Transformative literature
Caitlyn Jenner, the reality TV star and prominent transgender activist, will publish a memoir about her highly public transformation from the Olympic track star and motivational speaker Bruce Jenner into a glamorous transgender woman, Caitlyn Marie Jenner.
Jenner will write the memoir with Buzz Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist and author of Friday Night Lights, the 1990 nonfiction book about a Texas high school football team that inspired a film and television series. Grand Central Publishing is tentatively scheduled to release the Jenner book in the spring of 2017.
Rumours have swirled about a possible book deal for Jenner since last April, when she announced that she was becoming a woman during an interview with Diane Sawyer. The interview was followed by a Vanity Fair cover story, written by Bissinger, in which Jenner revealed her new identity as Caitlyn. The publicity culminated in a documentary series on E!, I Am Cait, which will begin its second season this March, about Jenner’s new public life as a woman.
A book seemed like an inevitable extension of her brand, and publishing-industry executives have speculated that Jenner’s memoir could fetch a high sevenfigure or low eight- figure sum. Grand Central declined to disclose the amount of the contract, which was negotiated by Jenner’s representatives at Creative Artists Agency. Her highly choreographed debut was criticized by some as an elaborate publicity blitz but praised by others, who said the coverage helped to shed light on the challenges that transgender men and women face.
Bissinger was a natural choice for a collaborator. For the Vanity Fair article, he spent hundreds of hours over three months with Jenner before her transition, and countless hours with her after she reintroduced herself as Caitlyn. As a self-described “crossdresser with a big-time fetish for women’s leather,” Bissinger said he felt he could relate to some aspects of Jenner’s experience. “I’ve also been open about cross-dressing and certain aspects of gender fluidity, and that created a bond,” Bissinger said in an interview.
Bissinger said Jenner approached him about collaborating on her memoir a few months after the Vanity Fair article appeared. “I made it clear to her before I agreed that everything has to be on the table, nothing can be left out,” 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.”
The book will cover Jenner’s childhood and rise to fame as a gold- medal- winning Olympic decathlete; her first two marriages and her troubled relationship with her children; her marriage to Kris Kardashian, the matriarch of the Kardashian brood; her transition and her experience as the world’s most famous transgender woman.
In a statement released by Grand Central, Jenner said she hoped the book would help her to process all that’s happened to her. “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.