A memoir dedication carries more weight than most, because the people in it are real and some of them will read it. Many memoirs are dedicated to someone who has died, to a parent or partner who lived the story, or to readers going through the same thing. The generator drafts lines in a memorial or warm voice, the template sets the page, and the examples show how other memoirists keep it brief.
Dedication generator
Choose who the book is for and the tone. Nothing you type leaves this page.
In loving memory of [name], my first and best reader.
For [name], who would have bought ten copies and given them all away.
To the memory of [name]. I hope this would have made you proud.
Download the template
Free, no sign-up. Open it in Word, Google Docs, Pages or LibreOffice and replace the bracketed parts.
Examples
- In memory of my father, Emmanuel Okafor (1951–2019), who told these stories first.
- For Daniel, who lived every chapter of this with me and still says I left out the best bits.
- To anyone sitting in a hospital car park right now. You will get through this.
- For my mother, who gave me permission to tell it.
- For the boy I was in 1994. We made it.
Writing about real people
A dedication names someone in the most public place in your book. If the person is alive and appears in the memoir, tell them before it goes to print. If the book is hard on someone, do not dedicate it to them unless you mean it as an olive branch and they know.
For someone who has died, adding the years of their life ("1951–2019") makes the line a memorial and is widely used.
A dedication, an epigraph, or both
Memoirs often open with an epigraph, a short quotation that sets the tone. It goes on its own page after the dedication. If you quote a song lyric or a recent poem, you need permission from the rights holder; a Bible verse from a public-domain translation does not need it, while modern translations have their own permission rules.
Three patterns memoirists use
- The witness: dedicate to the person who lived it beside you.
- The memorial: dedicate to the person the book is about, with their dates.
- The reader: dedicate to whoever is where you once were.
Questions
Can I dedicate my memoir to someone who hurt me?
You can, but readers will read it as forgiveness or irony. If neither is meant, choose someone else.
Should I include dates for someone who has died?
It is common and clear. Use birth and death years; full dates are rare in dedications.
Where do longer thanks go?
In the acknowledgments at the back of the book.
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