Zeba Arora at W.W. Norton acquired, at auction, U.S., Canada, and open market rights to In Case of My Death, by Fresh Air cohost and Emmy Award–winning journalist Tonya Mosley (pictured l.), from Tanya McKinnon at McKinnon Literary. The debut memoir sees Mosley “deconstruct the ways that Black women have been taught to silence themselves, and will interweave personal stories with this examination,” per the publisher. No pub date has been announced.

(photo: Bria Celest)

Peter Blackstock at Grove Atlantic landed world English rights to Finnish author Mariia Niskavaara’s Esther, the Butcher from Toomas Aasmäe at Bonnier Rights Finland. The debut novel, set in a town dominated by a meat factory,

follows “a woman who grows up working at a butcher’s shop and longs to have a baby,” per the publisher. Rights have sold in more than 17 territories. A translator has not yet been named. An early 2027 pub date is planned.

Leah Mol at Hanover Square took world English rights, in a two-book deal, to Hell to Pay by Kylie Lee Baker from Mary C. Moore at Aevitas Creative Management. The horror novel centers on “the relationship between three roommates whose everyday struggle to survive in modern-day New York City is complicated by an intestine-eating demon who haunts their apartment,” per the publisher. Release is set for March 2027.

Lexy Cassola at Celadon acquired world English rights to Maria Hummel’s Dorothea from Gail Hochman at Brandt & Hochman. The historical novel is based on the life of Dorothea Viehmann, “an 18th-century German storyteller who was the source of numerous fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm,” per the publisher. No pub date has been announced.

υJocelyn Travis at Sourcebooks Landmark bought North American rights to two novels by Janasha Prabhu, a Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow, from Jordan Hill at New Leaf Literary & Media. Monster in the Mirror, Prabhu’s debut thriller, follows a serial killer’s niece who is desperate to prove she didn’t murder her girlfriend but must take matters into her own hands when another murder rattles her small Long Island town. Release is set for fall. Details on the second book, The Haunting of Lillivati Rush, haven’t been announced.

Sarah McCabe at Scarlett Press and Jason Pinter at Simon Maverick won North American rights, at auction, to H.M. Wolfe’s The Heart duology from Angie Ojeda Hazen of Lunar Literary Agency. The first novel, Daggermouth, a dystopian sci-fi romance originally self-published last year, is planned for September. The second, Python, is slated for 2027.

In Brief

  • Courtney Young at Riverhead won North American rights to How to Pay Attention by the New York Times Magazine’s Paul Tough, rooted in psychology, neuroscience, and years of reporting from classrooms, birding trips, artists’ studios, and elsewhere, from David McCormick at McCormick Literary. Pub date TBA.

  • Ian Van Wye at FSG preempted world all-language rights to Amanda Gefter’s The Mysterious Mind of Peter Putnam, about the 20th-century physicist known for his insights into consciousness, from David McCormick at McCormick Literary, for release in fall 2028.

  • Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau at Spiegel & Grau took world rights to Divine Standard Time by Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, former global head of literary at WME, a memoir slash toolkit drawn from her “conscious withdrawal from the high-octane life she’d known to reconnect with herself and the natural world,” due out in spring 2027. Walsh was unagented.

  • Tim Bartlett at St. Martin’s preempted world English rights to The Athlete Code: Biohacking the Limits of Human Performance,
    the debut of Sports Business Journal reporter Joe Lemire, on the rise of sports technology, to pub in 2028. Mark Tavani at the David Black Agency brokered the deal.

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