The as-of-yet untitled memoir is expected to debut in spring 2024.
Brittney Griner is opening up about being held for months in Russian prisons on drug charges in an upcoming memoir. On Tuesday, Alfred A. Knopf announced it will publish the WNBA star's as-of-yet untitled memoir in spring 2024.
In a press release, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group imprint shared that Griner "shares her raw, emotional journey from Olympic champion to hostage to her life today." The novel will recount the tumultuous events of 2022 "that both reshaped her life and captured the world's attention..." The book will take readers through the 32-year-old's arrest at a Russian airport in February 2022, her detainment, trial and imprisonment in Russia, as well as "the efforts in public and behind the scenes at the highest levels of government to bring her home."
Griner's memoir will also highlight the beginnings of the global #WeAreBG movement, as well as "the issue of pay equity for women athletes in the United States - the very inequity that led Griner to play basketball in Russia for seven previous seasons and to return for an eighth on that fateful February day."
Griner will also describe her "stark and surreal time living in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of day-to-day life in a women's penal colony. At the heart of the book, Griner highlights the personal turmoil she experienced during the nearly ten-month ordeal and the resilience that carried her through to the day of her return to the United States last December."
A statement from Griner says, "I arrived in Moscow to rejoin the UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team and was immediately detained at the airport. That day was the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life which only now am I ready to share. The primary reason I traveled back to Russia for work that day was because I wanted to make my wife, family, and teammates proud. After an incredibly challenging 10 months in detainment, I am grateful to have been rescued and to be home."
"Readers will hear my story and understand why I'm so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world," the statement continues. "By writing this book, I also hope to raise awareness surrounding other Americans wrongfully detained abroad such as Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Emad Shargi, Airan Berry, Shahab Dalili, Luke Denman, Eyvin Hernandez, Majd Kamalmaz, Jerrel Kenemore, Kai Li, Siamak Namazi, Austin Tice, Mark Swidan and Morad Tahbaz."
The memoir will be published by Knopf in hardcover, as an ebook, and in audio by Penguin Random House; it will be published in trade paper by Vintage the next year. Random House Children's Books will publish a Young Adult edition at a later date.
Meanwhile, Griner is set to make her WNBA return on May 19, as the Mercury take on the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena. On May 21, she'll suit up at Phoenix's Footprint Center for the first time in 19 months for her homecoming game against the Chicago Sky.
RELATED CONTENT:
