BookCon 2019 Spotlight: Blondie's Debbie Harry Memoir 'Face It'
By Empress Eve | @ | Monday, June 3rd, 2019 at 10:16 am
Debbie Harry's previously announced memoir, Face It, will be released in hardcover and for the Kindle on October 1, 2019 by Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
At this year's BookExpo and BookCon conventions, held May 29-June 2 at NYC's Jacob Javits Convention Center, the publisher was promoting the Blondie singer's upcoming autobiography with huge promo posters displayed, as well as free buttons for convention attendees.
The promo material consisted of the book's non-final cover featuring a black and white photo of a seated Harry with her face concealed by a black jacket with her famous blonde hair exposed.
Face It is the first autobiography by the 73-year-old American singer/songwriter, who co-founded Blondie, a new wave/rock band with punk rock roots that made a name for itself in NYC's underground scene in the mid-1970s before hitting it big with their third album, 1978's Parallel Lines. The band released their 11th studio album, Pollinator, in 2017, and will be touring again starting this month.
"I'm prepared for the best and the worst comments, much like when I have released an album or done a big show. I don't have a thick skin, but I do have a pretty good sense of humor," said Harry regarding her upcoming memoir, in a statement from the publisher.
Pre-order for Face It is available now. Check out more details about the book here below, along with some photos I took at the convention.
A MULTILAYERED MEMOIR FROM A MULTIFACETED ARTIST
As a musician, an actor, a muse, an icon, the breadth of Debbie Harry's impact on our culture has been matched by her almost Sphinx-like reticence about her inner life. Through it all—while being acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women in the world, prized by a galaxy of leading photographers and fashion designers, beloved by legions of fans for her relentless, high-octane performances, selling 50 million albums or being painted by Andy Warhol—Debbie Harry has infused her perennial Blondie persona with a heady mix of raw sexuality and sophisticated punk cool.
In Face It, Debbie Harry invites us into the complexity of who she is and how her life and career have played out over the last seven decades. Upending the standard music memoir, with a cutting-edge style keeping with the distinctive qualities of her multi-disciplined artistry, Face It includes a thoughtful introduction by Chris Stein, rare personal photos, original illustrations, fan artwork installations and more.
Peppered with colorful characters, Face It features everyone from bands Blondie came up with on the 1970s music scene—The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie—to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marina Abramović and H.R. Giger of Alien fame. It explores her successful acting career (she has starred in over 30 film roles including David Cronenberg's Videodrome and John Waters' Hairspray), her weekends with William S. Burroughs and her attempted abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy. Ranging from the hardscrabble grit and grime of the early New York City years to times of glorious commercial success, interrupted by a plunge into heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy and Blondie's break up as a band, an amazing solo career and then a stunning return with Blondie, this is a cinematic story of an artist who has always set her own path.
Inspirational, entertaining, shocking, humorous and eye-opening, Face It is a memoir as dynamic as its subject.
A post shared by empresseve (@empresseve) on Jun 2, 2019 at 2:17pm PDT
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Topics: Books, Conventions, News
Tags: Blondie, BookCon, BookCon 2019, BookExpo, BookExpo 2019, Debbie Harry, Dey Street Books, HarperCollins Publishers
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