Knopf Re-Ups Shields
Author David Shields sold How Literature Saved My Life to his longtime editor at Knopf, Ann Close. Janklow & Nesbit agent P.J. Mark brokered the North American rights deal for Shields, and the book is tentatively scheduled for spring 2013. The book, Mark said, offers a “tender and melancholy examination of how [Shields] transcended sorrow via reading and writing.” Shields, who’s won myriad awards including a Guggenheim fellowship, has written 12 books; his last one, Reality Hunger, was published by Knopf in 2010.

Thomas Dunne Gets Its MTV
Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, or, as she was known to fans who watched her on MTV, Kennedy, sold a memoir to Rob Kirkpatrick at Thomas Dunne Books. J.L. Stermer at N.S. Bienstock Inc. negotiated the North American rights deal for The Kennedy Chronicles: The Golden Age of MTV Through Rose Colored Glasses, which Kirkpatrick called a “behind-the-scenes and off-the-wall” book from the former VJ who is best known for hosting, during the ’90s, the network’s nightly paean to alternative rock music, Alternative Nation. The book will feature photos as well as interviews with a variety of famous musicians.

S&S Lands ‘Hollywood Amnesiac’ College Grad
Molly Lindley and Jonathan Karp, at Simon & Schuster, pre-empted world English rights to a currently untitled memoir by Su Meck, who made headlines this year for graduating from community college at the age of 45, more than 20 years after a freak accident left her with retrograde amnesia, also known as “Hollywood amnesia,” because it occurs rarely in life and frequently in movies. Meck, who is currently pursuing another degree at Smith College, was forced to relearn basic skills, as well as rebuild her life with her husband and two children. When Meck earned her associate’s degree, from Maryland’s Montgomery College, the event was picked up by a number of news outlets, and she appeared, among other places, on the Today Show. Meck, who is now attending Smith on a scholarship, was represented in the deal by Peter Steinberg at the Steinberg Agency. Shari Smiley at CAA is handling film rights.

Perigee ‘Scavenges’ with Smith
Agent Faith Hamlin at Sanford J. Greenburger sold world rights to Keri Smith’s The Pocket Scavenger, a new book by the author/illustrator of the bestselling Wreck This Journal, to Perigee’s Meg Leder. Wreck This Journal, a tongue-in-cheek guide to journaling for the journal-averse, is one of the Penguin imprint’s bestselling titles to date, having sold more than 500,000 copies since its release in 2007. Pocket, which will mark Smith’s sixth book at Perigee, encourages readers to collect a set of items that they then, according to the publisher, “randomly and creatively alter.”

Seal Bends for ‘Yogalosophy’
Krista Lyons-Gould at Seal Press took North American rights to Mandy Ingber’s Yogalosophy: 28 Days to the Ultimate Body Makeover. Agent Jane Dystel, of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, closed the deal, working with Flutie Entertainment. Ingber is a yoga teacher to the stars—clients include Kate Beckinsale and Jennifer Aniston—and in the book she builds on her bestselling DVD of the same name, offering a 28-day routine, complete with diet, for aligning body, mind, and spirit.

Briefs
Nan Graham at Scribner bought North American rights to Louisa Hall’s debut novel, The Carriage House. Susanna Lea at Susanna Lea Associates brokered the deal and Scribner said the novel is about “the struggles and ultimate redemption of a well-to-do Philadelphia family.”

Correction
In last week’s column, author Laurie Frankel was incorrectly referred to as Laurie Frank. Frankel is the author of the forthcoming novel Goodbye for Now (previously called Deadmail).