L7 Bassist Jennifer Finch's Posthumous Memoir Announced for January 2027
A posthumous memoir by Jennifer Finch, the bassist of the punk band L7, will be published in hardcover on January 19, 2027. Titled Shooting Up and Making Out: A Memoir of My Life in LA and L7, the book was completed before Finch's death and chronicles her teenage years in the Los Angeles punk scene, her struggle with heroin addiction, and her time in bands including Sugar Babydoll and L7. Da Capo Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group based in New York, is the US publisher. A UK edition will be released by Penguin, and an audiobook edition is being released by Penguin Audio in 2027.
Finch died on July 18 at the age of 59, according to Pitchfork. Born in 1966, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2011 and, more recently, with an aggressive form of brain cancer. A GoFundMe organised by her L7 bandmates noted that unforeseen complications with radiation treatment led to multiple surgeries. With Finch's blessing, L7 proceeded with their North American farewell tour starting in October.
The memoir was co-written with Jeff Alulis. According to Pitchfork, Alulis said he and Finch worked together for two years on the book so she was happy with every word of it. The hardcover runs 272 pages and carries the ISBN 9780306837043.
L7, the band Finch played bass in, are described as a pioneering feminist grunge act, as noted in Pitchfork's announcement. Finch's earlier band Sugar Babydoll was fronted by Courtney Love. The memoir's subtitle signals its scope: her life in Los Angeles and in L7, the band she joined as it became one of the most visible female-led rock acts of the 1990s.
For fans of the band, the book offers Finch's own account of a life that spanned the underground punk circuit, major-label rock and a long illness. The two-year writing window with Alulis means Finch had direct involvement with the finished text, rather than a memoir assembled posthumously from notes or interviews — a distinction that, for readers, places this closer to an autobiography than a biographical reconstruction.
