Lana Del Rey announces release date for poetry book and spoken-word album

Artist says some proceeds from the book and album will go towards Native American initiatives, including the Navajo Water Project

Lana Del Rey will release a book of poetry and its accompanying spoken-word album – set to music by her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff – later this month.

Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is scheduled for release on 28 July, it has been announced. Hardcover and ebook editions of the poetry book will come out on 29 September, with CDs and vinyl shipping on 2 October.

The project was announced by Del Rey in December last year. She said that half of proceeds from the book and album will “benefit Native American organisations around the country”.

Earlier this week, Del Rey revealed she is supporting the Najavo Water Project, and that money for the book’s advance will go to “different Native American projects”.

“The Navajo Water Project has a fundraising target of $1,035,000 for 2020 to bring running water and solar power to 230 families,” Del Rey wrote. “We plan on fulfilling that target in the next 4 weeks to bring it up to their million-dollar mark, and we’ll be travelling throughout New Mexico Arizona and Utah to say hello and make sure it gets done.”

Del Rey’s latest studio album, Norman F***ing Rockwell, was released last year, and received a nomination for Album of the Year at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

An Instagram post announcing her next album was the subject of controversy as she defended lyrics she said had been criticised for being about women with “sometimes submissive or passive roles” in relationships.

Del Rey compared how she is treated by the music industry compared to artists including Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Kehlani, Nicki Minaj and Doja Cat, women she said had achieved number ones “with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f***ing, cheating etc”.

“I’m fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorise abuse when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world,” she wrote.