "a reflection of the lack of opportunities... people of colour have in this business"). She was also nominated for The Help and the 2008 Doubt, but it was in 2017 that she won, for Fences.

In addition to writing about her life, the 55-year-old has also been busy filming The Suicide Squad and working on the upcoming Showtime drama First Lady, in which she has dual roles producing and playing former first lady Michelle Obama. She’s also producing a handful of upcoming projects with her husband, Julius Tennon, through their company, JuVee Productions.

“Viola Davis is a powerful truth teller—through her work on stage and screen, as well as in her life,” HarperOne president and publisher Judith Curr said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to working with her on a book that powerfully reveals the risk and danger for a Black woman living in the fullness of her talents and gifts—and the reward and freedom that comes with it.”

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