Maybe This Will Save Me

“Tommy Dorfman has written a fascinating, innovative twist on memoir, a book that breaks new forms to produce flashing vignettes of insight while compiling a moving document on the process of becoming.“—Torrey Peters, national bestselling author of Detransition, Baby“Tommy Dorfman is as funny as she is self-aware, as bold as she is beautiful, and has turned her remarkably specific life into something wildly universal. This collection will ask you to reckon with what it means to define yourself in a culture hell bent on defining you—required reading for anyone who has ever rejected the story other wrote for them in order to write their own, and for anyone who wants to but doesn’t have the tools yet.“—Lena Dunham“In Tommy Dorfman’s hands, evolution is nonlinear and kaleidoscopic: in some ways fated from the beginning, in others not guaranteed but slowly earned. Her memoir resists simplicity at every turn. It might have been easier to write as a past tense proclamation, but Dorfman creates from the present, the messy middle, which is all we have. Maybe This Will Save Me is at once a love letter to the person she’s been all along and to the mysterious, unending process of becoming.”—Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists “A fiercely honest account of a whirlwind youth, and of the hope among the wreckage. Dorfman is sensational.“—Nicole Dinan, author of Bellies“Combustibly propulsive… Translating her full life to this fully engrossing book, Dorfman asserts herself as this kind of artist, too: an imaginative and truthful writer in steady ownership of her story.” —Booklist, STARRED review

Tommy Dorfman is a writer, director, and actor. She made her Broadway debut in Sam Gold’s Romeo + Juliet and is known for her work in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. Her production company, Fever Dream, shines a light on various human experiences not yet told in film, television, and theater. Her debut feature film, I Wish You All the Best, premiered at SXSW in 2024. She holds a BA from Fordham University and is the recipient of a GLAAD Award. Born in Atlanta, Dorfman resides in New York City. This is her first book.