Photo by Bob Rutledge

Egyptian-American author Mona Eltahawy is set to publish a memoir about her menopause journey inspired by the ancient Egyptian woman king Hatshepsut. The book is titled The King Herself: How Hatshepsut Helped Me Unbecome and will be released by Mariner Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

According to Publisher’s Marketplace, Eltahawy’s nonfiction title is a “menopause love/hate story about aging and becoming stronger, more fearless and more herself than ever before.” The book was inspired by Eltahawy’s obsession with Hatshepsut, the feminist icon and genre-bending Egyptian woman-god-king who was one of the most powerful people in ancient Egypt for 20 years.

See Eltahawy’s Twitter announcement about the book below:

Eltahawy previously edited a collection of stories on menopause in 2022. Bloody Hell! And Other Stories contains essays and stories written by people across the world around their reflections on menopause and reaching that stage in their lives.

Mona Eltahawy is an Egytian-American writer, international women’s rights activist, and journalist. Her work has appeared in The Washington PostThe New York Times, and the Miami Herald, among others. Eltahawy’s first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution was published in 2015 and The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls was published in 2019. She was named in The Africa Report’s list of The 100 Most Influential Africans in 2019.

Congrats to Eltahawy on her upcoming memoir!