Darling Days: A Memoir - A Candid Trans Identity Journey and Mother-Child Bond in 1980s Punk-Era NYC

<p>This &#8220;extraordinary memoir&#8221; from a gender non-conforming child of the &#8216;80s, is &#8220;brave and true, as devastating as it is inspiring.&#8221; &#8212;Joey Soloway, Emmy-award winning creator of&#160;Transparent</p><p>Born into the beautiful bedlam of downtown New York in the eighties, iO Tillett Wright came of age at the intersection of punk, poverty, heroin, and art. This was a world of self-invented characters, glamorous superstars, and strung-out sufferers, ground zero of drag and performance art. Still, no personality was more vibrant and formidable than iO&#8217;s mother&#8217;s. Rhonna, a showgirl and young widow, was a mercurial, erratic glamazon. She was iO&#8217;s fiercest defender and only authority in a world with few boundaries and even fewer indicators of normal life. At the center of Darling Days is the remarkable relationship between a fiery kid and a domineering ma&#8212;a bond defined by freedom and control, excess and sacrifice; by heartbreaking deprivation, agonizing rupture, and, ultimately, forgiveness.</p><p>Darling Days is also a provocative examination of culture and identity, of the instincts that shape us and the norms that deform us, and of the courage and resilience it takes to listen closely to your deepest self. Alternating between the harrowing and the hilarious, Darling Days is the candid, tough, and stirring memoir of a young person in search of an authentic self as family and home life devolve into chaos.</p><p><Br></p><p>This unforgettable story is a testament to survival and the courage to be yourself, exploring:</p><p><Br></p><ul><li><b>A Vivid 1980s New York Setting:</b> Experience the East Village at the height of the punk, art, and heroin scene―a world of self-invented characters, glamorous superstars, and profound deprivation.</li><li><b>Complex Mother-Daughter Relationship:</b> At the heart of the story is the volatile bond between iO and Rhonna, a mercurial glamazon whose love was both a fierce defense and a source of deep chaos.</li><li><b>Gender Non-Conforming Identity:</b> After being denied a game of ball for being a girl, six-year-old iO becomes Ricky―a profound, lifelong exploration of identity celebrated by an unconventional family.</li><li><b>A Story of Resilience:</b> More than a memoir about poverty and addiction, this is a raw and candid testament to the strength it takes to listen to your deepest self and invent a life against all odds.</li></ul>

iO Tillett Wright is a best-selling author, podcaster, and advocate. 
iO has exhibited and curated art works in the US, Europe and Japan. His writing and photos have been published in The NY and LA Times, Vogue, T, Interview, NY Times and  Oyster Magazines, Refinery29, Lenny Letter, etc. He has been published by Knopf, Ecco, Editions Du Seuil, Il Saggiatore, Virago,  Ecco, Penguin and Suhrkamp Verlag. He has lectured at Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and others, as well as for The Atlantic, Nike and other Fortune 500 companies.  
He is the author of Darling Days: A Memoir (Ecco, 2016); Host and producer of the hit podcasts The Ballad of Billy Balls (Cadence 13, 2019) which reached over 15 million listeners, and Power Trip, (NY Magazine, 2021/2022); Creator of the TED talk "50 Shades of Gay"; and founder and photographer behind Self Evident Truths project, the largest photographic document of a single community in history.  He also authored "Self Evident Truths" (Prestel, 2020); "Oasis: Modern Desert Homes" (2020), and the forthcoming "First Home" (2027), from Clarkson Potter. 
iO is a life long direct-response relief organizer. He now lives in Southern California where he writes and serves as Chief Product Officer at award-winning disaster recovery nonprofit, PostFire.