Little, Brown editor-in-chief Michael Pietsch bought world English rights for a new collection of stories by David Foster Wallace, cult author of Infinite Jest and, most recently, the story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. The untitled collection was bought from agent Bonnie Nadell at the Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell agency, and publication is planned for 2004.... Pursuing his goal of buying more by Western writers, Viking's Paul Slovak bought a new novel from Colorado-based author Kent Nelson. It's set on a farm in South Dakota and describes the efforts of a farmer's widow to keep the place going, against many obstacles, with the help of two women and a boy. Slovak bought North American rights from Sally Wofford-Girand, her first sale as a newly independent agent, and will publish in summer 2003.... Arcade's Cal Barksdale bought a Canadian memoir of a hard life in a tiny and remote Newfoundland hamlet called Seldom also the title of the book by Dawn Rae Downton, purchased for the U.S. from rights director Marilyn Biderman at McClelland & Stewart in Toronto.