Uphill
A Memoir
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4.1 • 35 Ratings
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
One of Oprah Daily's Best Fall Nonfiction Books of 2022
An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter coanchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life’s battles might be.
Jemele Hill’s world came crashing down when she called President Trump a “white supremacist”; the White House wanted her fired from ESPN, and she was deluged with death threats. But Hill had faced tougher adversaries growing up in Detroit than a tweeting president. Beneath the exterior of one of the most recognizable journalists in America was a need—a calling—to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma.
Born in the middle of a lively routine Friday night Monopoly game to a teen mother and a heroin-addicted father, Hill constantly adjusted to the harsh realities of not only her own childhood but the inherited generational pain of her mother and grandmother. Her escape was writing.
Hill’s mother was less than impressed with the brassy and bold free expression of her diary, but Hill never stopped discovering and amplifying her voice. Through hard work and a constant willingness to learn, Hill rose from newspaper reporter to columnist to new heights as the coanchor for ESPN’s revered SportsCenter. Soon, she earned respect and support for her fearless opinions and unshakable confidence, as well as a reputation as a trusted journalist who speaks her mind with truth and conviction.
In Jemele Hill’s journey Uphill, she shares the whole story of her work, the women of her family, and her complicated relationship with God in an unapologetic, character-rich, and eloquent memoir.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Speak Your Truth
Jemele Hill hits us with a refreshing memoir that is clear, to the point, candid, and vivid. She manages to share a truly singular experience while still carefully weaving in universal truths and struggles about the black experience in America. She doesn’t shy away from discussing the Identity Politics topics that put her into the broader spotlight.
More importantly she shows us how they are important and necessary talking points in sports as much as anywhere else. Illustrating for us how sports manifests itself in who we are as adults in the workplace and how sports is an extension of community as represented by our race and geography. Do you suppress your truth to get along or speak it to move things along.
On the deeply personal level she expounds on the compound effects of generational trauma of every kind; violence, sexual assault, and drugs. Along with the transformational power of success and wealth when all of us are given free and fair access to opportunities. Along with how Religion can be more like a language for communicating ideas than just a belief system.
I also enjoyed the reflective and analytical way she explored what journalistic integrity looks like today. Especially, in the face of a changing landscape of print and broader media as it relates to truth and society. How does one engage the reader, commit to high standards, keep the corporate suits happy, and all the while speak their truth? Not without controversy based on Hill’s own experience.
Uphill was Uplifting
I absolutely enjoyed Jemele being raw, honest and transparent in this book. I had the pleasure of interviewing her back in 2020 and reading her book makes me want to interview her all over again!