Books I've Written
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‘Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You’

Published November 27, 2012 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly
Team Dolly
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly
Latest posts by Team Dolly (see all)

Dolly writes ‘Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You’

Motivated by the reception of her 2009 commencement speech at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Dolly wrote the book “Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You.”

Dolly explained why she chose to expand her speech into the book,

“After the speech did so well, and a lot of people said, you know, you should put this together. And expand on it more. Do something else with it. That’s what we did, through our foundation, the [Imagination Library], we teach dream more, learn more, care more and be more.”

The book was released in hardcover in 2012 (Putnam Adult) and paperback (Riverhead Trade) in 2013 with all proceeds benefiting her Imagination Library project which provides free books to participating kids from birth to age five in Australia, Canada, the U.K. and U.S.

Dolly sees the book as a collection of inspirational stories from her own life that might help others.

 

Team Dolly‘Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You’

Dolly writes children’s book, ‘I Am a Rainbow’

Published January 1, 2009 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly
Team Dolly
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly
Latest posts by Team Dolly (see all)

A book that uses the colors of the rainbow to teach children about expressing their emotions

Dolly wrote her second book for children, “I Am a Rainbow,” with illustrator Heather Sheffield, in 2009 on the Putnam imprint. The book teaches children to connect their emotions with colors so they can better express their feelings and emotions. In a Time magazine interview about the project, Dolly said,

“I wanted to write a book that talked about the emotions of children, which is the rainbow. We all have moods. We talk about being blue when we’re sad, and being yellow when we’re cowards, and when we’re mad, we’re red. It’s really about us all having these colors, and it’s O.K. to have them, but it’s learning how to deal with them and what to do with them. It’s a sweet little book done in rhyme. I hope to write lots and lots of children’s books through the years.”

Dolly sees the writing as part of her goal to get children reading, a project she started in 1996 with her Imagination Library. On “Larry King Live” she discussed the book,

“Well, actually, this is catered to little children. We have the Imagination Library, you know, where I give a book a month to every child from the time it’s born until it starts kindergarten through my Imagination Library at the Dollywood — through the Dollywood Foundation at Dollywood. So this little book is called ‘I Am a Rainbow’ and it is about all the different moods of children.”

Team DollyDolly writes children’s book, ‘I Am a Rainbow’
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‘Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s: Love, Laughter, and Lots of Good Food’

Published January 1, 2006 / Last Updated December 8, 2020
Team Dolly
Team Dolly
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly
Latest posts by Team Dolly (see all)

Dolly’s first cookbook, ‘Dixie Fixin’s,’ features over 100 recipes collected from her childhood, family members, Dollywood, Dixie Stampede and her own travels

In 2006, Dolly published her first cookbook, “Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s: Love, Laughter, and Lots of Good Food” on the Viking Studio (Penguin Group) imprint. The cookbook includes 125 recipes from her mother Avie Lee Parton, her mother-in-law ‘Mama’ Ginnie Dean, Dollywood restaurants, Dixie Stampede kitchens, and her own travels and meals on the road. The recipes are paired with pictures of Dolly’s family, friends and her performances. The book also includes discussions of her childhood and musical career.

Dolly explained the concept for the cookbook,

“I still like to try new foods as often as I can. But when it comes to cooking for myself and my husband Carl and my great big extended family, which numbers into the multiple hundreds these days, what we really want to eat is what comforts us most: good, hearty food rooted in Mama’s cooking and those country gatherings of my childhood. It’s the food from those Mom and Pop joints that welcome you in as if you’re family. We really just want food that is lovingly made and joyfully served up. Around here, that’s what we call Dixie Fixin’s.”

Most important, all the proceeds from the book go to support her Imagination Library (which provides monthly books to children through the mail) through The Dollywood Foundation.

Team Dolly‘Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s: Love, Laughter, and Lots of Good Food’
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“Coat of Many Colors” children’s book

Published January 18, 1996 / Last Updated November 17, 2015
Team Dolly
Team Dolly
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly
Latest posts by Team Dolly (see all)

Dolly’s “Coat of Many Colors” children’s book brings one of her best-loved songs to life, based on one of her most vivid childhood memories

Winter is coming to Tennessee and there’s no money to buy a new coat, so a little girl’s mama sews one for her out of rags. The little girl wears it to school proudly, and when the other children laugh, she gives them a quick lesson about what it means to be rich.

Like the song, the book tells a powerful story of kindness, understanding and appreciation of what you have in life. Publishers Weekly said,

“The heartfelt verses are imbued with the same genuine, infectiously likeable spirit Parton herself projects.”

The story concludes with the simple but powerful words from the song, “One is only poor, only if they choose to be. Now I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be, In my coat of many colors my momma made for me.”

The book, published by HarperCollins in 1996, features paintings from illustrator Judith Sutton.

To date, the book has sold over 150,000 copies.

Team Dolly“Coat of Many Colors” children’s book
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‘Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business’

Published October 1, 1994 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly
Team Dolly
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly
Latest posts by Team Dolly (see all)

Dolly shares her story in first autobiography “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business”

In 1994, Dolly published her first book, an autobiography, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business” on the HarperCollins imprint. The book recounts her childhood growing up poor in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and talks about her music, religion, marriage and many other aspects of her life like her opinions about plastic surgery and her larger-than-life persona.

Dolly’s incredible personality was a big part of the promotional tour for the book.

“I love it that people can laugh at my expense,”

she says, her blue-green eyes widening for emphasis.

“I laugh at my expense. It’s not like I have not left myself wide open for all this. This is part of who I am, part of who I want to be… Why would I get offended and upset for somebody to make jokes about the very thing that I laid right out there for them to make jokes about?”

She mentions her appearance on the “Late Show With David Letterman” and laughs at the Top-10 list he revealed, “Surprises in the Dolly Parton Autobiography. Number 10: At birth, doctor thought he was delivering triplets. Number 6: Went on world tour in early ’70s with Dalai Lama in a show called ‘A Couple of Dollys.’ Number 1: Consulted on the Wonderbra project.”

“Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business” reached the New York Times Bestseller list and stayed there for two months.

 

 

Team Dolly‘Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business’

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