Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast will release her memoir Crying In H-Mart in April

From video game scores to synthpop collabs, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast has a hand in numerous projects, but perhaps none has been more anticipated than her memoir, Crying In H-Mart. A memoir on life, creative pursuits, travel, food, and family, the book was teased with an excerpt in The New Yorkerin 2018, and will be released via Knopf Publishing on April 20, 2021.

As Zauner shares in a press release:

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.

The book is available for pre-order now; check out the cover art by John Gal below. Zauner recently returned to Philly for a weekend to headline night one of Philly Music Fest — watch video of their performance and see photos from the set here — and celebrate the wedding of bassist Deven Craige. Earlier this summer, Zauner collaborated with Ryan Galloway of the band Crying on the project Bumper; listen to their pop songs 2020 EP here.