Madeline Jones at Algonquin won world English and U.S. Spanish rights to The Phoenix of America by Caro De Robertis (pictured l.) from Michelle Brower at Trellis Literary Management. Per the publisher, the novel centers on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the protofeminist poet “who riveted the Spanish courts in colonial Mexico with her wit and intelligence and later joined a convent as the means to pursue her writing and intellectual life.” It explores “female ambition and queer love under the shadow of the Inquisition.” Release is set for fall 2027.

(photo: Irene Young close)

 

 

Karen Kosztolnyik at Grand Central acquired North American rights, at auction, to Zuma Belle Is Dead by Lee May, the pen name of married writing duo Johanna May Lane and Michael Lee Harvkey, from Bill Clegg at the Clegg Agency. The publisher called the debut novel a “satirical thriller about a close-knit but fraught group of old college friends in their early 30s and a past-her-prime movie star trapped together in a Brooklyn townhouse by Hurricane Sandy, as their schemes, long-hidden lies, and ulterior motives intersect over the course of an explosive evening.” Publication is set for early 2028.

Talia Cieslinski at the Dial Press preempted North American rights to Maelstrom, by British singer-songwriter Hope Tala. The two-book deal was brokered by Olivia Maidment at the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. The novel transpires “on a single day after one sister in a family of four was critically harmed in an act of racist and misogynistic violence, told from the voices of three siblings,” per the
publisher. A spring 2028 release is planned.

Mitzi Angel at FSG acquired North American rights to Life of M by Rachel Cusk from Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency. The novel centers, per the publisher, on a film star named M and a writer who has “decided to pay close attention to M’s life, in the hope of understanding who she really is.” In it, Cusk “investigates who we are, and pretend to be, at this late stage of modern life when we are hypnotized by the images we see everywhere.” Release is set for August.

Noah Eaker at Harper picked up North American rights, in an exclusive submission, to But What I Really Want to Do Is Direct: My First Picture Shows, 1965–1971 by Peter Bogdanovich from Trace Fisher at WME. The memoir, which the filmmaker was working on at the time of his death in 2022, is based on his journals and charts “his apprentice years leading up to the making of his iconic masterpiece, The Last Picture Show,” per the publisher. Sam Wasson—represented by David Halpern, who has an eponymous agency—edited and wrote the introduction. Publication is slated for November.

In Brief

  • George Witte at St. Martin’s took world rights to Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s memoir Unapologetic: Clarity and Conviction in a World Gone Crazy from David Limbaugh, for a November publication.
  • Emilia Rhodes at Atria acquired, in an exclusive submission, world rights to The Twelve Loves of Christmas, an advent calendar–style anthology of holiday-themed love stories by such romance authors as Zakiya N. Jamal, Joss Richard, and M.A. Wardell, for release this fall. Lanie Davis, Romy Golan, and Jessica Harriton at Alloy Entertainment handled the deal.
  • Grace McNamee at Bloomsbury won North American rights to Becky Aikman’s Faster, about pilots Jacqueline Auriol, Diana Barnato, and Jackie Cochran, who in the mid-20th century battled for the title of fastest woman in the world, for a 2028 release. Joy Harris, who has an eponymous agency, brokered the deal.
  • Molly Turpin at Random House bought, at auction, North American rights to The Measure of Nature by Marcia Bjornerud, a professor of environmental studies at Lawrence University, about “the science of measuring the earth and its many unruly parts.” Eric Henney at Brockman brokered the deal. Pub date TBA.

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