Dorothy Lazard grew up in the Bay Area of the 1960s and ’70s, surrounded by an expansive network of family, and hungry for knowledge. Today Lazard is celebrated for her distinguished career as a librarian and public historian, and in these pages she connects her early intellectual pursuits to the career that made her a community pillar. As she writes with honesty about the challenges she faced in her youth, Lazard’s memoir remains triumphant, animated by curiosity, careful reflection, and deep enthusiasm for life.
Shortlisted for the 2024 Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
Named Best Book of the Year, Oakland Public Library (2023)
Upcoming Public Events
“Echoes of Maya: a Celebration of Voice and Verse”
Sun., November 17, 2024; 2 p.m.
San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St.
In Conversation: Dorothy Lazard & KALW’s Jenée Darden
Thurs., January 30, 2025; 7 p.m.
Books, Inc., 1344 Park Street, Alameda
February 15, 2025; 2 p.m.
Napa Valley College
Sierra Writers Conference | Memoir Writing Workshop
Wed., March 5, 2025; 4 p.m.
Sierra College | Rocklin Campus
Reviews for “What You Don’t Know…”
“Lazard’s story may exemplify a cultural awakening experienced by many of her Black peers, but it is also intensely individual, shaped as much by her own family circumstances as by the world around her…Compelling and memorable.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Recent years have seen a new wave of memoirs by Black women, including some about childhood and coming of age. But this memoir gives particular—and perhaps in many similar books, less emphasized—weight to the author’s formation as a reader, writer, and intellectual. Poignant story of youth that is appealing to adult and young adult readers alike.”
— Rakuten Kobo
“In clear, calm, resolute prose, Lazard recounts the onslaught of urgent issues overpowering her Bay Area childhood, from “America’s foreign policy and military might” as the Vietnam War raged, to wealth, class and racism…”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“I've rarely encountered such an endearing authorial voice. Wry and observant, Dorothy Lazard's writing evokes such distinctive neighbors and family members in a time, place, and culture truly worth cherishing.”
— Susan D. Anderson, History Curator, California African American Museum
“Lazard refers to her narrative as ‘my recovery mission to retrieve a time in my life that marked me more deeply than any other,’ and she succeeds handily, thanks to rigorous scene-building and memorable characterizations of her family. This is a powerful account.”
—Publishers Weekly