Luke Dempsey, who took over publishing duties at Hudson Street Press after founder Laureen Rowland's departure in January, has made his first acquisition for the Penguin imprint. Titled Learning to Breathe, it is a memoir by Alison Wright, a photojournalist and travel writer who has lived and worked throughout Asia. The book will describe her recovery from a very nearly fatal bus accident in Laos, in which most of her internal organs were propelled into her shoulder, her arm was torn open and she sustained several broken ribs. Drawing on her lifelong meditation practice, Wright was able to survive 14 hours without medical attention.
Dempsey, most recently an editor at Crown, has had previous success with this kind of harrowing material; in an earlier position at Atria, he published Aron Ralston's bestselling Between a Rock and a Hard Place, in which the climber described amputating his own arm after being trapped by a boulder.
Hudson Street Press, founded by Rowland in 2003 as a nonfiction, personality-driven imprint, publishes about 30 titles a year.
