Questlove is a modern-day renaissance man. The Roots drummer and Oscar-winning director has his hands in several industries and creative pursuits at once, putting his unique stamp on everything he does. And while his work has largely remained in the entertainment sphere, the musician is ready to take on the literary world.
Yesterday (March 22), Quest announced the launch of AUWA Books, a new publishing imprint. The company sits under industry heavy-hitter Macmillan Publishers, and its first release will be here before the year is out.
On Oct. 17, Grammys Lifetime Achievement honoree Sly Stone will release his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), through AUWA. The book will track Stone’s rise to musical stardom in the late 1960s and his success with Sly and the Family Stone to his disappearance from the public eye.
“For as long as I can remember, folks have been asking me to tell my story,” the 80-year-old said in a statement about the project, according to ABC News. “I wasn’t ready. I had to be in a new frame of mind to become Sylvester Stewart again to tell the true story of Sly Stone. It’s been a wild ride and hopefully my fans enjoy it too.”
Stone’s memoir isn’t the only book in the pipeline for AUWA in the coming years. Amazon Labor Union activist Derrick Palmer has a forthcoming release through the publisher, Handbook for the Revolution: The Essential Guide for Workplace Organizing. Entrepreneur Josh Luber’s Building the Hype Economy is also in the works, as well as podcaster Drew Afualo’s debut book. And after curating a killer hip hop tribute at the 2023 Grammy Awards in celebration of the genre’s 50th birthday, Questlove himself is chronicling the past half-century of the movement with Hip Hop Is History due next year.
“I have been writing books for over a decade, so it seemed like a natural step to publish them too,” he said of the endeavor, per Publishers Weekly. “I’m very excited about AUWA Books, from the books we have lined up to the books we haven’t discovered yet. Let’s take it to the page.”
Over the years, he’s penned works like Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation and Creative Quest. In addition, he founded the music journalism site Okayplayer and is set to honor Stone with a new documentary on Hulu.