Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Gabrielle Giffords Memoir in the Works

It has no title or publication date yet, but you might want to add this book to your reading list now. Mark Kelly, NASA astronaut and husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, announced today that he and his wife are working on a memoir about their life together, before and after Giffords was shot January 8 in Tucson, Ariz.

“After thinking about it, and talking about it, we decided it was the right thing to do to put our words and our voices on paper and tell our story from our point of view,” Kelly told The Associated Press.

Besides the inherent interest in the couple’s story, there is every indication that the book will be a publishing phenomenon. Although Kelly — and to a lesser extent, Giffords — will collaborate on content, the book will be written by Jeffrey Zaslow, who worked with Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch on the best-selling “The Last Lecture,” as well as on Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s “Highest Duty.”

Scribner, the Simon & Schuster imprint that is publishing the book, is also devoting its top talent to the project. Executive Vice president and Publisher Susan Moldow and Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief Nan Graham will act as editors.

How much of the material will be Kelly’s, Gifford’s or Zaslow’s, however, is unclear. According to AP, Kelly will be the main collaborator, while Zaslow will also interview friends and family members. According to Kelly, Giffords will contribute “what she remembers after January 8 and her story before that.” Currently, Giffords is receiving 24-hour care at Kelly’s home in League City, Texas, and is working to relearn how to speak and walk.

Kelly, who recently commanded the space shuttle Endeavour’s final mission, also announced his retirement today from the Navy and NASA to help with Giffords’s rehabilitation.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.