Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – September 04, 2026 – Long before Kensington became a symbol of America’s opioid crisis, it was already a place where survival often felt like the only realistic ambition.

For author Chaz Holesworth, the Philadelphia neighborhood was not a headline or a documentary subject. It was home.

His two-volume memoir, Life and How to Live It, chronicles childhood and adolescence shaped by poverty, addiction, family dysfunction, religious extremism, and an unrelenting search for identity. Born into a family struggling with generational hardship, Holesworth grew up with a heroin-addicted father, a grandfather connected to Philadelphia’s notorious K&A Gang, and the constant feeling that life was happening to him rather than for him.

Yet these books are not traditional addiction memoirs or stories of urban survival. At their core, they are about a young man trying to understand who he is.

The first volume, Begin the Begin, published in 2024, follows Holesworth from childhood through age seventeen, ending with an emotional breakdown after years of pressure, confusion, and conflict between the world he came from and the life he hoped to build. The second volume, Near Wild Heaven, published in 2026, explores the aftermath as he attempts to navigate adulthood while wrestling with anxiety, obsessive thoughts, self-doubt, heartbreak, and the lingering effects of his upbringing.

What separates Life and How to Live It from many coming-of-age memoirs is its refusal to offer easy answers. Holesworth writes candidly about mental health struggles, religious trauma, and the long process of learning to trust himself after years of believing everyone else knew better. Running through both books is another constant: music. A lot of big time bands and musicians that came from that area became more than favorite musicians. Their songs served as companions, teachers, and lifelines during periods when little else made sense. Nearly every chapter title references a song or lyrics that helped him navigate a particular moment in his life.

In many ways, the memoir captures an experience shared by an entire generation, people who turned to records, cassette tapes, and late-night radio long before conversations about trauma and mental health became commonplace.

Today, as discussions about addiction, anxiety, identity, and resilience continue to evolve, Holesworth’s story offers a reminder that many of these struggles existed long before society had language for them.

His story begins in Kensington, but the questions it asks are universal: How do we become ourselves when the people around us are lost? What keeps us moving when hope feels fragile? And what do we hold onto when everything else falls away?

Life and How to Live It: Volume One, Begin the Begin (2024) and Volume Two, Near Wild Heaven (2026) are available now.

About the Author

Chaz Holesworth is a Philadelphia native and the author of the memoir series Life and How to Live It. Raised in a world shaped by poverty, addiction, and fear-based religion, he writes with unflinching honesty about survival, identity, and the long work of unlearning shame. Music runs through his story as a lifeline, a language, and a way back to himself. Chaz lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and their dog. When he is not writing, he is usually chasing live music, finding new roads to travel, and advocating for the rights of workers and animals.

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Website: http://www.lifeandhowtoliveit-holesworth.com/