Feb 2, 2021
Obama Speechwriter Cody Keenan Writing Memoir ‘Grace’
The speechwriter who helped President Barack Obama pen his stirring address memorializing the victims of the Charleston church massacre will release a memoir about his time working in the White House.
Sugar23 Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media, has acquired “Grace: A President, His Speechwriter, and Ten Days in the Battle for America” by Cody Keenan, one of the 44th president’s chief wordsmiths. The title is a reference to Obama’s eulogy for the victims of that mass shoot. He closed his remarks at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by leading a chorus of “Amazing Grace.”
“Grace” will be released in 2022. Keenan’s book will focus on 10 days in Obama’s presidency, during which he helped write addresses for the president dealing with everything from a public debate on the Confederate flag to Supreme Court rulings on healthcare and gay marriage. The publisher says the book will chronicle “a whirlwind of dramatic moments too implausible for a full season of ‘The West Wing.'”