Uphill

May 1, 2022

Born to a teenage mother and heroin-addicted father, Hill found escape from intergenerational trauma in writing, moving determinedly from diarist to newspaper reporter to Emmy Award-winning host of ESPN's SportsCenter to staff writer for the Atlantic. Here she reflects on work, the women in her family, and the ferocious reaction to her calling Donald Trump a white supremacist. With a 250,000-copy first printing.

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July 18, 2022
ESPN correspondent Hill traces her turbulent rise to success in her poignant debut. In 2017, scandal broke after Hill tweeted that President Trump was a “white supremacist.” Though she was bombarded with threats and nearly lost her job as a SportsCenter host (after a two-week suspension without pay), Hill stood her ground. “I was keenly aware that a deeper and larger struggle was taking place in this country,” she writes. “Black people were fighting every damn day for survival, freedom, and empowerment.” To understand her place in that struggle, Hill evocatively details her childhood in 1970s Detroit, where poverty, absence, addiction, and abuse abounded in her immediate family. Escape came in the form of a diary as she grew to love writing and found her voice. As Hill became an adult, she faced a new set of challenges—from juggling relationships and jobs to managing the scandal that, she writes, “blew my life up.” Still, Hill remained confident and steadfast in her beliefs, bolstered by a lifetime of overcoming obstacles, and her account brims with intelligence and resilience. The result is a powerful portrait of ambition, faith, and fearlessness.

October 15, 2022
Hill, an Emmy Award-winning former ESPN SportsCenter coanchor, rocked her professional world when she tweeted that President Trump was "a white supremacist" and ended up facing death threats and other intimidations. But the outspoken Hill's world had been rocky since childhood, as she reveals in this frank and direct memoir. Her father was a heroin addict, her mother a survivor of rape and sexual abuse who has struggled with drugs. From a young age, Hill showed an interest in sports and a fierce determination to succeed. Supported by her mother and grandmother, the author escaped life on the streets of Detroit through a dedication to writing and education, along with personal grit. As she ascended in the sports journalism world, which is predominantly white and male, she faced hurdles as a Black woman and did not pull punches in expressing her opinions, given her full commitment to the importance of covering social issues as they pertain to sports. Brave, incisive, and uncompromising, Hill, a contributing writer for the Atlantic, will inspire women, especially women of color, to challenge sexism and racism in every realm.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Emmy Award-winner Hill's courage and conviction make her a beacon and a hero, and interest in her memoir will be avid.

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Starred review from August 1, 2022
An accomplished Black sports journalist tells her story. Atlantic contributing writer Hill, who rose to fame partly due to her online conflicts with Donald Trump, recounts the ups and downs of her early life as well as her successful career at ESPN and beyond. The author grew up in Detroit with a mother who battled a drug addiction and a grandmother who was "a highly functioning alcoholic." Despite their struggles, however, both worked hard to provide for her. Hill writes about how she was determined to escape the poverty that constricted her childhood, a desire that led to an intense work ethic and a life filled with achievements. As a freshman at Michigan State, she got a job as a sportswriter with the State News, an accomplishment that was partially possible because Hill had already written for a professional publication in high school. She continued her diligent work even in the face of widespread bigotry and "racist hate mail." During an internship at the Lima News, she took pitches and wrote a series on domestic violence to accompany coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial. In 2006, she reluctantly took a job at ESPN ("I wanted to be a respected journalist, not some flashy television personality"). She stayed for 11 years, serving as co-host of the network's flagship program, SportsCenter, and developing and co-hosting the groundbreaking show His & Hers, which Hill describes as "unapologetically Black." Unfortunately, the author felt unsupported at ESPN, often due to her race. She left the network after Trump personally attacked her on Twitter. "Trump didn't hurt me, but ESPN's lack of response did," she writes. "A government official had come after one of its employees and it did nothing." Hill is relentless but fair, and she is equally comfortable parsing out instances of institutional racism and admitting to her own mistakes. She balances humor, vulnerability, and passion, creating a text that is both exciting and emotionally satisfying. A frank, fearless, and entertaining memoir.

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