A new book by Lena Dunham is coming next year.
Random House will publish the actor and director’s Famesick in the spring, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book a “rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between.”
Dunham first gained fame with her 2010 film, Tiny Furniture, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. Two years later, her HBO television series, Girls, began airing; it became a pop-culture phenomenon that lasted for six seasons. She went on to write and direct the films Sharp Stick and Catherine Called Birdy, and her latest television series, Too Much, premiered on Netflix in July.
Her previous books include Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned” and Is It Evil Not To Be Sure?
In Famesick, Random House says, “Dunham asks herself what the cost of fulfilling her dreams has really been, and whether it was worth it. What she finds is deeper than physical relief, and more lasting, as she learns to live with what she can’t change and turn her regrets into wisdom that can carry her forward, as she reconnects to what, and who, she loves.”
Dunham shared news of her book on Instagram, writing, “Famesick is, ostensibly, about the years 2010–2020—a decade in which my life changed profoundly and permanently, in which nearly every strand of my DNA reconstituted itself. But it’s also about illness as teacher, body as tattletale, our societal relationship to women on the edge, and the conditions that create art vs. the conditions that create happiness.”
Famesick is slated for publication on April 14, 2026.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
