Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown landed North American rights to The Brightness by Chad Harbach (pictured l.) from Chris Parris-Lamb at the Gernert Company. Harbach’s sophomore novel, which comes 15 years after his hit debut, The Art of Fielding, about jocks at a Wisconsin liberal arts school, brings readers back to Westish College, this time chronicling “the electric, chaotic, everything-can-happen lives of Pella and her best friend, Irma, as they fumble their way into a larger world that won’t stop changing,” per the publisher. Release is slated for October.

(photo: Beowulf Sheehan)

Annie Chagnot at Park Row preempted world English rights to Erica Bauermeister’s Jayne from Amy Berkower at Writers House. The novelist’s first thriller follows “a disenchanted academic turned barista who unexpectedly rises to bestselling literary fame” and falls into an “entanglement with an enigmatic man,” per the publisher. A summer 2027 pub date is set.

Stephanie Beard at Podium bought world English rights, in a five-book deal, to Eternal Glow, by Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay, from Steve Troha at Folio Literary Management. Gay’s debut thriller, the first in her Bad Mormons series, follows a member of “Utah’s competitive Mormon mom group scene” whose life unravels after receiving a mysterious invitation to undergo a miraculous beauty procedure. An October release is planned.

Caitlin McKenna at Random House landed North American rights at auction, in a two-book deal, to Chantal V. Johnson’s Jackie Loves Boom-Boom from Stacy Testa at Writers House. The novel centers on Valentina, “a lusty, dryly comic music critic turned wanderer, who reluctantly embarks on a cross-country journey with a ragtag group of friends to track down an elusive grunge icon,” per the publisher. Publication is planned for summer 2027.

Tara Singh Carlson at Putnam won U.S. rights at auction to Sara Gray’s Briefly, Forever from Lisa Grubka at UTA, on behalf of Sheila Crowley and Helena Maybery at Curtis Brown UK. The debut novel is about “a man who writes perfect love stories but doesn’t believe in them, and the single mother who changes his mind, beginning where most love stories end—with loss,” per the publisher. Release is set for spring 2027.

Michelle Vega at Berkley took North American rights to Lauren Ho’s Sharpen Your Knives from Katelyn Detweiler at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, via Jessica Purdue at Sphere. The novel sees an aging A-list actor invite his five ex-wives to “his remote mansion to reveal he’s writing a memoir that will expose their darkest secrets,” only to be murdered, with his writing assistant made to solve the case, per the publisher. A spring 2027 release is set.

In Brief

  • Ben Sevier at Grand Central acquired North American rights to thriller author Harlan Coben’s memoir-slash-writing-guide Plot Twist: Life, Craft and the Messy First Draft from Lisa Erbach Vance at the Aaron Priest Literary Agency, for a September release.
  • Stuart Roberts at Simon & Schuster secured North American rights to How to Not Die in Prison, the debut book from filmmaker Taylor Sheridan, cowritten with Tom Nelson, pitched as a “darkly funny survival guide to life in a maximum-security prison,” from Anthony Mattero at CAA, for publication in June.
  • Cara Bedick at Little, Brown Spark landed world rights, at auction, to Brainspan, by cognitive neuroscientist and Better Brain Substack author Julie Fratantoni, a “guide to preserving and sharpening your brain power at every stage of life,” from Morgan Strehlow at the Bindery Agency, for a fall 2027 release.
  • Sara Nelson at HarperCollins picked up U.S. Commonwealth rights to the third and fourth books in Stella Sands’s Wordhunter mystery series, featuring a “forensic codebreaker and her old-school sardonic sidekick” in South Florida, from Stephanie Kip Rostan at Levine Greenberg Rostan, for publication in 2027 and 2028, respectively.

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