Andrea Walker at Harper won North American rights, at auction, to Charlotte Cane, the debut novel by Susan Fox, from Stephanie Delman at Trellis Literary Management. The novel, the publisher said, follows “a writer in her 60s whose unexpected career resurgence is threatened by anonymous allegations of a long-ago affair with a student that spiraled into tragedy, exploring complicity, moral ambiguity, and the shifting cultural expectations that challenge the stories we tell ourselves.” Publication is set for early 2027.
Ruqayyah Daud at Requited preempted North American rights to Dire Bound, Fury Bound, and the third, untitled book of a new adult romantasy trilogy by Sable Sorensen (the pen name of Annie Page-Stone and Eliza Phillips) from Caitlin Mahony at William Morris Endeavor. The series, the publisher said, is “set in a war-torn world where a young woman unwittingly enters a deadly competition to bond to a direwolf in order to save her sister.” Foreign rights sold at auction in Germany and the U.K. and were preempted in eight other territories. Publication is set for summer 2025.
Nicole Luongo at Grand Central purchased, at auction, North American rights to Evann Normandin’s debut novel, The Good Parts, from Michelle Wolfson at Wolfson Literary. The speculative love story, per the publisher, follows “a woman who undergoes an irreversible memory-erasing procedure and the man she once loved who reenters her life as a stranger, determined to make her fall for him all over again—but at a great cost.” Publication is set for summer 2026.
Peter Borland at Atria picked up North American rights, in an exclusive two-book submission, to Skylark by Paula McLain from Julie Barer at the Book Group. The novel, per the publisher, finds “a young woman seeking artistic freedom in 17th-century Paris and a medical student living in WWII Paris during the Nazi occupation, whose stories of endurance and courage intertwine across the centuries in ways both mystical and literal.” Publication is set for April 2026.
Daniel Ehrenhaft at Blackstone acquired world rights to Marc J Gregson’s debut dystopian novel Behind the Glass from Heather Cashman at Storm Literary Agency. The novel, per the agency, follows “an elite soldier recruited by eco-activists to infiltrate the reigning authority’s twisted ‘business school’—a 1920s mob-era simulacrum where the next generation of ruthless executives are groomed to out-gangster each other in a high-stakes crime war—so that he might save the real world outside.” Publication is planned for fall 2026.
In Brief
- Greg Ruggiero at Seven Stories took world rights, unagented, to The Fix: Saving American Democracy from Corruption by MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade, set for June 2026.
- Helen Rouner at Penguin bought North American rights, at auction, to John Owen Havard’s My Jane Austen Breakup Album from Alia Hanna Habib at Gernert. Pub date TBD.
- Nisi Shawl at PM Press acquired U.S. rights to She Is Here by Nicola Griffith, “a heady mélange of essays, poems, art, and
- stories,” from Stephanie Cabot at Susanna Lea, for release next January.
- Gina Iaquinta at Liveright secured North American rights to Be Easy: New and Selected Poems by Adrian Matejka from Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties, for release next March.
- C. Spike Trotman at Iron Circus netted world rights to High Street Hellcats, a graphic novel by Janet Harvey and illustrated by Megan Levens, from Liz Nealon at Great Dog Literary, for a fall 2027 release.
- Sarah Weiss at Ballantine took North American rights to Stephanie Foo’s memoir I Will Give You Everything, on parenting with PTSD, from Alyssa Reuben at WME. No release date has been announced.
This article has been updated with further information.
