Brittney Griner Will Release a ‘Raw, Emotional’ Memoir in 2024 Detailing Her 10 Months in Russia
Brittney Griner will tell her “raw, emotional” story in a new memoir, publishing company Alfred A. Knopf announced on Tuesday.
Griner, 32, will detail the “tumultuous events of 2022 that both reshaped her life and captured the world’s attention” when she was arrested at an airport near Moscow in Feb. 2022, according to a press release for the project.
The WNBA star will recount her ten-month detainment in Russia for the first time in the currently-untitled book, scheduled for a spring 2024 release.
The book will include previously-unheard details about Griner’s “stark” living conditions and the “terrifying aspects” of day-to-day life in a foreign prison.
The release promises that Griner’s “intimate and moving” memoir will explore how the global #WeAreBG movement supported her during her detainment and why she was even playing in Russia to begin with — pay inequity.
In a statement, Griner said the day she was arrested was “the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life” that she has only recently felt ready to share.
She continued: “Readers will hear my story and understand why I’m so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world. By writing this book, I also hope to raise awareness surrounding other Americans detained wrongfully in Russia.
The 2024 memoir will be Griner’s second with the publishing house. She released her first book, In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court, in 2015.
Following Griner’s release in December via an exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the athlete and her wife Cherelle have begun advocating for the release of other wrongfully detained Americans.
Most recently, Brittney Griner spoke out in support of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitch, who was been arrested for alleged spying in Russia. The U.S. has designated him as “wrongfully detained.”
