April 6, 2025
David E. Talbert Sells Memoir To Penguin Random House Imprint For Six Figures
Talbert's memoir came out of conversations he has had with his own son.
Director, writer, playwright, and producer David E. Talbert has sold his memoir “Everything I Know About Being a Man (I Learned From a Woman)” for six figures to Storehouse Voices, a Penguin Random House Publishing Imprint. He is also developing a television show with the same title.
According to Deadline, Talbert’s memoir emerged from conversations he had with his son, which caused him to realize that his mother, a single mother, imparted to him all of the lessons he has learned about being a man.
According to its website, Storehouse Voices is focused on “promoting the richness of Black storytelling through intentional acquisitions and hiring efforts, strategic partnerships, and authentic, equity-minded community outreach,” which it accomplishes by issuing nonfiction and fiction books.
According to People Magazine, Storehouse Voices was launched in January 2025, created in partnership with Tamira Chapman, out of the success of Chapman’s Women & Words program, which was launched with support from Storehouse In A Box and Penguin Random House, which aimed to “demystify the publishing industry and its processes” for underrepresented authors.
A statement announcing the imprint reads, “Storehouse Voices is informed by a deep understanding of the unique cultural and historical contexts of the Black experience in America and committed to ensuring that literary works by underrepresented authors are presented authentically, respectfully and powerfully across the publishing and media landscape.”
This dovetails with the general arc of Talbert’s career, which, like Tyler Perry, began with stage plays aimed at telling Black stories to Black audiences.
In 2024, in an interview with Blex Media, the multihyphenate shared that “Jingle Jangle,” the 2020 Christmas movie he wrote and directed, which starred Forest Whitaker and Keegan Michael Key, was created because of his childhood experience of feeling excluded from the fantasy genre because he didn’t often see Black children represented in the media of his youth.
According to Deadline, in 2023, Talbert launched HBCU Next, a fellowship program that he founded and funded alongside his wife and production partner, Lyn Sisson-Talbert, to enrich the educational opportunities available to aspiring filmmakers at HBCUs by bringing them to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts Summer Program.
As Talbert told Deadline regarding the program, “Our overall objective is to foster an environment for students from HBCUs and USC to engage in cultural exchange learning from one another’s experiences and backgrounds, and to provide access to an education conducive to giving Black storytellers a pipeline to the entertainment industry.”
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