Tommy Dorfman Announces ‘Deeply Personal’ New Memoir, Inspired by a Tarot Card Reading (Exclusive)

‘My hope is that the book will resonate with readers from all walks of life,” Dorfman says of 'Maybe This Will Save Me,' which publishes in 2025

Tommy Dorfman and the cover of 'Maybe This Will Save Me'
Tommy Dorfman and the cover of 'Maybe This Will Save Me'. Photo:

Ryan McGinley; Hanover Square Press

Tommy Dorfman has an important new project on the horizon.

PEOPLE can exclusively reveal that the actor, director and advocate will publish her debut memoir, Maybe This Will Save Me, in spring 2025 via Hanover Square Press.

Per a press release shared with PEOPLE, Dorfman, 32, first got the idea for the memoir while on a trip in Montana with friends. Dorfman, the youngest of five children, spent her teenage years “numbed by drugs and alcohol,” and it wasn’t until decades later that she “finally gained clarity around her gender.” Dorfman publicly discussed her gender transition for the first time in July 2021, in an interview with Time.

'Maybe This Will Save Me' by Tommy Dorfman
'Maybe This Will Save Me' by Tommy Dorfman.

Hanover Square Press

Dorfman, however, still felt that there were elements of her story that she still needed to “fully confront.” The actress looked for guidance in a Tarot deck, and the result is Maybe This Will Save Me, which is structured around that influential reading.

The memoir will detail Dorfman’s rise to fame, beginning with a career in theater and leading toward her breakout role as Ryan Shaver in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. Maybe This Will Save Me will also chart Dorfman’s sobriety journey and the relationships that have influenced her.

Maybe This Will Save Me is a deeply personal labor of love that I am incredibly proud to share with the world next year, and my hope is that the book will resonate with readers from all walks of life,” Dorfman tells PEOPLE in a statement. “I am incredibly grateful to my editor John Glynn and the team at Hanover Square Press for their work in bringing Maybe This Will Save Me to life.”

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Tommy Dorfman
Tommy Dorfman.

Ryan McGinley

Dorfman is currently making her Broadway debut as the Nurse and Tybalt in the Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, also starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler. Dorfman’s debut feature film, I Wish You All the Best, premiered at the SXSW film festival in 2024.

Maybe This Will Save Me will detail the "highs and lows" of Dorfman's creative career, and also serve as a tribute to "her powerful journey to self-acceptance."

“Tommy Dorfman is a visionary artist whose body of work across mediums challenges, inspires and unites us,” says the book’s editor, John Glynn, in a statement. “It's a true honor to publish her structurally daring, emotionally resonant debut memoir Maybe This Will Save Me.”

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Maybe This Will Save Me
will be published on May 27, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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