Patti Smith has announced a new memoir, Year of the Monkey. Published by Knopf, the book will be released on September 24th. Year of the Monkey recounts the year 2016, which Smith spent in solidarity following the singer’s run of New Year’s concerts at the Fillmore in San Francisco. “I began writing it on New Year’s Day, 2016 in cafes, trains and strange motels by the sea, with no particular design, until page by page it became a book,” Smith wrote on her Instagram account. “I’m very excited to have new work to report!”
Smith’s first memoir, 2010’s Just Kids, is a poignant retelling of her early life and relationship with the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Her second memoir, M Train, was released in 2015. Smith is currently on tour, having recently played two sold out nights at New York’s newly renovated Webster Hall. She’s scheduled to perform in Europe this summer.
“I want to hear Neil Young’s old songs when I see him,” Smith told Rolling Stone last year. “So if people want to hear ‘Because the Night’ for the 2,000th time, I’ll give it to them as long as I can give it to them with real enthusiasm. I am not going to fake it. If I can really access the original impulse that drove me to write it, I’ll sing it.”