Academy award-winning actress Viola Davis is ready to share her life story with the world by releasing her first memoir.
The How to Get Away With Murder star is working on a memoir that will be titled, “Finding Me,” to be released on April 19, 2022, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter.
According to Davis, the new book will be “straight, no chaser” and will follow her story from growing up in poverty in Rhode Island surrounded by family drama to becoming one of the world’s most acclaimed actors.
She has been acclaimed for her standout roles in films like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Widows, The Help, and many more. Her work has garnered her prestigious accolades including an Oscar for her starring role in the 2016 film Fences, an Emmy for her lead role in Shonda Rhimes’ How to Get Away with Murder, and Tonys’ for Fences and King Hedley II.
“I believe that our stories, and the courage to share them, is the most powerful empathetic tool we have,” Davis said in a statement. “This is my story … straight no chaser.”
Davis has been transparent about her rough upbringing that included homelessness and digging in the garbage for food, Daily Mail
reports.“Although my childhood was filled with many happy memories, it was also spent in abject poverty,” Davis said while accepting a philanthropy award at the Variety Power Of Women in 2014. “I was one of the 17 million kids in this country who didn’t know where the next meal was coming from. And i did everything to get food.”
She went on to recall the drastic measures she has taken to get a meal.
“I’ve stolen for food, I’ve jumped in huge garbage bins with maggots for food, I have befriended people in the neighborhood who I knew had mothers who cooked three meals a day for food,” Davis shared. “And I sacrificed a childhood for food… and grew up in immense shame.”
HarperOne describes Davis’ upcoming memoir as her life story through her eyes, Deadline
reports.“Viola Davis’s story in her own words, and spans her incredible, inspiring life from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present-day career,” the statement said. “Hers is a story of overcoming; it is a true hero’s journey. Deeply personal, brutally honest, and riveting, Finding Me is a timeless and spellbinding memoir that will capture the hearts and minds of Ms. Davis’s legions of fans around the world.”