Books

Patti Smith's next memoir, Year of the Monkey, to be published in Sept. 2019

Year of the Monkey chronicles a single year in Smith's life, one she spent travelling throughout the United States after a series of successful concerts in New York and San Francisco.
Year of the Monkey is a memoir by Patti Smith. (Andy Kropa/Invision/Associated Press, Knopf Canada)

Patti Smith's next book, Year of the Monkey, will be published on Sept. 24, 2019.

Year of the Monkey chronicles a single year in Smith's life, one she spent travelling throughout the United States after a series of successful concerts in New York and San Francisco.

"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," the book's publisher, Knopf Canada, said on their website.

"The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment set in. But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world."

The book will be illustrated with Polaroids taken by Smith.

Smith is one of America's most influential performers and musicians. She was known for marrying poetry to the punk movement with her first album, Horses, which came out in 1975. Its raw style and powerful lyrics made Smith a central figure in New York's alternative music scene.

Time Magazine and Rolling Stone both ranked Horses among the top 100 albums of all time.

Smith would release 10 more albums following Horses. The final album was Banga, which came out in 2012.

Smith is the author of several poetry collections, the memoirs Just Kids and M Train, and Devotion, a book that looked at Smith's personal creative process.

Just Kids, which explored Smith's relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, won a National Book Award for nonfiction in 2010.

M Train, which was released in 2015, explored the 40 years of Smith's life following the release of Horses.

Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.