Patti Smith has a YA book in the works
The latest in a series of awesome literary Patti Smith news: She has a YA book in the works!
In an interview with The New Yorker, Smith let it slip that she has not one, but many more books in the mix. The one I’m most excited for? A project she called, “the kind of book I used to read as a young girl.”
I’m super excited not just to get my hands on another page-turning YA novel, but also to get a sneak peek into the type of books that were formative for the creative genius in her youth.
It will probably be a while until we can read said book, but don’t worry. This announcement follows this month’s release of a sequel to her 2010 memoir Just Kids — the same memoir that we found out is becoming a mini-series. We’ll have plenty of Smith to hold us over until this YA book is out, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
“I’m always just working,” Smith said in the interview. “I have tons and tons of unpublished material. I’m gonna be like Dorothy Parker when I die, people are going to go, Holy sh*t, it’s totally indecipherable.”
Smith is best known as a legendary singer-songwriter and artist from NYC’s punk rock movement. She’s co-written songs with Bruce Springsteen, and had a legendary love affair with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. And her love for literature is nothing new.
In fact, she’s openly stated that she started out without any desires to play music. She just added electric guitar to her poetry to make it more interesting. But that doesn’t mean her music hasn’t had a profound impact on her work.
Smith takes huge inspiration from her musical career, which she chronicled in old journals and with letters from old lovers. A couple excerpts of what she calls “meaningless” life events: one morning when she “met Janis Joplin,” and her observations of “where the moon was when… Jimi Hendrix died.”
If those are her casual musings, I can’t wait to read more of her meaningful insights in these published works. No word on when the novel will come out yet, but her second memoir, M Train, is out now — and reviews are good. Time to get reading!
Related reading:
Patti Smith is publishing a sequel to ‘Just Kids,’ let the anticipatory joy commence
Patti Smith’s ‘Just Kids’ is getting the mini-series treatment
[Image via Shutterstock]
