Caitlyn Jenner to Detail Life, Career, Transition in New Memoir
Caitlyn Jenner will pen a memoir detailing her life and transition in a new book set to be published in spring 2017, The New York Times reports.
Jenner will co-write the book with Pulitzer Prize-winner Buzz Bissinger, who profiled the former Olympian when she debuted as Caitlyn in Vanity Fair last June. Bissinger is perhaps best known for his 1990 book about high school football in Texas, Friday Night Lights.
For the Vanity Fair story, Bissinger reportedly spent hundreds of hours with Jenner both before and after her transition. While Jenner came out as transgender during an interview with Diane Sawyer earlier that year, the article delved into her long struggle with gender dysphoria and her transition’s effect on her family.
Bissinger said that he will continue to conduct original reporting for the book, despite it being billed as a memoir. “I made it clear to [Jenner] before I agreed that everything has to be on the table, nothing can be left out, and I’m going to be interviewing dozens of other people,” he said. “It’s her book, but it’s going to be reported out to keep her honest. She’s been incredibly open, and I think it has the potential to be a really important book.”
Jenner’s book will offer another look at her transition and subsequent life as the most prominent transgender woman, but it will also cover her storied, tumultuous life. Born as Bruce Jenner, she rose to fame as an athlete and won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics. While she soon became a much-sought after motivational speaker, Jenner married and divorced several times — including to Kardashian family matriarch, Kris — and struggled to maintain relationships with her six children.
In a statement, Jenner said she hoped writing the book would help her process her public transition, as well as all that came before it. “Things have been moving so quickly that it will be nice to slow things down a bit and take the proper time to reflect on this journey,” she said.
Jenner’s memoir follows both the revealing Vanity Fair cover story, as well as the E! documentary series about her new life, I Am Cait, which kicks off its second season in March. Amid the media blitz, many speculated a memoir from Jenner was inevitable; and though Grand Central did not release a figure, it is estimated the book earned Jenner a high seven-figure or low eight-figure sum.