Adenike Olanrewaju at Harper landed North American rights, in an exclusive submission, to Skin upon Skin: Masks as a Mirror of Race by Morgan Jerkins (pictured l.) from Sharon Pelletier at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. The book, per the agency, “explores the interplay between masks and race in American cultural history, from pre-Revolution beauty customs to the rise of the KKK, from minstrelsy and horror villains to political movements and state-sanctioned violence.” A fall 2028 release is planned.
Gabriella Mongelli at Little, Brown picked up North American rights, at auction, in a two-book deal, to Tyler McCall’s People Like You from Ariele Fredman at UTA. The debut novel is “set over the course of one summer in the Hamptons” and follows “two sworn rivals from an elite private school who reunite as adults over a decade later,” according to the agency. Martha Ashby at Harper Fiction bought U.K. rights from Emma Finn at C&W. A spring 2027 release is planned.
Gary Groth at Fantagraphics acquired world English rights to Riad Sattouf’s The End of the Arab of the Future: A Youth in the Middle East from Marleen Seegers at 2 Seas Agency. The conclusion of Sattouf’s graphic memoir series, Arab of the Future, follows the author, who was born to a Syrian father and French mother, during his teenage years spent in France as he “navigates puberty, isolation, and the pressures of French society while haunted by the absence of his father and brother, and the sadness of his mother,” according to the publisher. Publication is scheduled for May 2026.
Mary Altman at Sourcebooks landed world English rights, in a two-book deal, to Daniel G. Miller’s The Neighborhood Experiment from Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. The author’s latest thriller centers on a woman who, while searching for her sister, “infiltrates a billionaire’s desert ‘wellness utopia’—only to uncover a human experiment where perfection hides something deadly,” according to the agency. Publication is planned for fall 2026, and the second book, an as-yet-untitled standalone thriller, is slated for fall 2027.
Nate Lanman at Del Rey secured world rights, in a two-book deal, to The Barrowvine Saint by A. Raven Demory, from Allegra Martschenko at Bookends Literary. The debut novel is a dark fantasy set in an industrial town on the precipice of the underworld, where an undead grave robber is “hired to find the missing corpse of a local noblewoman’s daughter to win her freedom from the hive-mind entity that resurrected her,” according to the publisher. Release is scheduled for summer 2027.
In Brief
- Jillian Ramirez at Bloomsbury preempted world all-language rights to Janna Morton’s Long Live the Party, a party-planning guide for those who yearn for—but struggle to emulate—the opulent soirees of the past, from Alyssa Jennette at Stonesong, for fall 2028.
- Sydney Collins at Dell preempted, in a two-book deal, world rights to Dylan Aubrey’s debut, Lessons in Romance, about a postdoc fellow teaching a class on the romance novel who finds herself butting heads with a classics-loving professor, from Gabriella Melendez at Great Dog Literary, for summer 2027.
- Jesse Shuman at Bantam took world rights to the next two books in Jo Firestone’s Luella van Horn comedic mystery series, in which the titular sleuth investigates cases at a camp for adults with bad personalities and a haunted nudist colony, respectively, from Abby Saul at the Lark Group. The first as-yet-untitled book is set for summer 2027; pub date for the second is TBA.
- Colin Robinson at OR took world rights to Pam Bailey’s No One Gets Out Unscarred, bringing together the perspectives of a formerly incarcerated man and a retired federal prison official to expose the harms of America’s prison system, from Jessica Craig at Craig Literary for a fall 2026 release.
