Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Teases Her Memoir ‘Crying In H Mart’

Back in 2018, Japanese Breakfast vocalist Michelle Zauner published the poignant essay Crying In H Mart in the New Yorker. The story detailed her experience growing up as one of the only Asian kids in her Eugene, Oregon hometown, and how she honors her late mother’s memory through food. Zauner transformed the essay into a full memoir, and she has now shared its release date: April 20, 2021.

Described as an “exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance,” the book is set for an official release next April. Alongside her announcement, Zauner described the life events which eventually led to Crying In H Mart:

“My mother passed away almost six years ago and ever since, my life has felt folded in half, divided into a before and after her death, my identity and my family having been fractured in the wake of her loss. I’ve spent the past six years processing grief in the best way I knew how — through creative work. I wrote two albums worth of material in an attempt to encapsulate all of that heavy darkness, confusion and loneliness, and then I spent another three years writing pages and pages to try and capture my mother’s brilliant character and spirit, what it was like to be raised by a Korean immigrant in a small west coast town with very little diversity, the intense shame I felt towards my mixed race identity and how my embrace of Korean food and culture helped me come to terms with that upbringing, allowed me to reconnect with her memory.”

After sharing the news on social media, Zauner posted a heartfelt interaction between her and an Instagram user who used to serve her mother at her hometown’s Olive Garden.

Check out the Crying In H Mart cover art below.

Crying In H Mart is out 4/20/2021 via Knopf. Pre-order it here.