Serena Williams attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2019 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Serena Williams is transitioning from the tennis court to the world of literature. The 42-year-old athlete has announced her partnership with the Random House Publishing Group for a two-book deal. The initial project is an as-yet-unnamed memoir.
“For so long, all I was focused on was winning, and I never sat down to look back and reflect on my life and career,” explained the professional athlete.
“Over the last year, I’ve really enjoyed taking the time with my growing family to celebrate my accomplishments and explore my other passions. I couldn’t be at a more perfect place to be able to take on such a personal intimate project, and there’s no one I would rather do it with than the team at Random House.”
The promised book stands as Williams’ second memoir, the first being On The Line issued in 2009. In the new work described as an “open-hearted exploration of the experiences that have shaped her life,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion plans to go deeper.
According to the publisher, Williams shares her experiences with “overcoming scrutiny and attacks in a predominantly white and male-dominated sport, navigating devastating losses on and off the court, falling in love with tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, celebrating body diversity and expanding the confines of style in sports and pop culture, bringing awareness to maternal health disparities, and being a devoted mother to her daughters, Olympia and Adira.”
The second book in the works from the mother of two takes a different path. Described as “inspirational,” the publisher details, “Williams will offer rules for living that draw on her experiences as a philanthropist and advocate, her career as an investment unicorn with Serena Ventures, and someone who has long sought to lift a diverse and emergent generation of young women whose aspirations are not confined to the court.”
In 2022, the tennis star announced her retirement from the sport ahead of the U.S. Open, describing her transition to other endeavors as “evolving.”
