Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is working on a memoir about reconciling the “demands of a high-profile career” and a “transparent” account about rising up in the legal profession.
Jackson, the first black woman on the high court who was appointed by President Joe Biden last year to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, announced through publisher Random House that her memoir is titled Lovely One.
“Mine has been an unlikely journey,” Jackson said in a statement released Thursday by Random House.
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“But the path was paved by courageous women and men in whose footsteps I placed my own, road warriors like my own parents, and also luminaries in the law, whose brilliance and fortitude lit my way,” the justice added.
Jackson, 52, was born with the name Ketanji Onyika Brown. The title of the memoir stems from the English translation of Ketanji Onyika, the name suggested by Jackson’s aunt, who at the time was a Peace Corps worker in West Africa.
“My hope is that the fullness of my journey as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, litigator, and a friend will stand as a testament for young women, people of color, and dreamers everywhere,” Jackson added, “especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and believe in the possibility of achieving them.”
Prior to her 2022 high court debut, Jackson was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Jackson said that the memoir “marries the public record of my life with what is less known.”
“It will be a transparent accounting of what it takes to rise through the ranks of the legal profession, especially as a woman of color with an unusual name and as a mother and a wife striving to reconcile the demands of a high-profile career with the private needs of my loved ones,” she added.
A release date hasn’t been set for the memoir, and financial terms weren’t disclosed, but it’s possible her advance could be comparable to seven-figure deals made in the past for memoirs of high court justices.
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Random House released a statement noting the memoir follows Jackson’s background from being raised in South Florida to joining “pivotal” student organizations during her time at Harvard University.
“From growing up in Miami with educator parents who broke barriers during the 1960s to honing her voice as an oratory champion to performing improv and participating in pivotal student movements at Harvard to balancing the joys and demands of marriage and motherhood while advancing in Big Law — and, finally, to making history upon joining the nation’s highest court,” Random House wrote.
