Singer R. Kelly penning his memoir

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LOS ANGELES, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. recording artist R. Kelly is penning an as-yet-untitled memoir to be published in 2011, SmileyBooks announced Wednesday.

The three-time Grammy Award-winner's bright career has been eclipsed in recent years by a complicated, long-drawn-out child pornography trial that ended with Kelly's acquittal in 2008.

"We are thrilled to be the conduit through which R. Kelly will tell his own story," Tavis Smiley, founder and publisher of SmileyBooks, said in a statement. "He has earned the right to tell his story his own way."

"I'm writing this book as Robert, not R. Kelly," added the singer born Robert Sylvester Kelly. "I'm tired of being misunderstood. I will show you the tears, fears, and sweat. I will open my heart and reveal the good in my life as well as all the drama. I want to tell it like it is."

"You have the creative passion of R. Kelly, revealed in his groundbreaking 'Trapped in the Closet' series, coupled with writer David Ritz, who has collaborated with the musicians Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Aretha Franklin. It's a great pairing," noted SmileyBooks President Cheryl Woodruff in a release about the forthcoming book.