An autobiography is a book where an author recounts his or her own life story in their own words. These works offer readers an intimate look into individuals from diverse backgrounds and professions’ personal experiences, challenges, and achievements. Covering a wide range of themes such as childhood, career, relationships, and personal growth, autobiographies provide unique and firsthand perspectives on the human condition. Through candid and detailed narratives, readers gain insights into the lives of influential figures and everyday people, exploring the moments that have shaped their journeys. Here are our autobiographies.
The Cowshed | Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Ji Xianlin recounts the authors imprisonment and struggle during the Cultural Revolution in China. The book is the author’s harrowing account of his imprisonment in 1968 on the campus of Peking University and his subsequent disillusionment with the cult of Mao.
My Time Will Come | A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope and Redemption by Ian Manuel is a harrowing recount of the author’s incarceration after being sentenced as a young teenager. It is the story of how he endured the savagery of the United States prison system, and how his victim, an extraordinary woman, forgave him and bravely advocated for his freedom, which was achieved by an Equal Justice Initiative push to address the barbarism of our judicial system and bring about “just mercy.”
Empty Chairs by Liu Xia tells the author’s life story through her powerful poetry. The book presents the poetry of Liu Xia for the first time freely in both English translation and in the Chinese original, and creates a portrait of a life lived under duress, a voice in danger of being silenced, and a spirit that is shaken but so far indomitable.
Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since August 8, 2009. She is the third woman to hold the position. Sotomayor is the First Woman of Color, First Hispanic, and First Latina member of the Court. We have been her agent for 3 books. My Beloved World is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father (who would die when she was nine) and a devoted but overburdened mother, and of the refuge, a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her passionately spirited paternal grandmother.
For a Song and a Hundred Songs | A Poet’s Journey through a Chinese Prison by Liao Yiwu captures the four brutal years Liao spent in jail for writing the incendiary poem “Massacre.” Through the power and beauty of his prose, he reveals the bleak reality of crowded Chinese prisons — the harassment from guards and fellow prisoners, the torture, the conflicts among human beings in close confinement, and the boredom of everyday life. In this important book, Liao presents a stark and devastating portrait of a nation in flux, exposing a side of China that outsiders rarely get to see.
Peter and Amy Bernstein founded Bernstein Literary Agency in 2009. For over two decades, we have worked with over 100 brilliant authors around the globe and across a gamut of subjects to get their books published, and their stories told. We typically work on non-fiction projects, but we have helped bring many fiction books, children’s books, and the occasional cookbook to market. We work with authors in all stages of their careers, from experienced, award-winning, and bestselling ones to debut writers ready to take on the world.
Amitav Acharya
Esther Allen
Gerard Araud
Chris Bohjalian
Andrew Scott Cooper
Vincent Coppola
Eva Dou
Caldwell B., Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
Bruce Falconer
Gillian Lipton
Sven Steinmo
Robert Suettinger
Tanzina Vega
Olajide Williams
Dalena Wright