The Skin I Keep — A Memoir
Some skins are learned protections: silence, obedience, the strength to endure. But a skin that once kept her safe can become too small for the life she wants. Shedding it means exposing what she spent years protecting.
THE SKIN I KEEP A memoir in progress by Assel Nussubaliyeva What does it cost a woman to keep going when her silence is part of what everyone expects? Beginning in Kazakhstan during perestroika and unfolding across three continents, The Skin I Keep follows a life shaped by immigration, sexual assault, domestic violence, sexism, racism, and injustice in corporate America. Behind a career, motherhood, and repeated new beginnings lies a history that could not simply be left behind. Survival entered ordinary life: the way she spoke, worked, trusted, loved, and understood her own worth. This memoir opens the distance between the capable woman others saw and the private life they knew nothing about. It asks how much of herself she surrendered to remain safe, employed, accepted, or loved—and what happens when she begins to claim those parts back. Stay connected for excerpts, reflections, and publication updates.
A Memoir — November 2026
About the Author
ASSEL NUSSUBALIYEVA
Assel Nussubaliyeva is a design principal, an immigrant from Kazakhstan, and a single and only mother. Born in Almaty, she came to the United States at sixteen and grew into adulthood in Brooklyn. Her life and work have taken her across three continents. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Assel has built an international career in interior design and now leads AN Design Global. Alongside that work, she has raised her daughter, navigated upheaval, and rebuilt her life more than once. Direct and outspoken by nature, she learned to measure her words in environments where her accent, identity, and refusal to make herself smaller could count against her. For years, much of her experience remained private. She is now writing her first memoir, The Skin I Keep, and speaking about survival, motherhood, inequality, and the lasting consequences of being silenced. Her writing reaches toward women who have carried difficult lives quietly—and want to be heard without having to make their stories easier for others to accept.
Coming
November 11, 2026
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Available November 11, 2026
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