Adult Newsletter: September

Up And Coming For Submission

FICTION

When Paula Martin, an unmarried librarian yearning for motherhood, wakes up one morning in her apartment on Via Passatella 11, she doesn’t know that the day will irrevocably bind her to her two neighbors—a mother searching for her adult son and a soon-to-be widow envisioning her life after her husband’s death. Paula helps Amelia Fattore care for her dying husband. She doesn’t know, however, that Giovanni Fattore is drowning in debt and that widowhood will doom Amelia to poverty. With her cunning sense of practicality, Amelia has been secretly planning her future. After 30 years of absence, Matilde Gandolfi returns to Milan to reconnect with the son she abandoned in the 1990s when she left the city to pursue her dream of becoming a world-famous opera singer. Fearing rejection, Matilde stalks him through the city and begs a reluctant Paula for help. In the process, she unwillingly forces Amelia to run away. Under the watchful eye of Mrs. Lidia, the building’s caretaker, truths are revealed, doors are slammed, and the three women must confront the complexities of motherhood, identity, and the irrelevance of expectations. Intimate, intense and moving, Maria Carnovale's debut literary novel, VIA PASSATELLA 11 will bring fans of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, on a journey through the streets of Milan and into the unresolved sense of grief and obsession, devotion and survival, that the three women navigate in their precarious quest for new beginnings. 

Just three stressful weeks into serving the dysfunctional Stubbs-Holmes family in their Boston mansion, lovable experimental AI cook, Aimy, stands accused of murdering the wealthy, cantankerous matriarch on her 67th birthday. After all, it is Aimy’s butcher knife the adult children find embedded in their wheelchair-bound mother who had relentlessly persecuted the eager-to-please AI (please don’t call her a robot). While Aimy would never dream of harming a human, her brain is so overloaded by the confusing data it’s been processing that she can’t be sure she isn’t guilty. If she is found guilty, she will be shut down and dismantled but, having experienced simulated death and enlightened awakening, Aimy is as attached to life as the humans she resembles. No longer a simple cook, Aimy must solve a murder all evidence suggests she committed. Wedded to her new friendships, the beautiful mansion grounds and her organic country kitchen dreams, how far will she go to prove her innocence? And with an AI-brain as sharp as her knives, can she convince police another family member is guilty? THE COOK'S KNIFE is a cozy, lightly speculative mystery with a Knives Out setting and ambiance that will delight fans of locked-room murders, Nita Prose’s The Maid, and Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid. This debut from Daron Sheehan, an early AI systems developer, is topical and fast-paced with a mystery perplexing enough to scramble an AI brain. 

Her name is Lot: born to a teenage mother in rural Pennsylvania, raised by an abusive and mercurial father, and named for the uncle whose death in a mining accident occurs the night of her birth.  At the age of 17, she left her hometown—a postcard hamlet where the porches are swept clean and the secrets buried deep—forever. So she thought. Seven years later, surrounded by a vibrant found family and making her living as a freelance investigative journalist, she’s one story away from breaking into big time. But when that break comes, it’s from an unexpected place. Her younger brother Jacob calls to deliver the news: their father has died. Keeping a vow—that she’d be back only over his dead body—Lot returns for the funeral. That night, Jacob disappears and the body of his friend washes up from the copper-colored river. Unable to convince the police that these cases might be related, Lot files a story. She expected push back from the locals, from the church, from her family. But someone is willing to go much further to stop her. The more she tries to unwind the strands that choke her small town in its coal-dark past, the more they lead her back to her own family history. In A THIN BLACK SEAM, a slow-burn novel of suspense in the tradition of Long Bright River and Sharp Objects, novelist Brandy Schillace traces the dark vein through a community, through a family, and through Lot herself. (Please note, Jessica Papin is the agent for this project.)

Someone wants to kill Bettina Boateng. A young and delicate African woman living in Harlem, Bettina recklessly begins an affair with Ree, a playboy whose chief occupation is inserting himself into other people’s marriages. And Bettina’s marriage to Kofi is ripe for disruption—as an African son stoked in cultural obedience, Kofi has been tasked with paying for a majestic funeral for his father back in Ghana, and so Kofi works around the clock as a security guard, all but ignoring Bettina when he’s home. When Kofi finds out about the affair, he rages at Bettina for her transgression, but ultimately, he forgives her—or does he? For while Kofi and Bettina rekindle their marriage, Ree stays in the picture, refusing to believe the affair is over. And then there’s Hans Shumacher, a shady Black Austrian who befriends Ree, and whose ulterior motives aren’t entirely clear. One thing is VERY clear, though: Bettina Boateng is in danger. In her debut novel KOFI’S WIFE, filmmaker Vigil Chime delivers a tense psychological thriller that delves into the tight and twisted lives of its main couple, filtered through the traditions and demands of African culture. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent for this project.)

When Sadie Williams, a cash-strapped mother, gets too good of a deal on her dream house in Memphis’s coveted suburbs, she thinks her family’s luck has turned around.  That is, until a group of local mothers pull her into a pyramid scheme, enlisting her help in selling skin and bath products at neighborhood parties. The business takes off.  For once, Sadie has it all: her daughter is in a great school, she’s finally got “mom friends,” her body has never looked hotter thanks to the unusual bath wares and now money is starting to flow her way. Then she starts hearing piercing screams in the dead of night and witnesses local women walking the streets almost like zombies.  Even worse, her body begins to change in grotesque ways. Sadie is becoming something that isn’t human—and she isn’t the first woman in this quaint Southern town to meet such a horrific fate. With time running out, Sadie must uncover the truth lurking in the shadows of Howling Lane before it becomes a suburban hell. A perfect read for fans of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison, Stoker and Locus award-winning author Lisa Kröger makes her horror fiction debut with THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF HOWLING LANE, which explores feminine rage, motherhood and female friendship. (Please note, Ann Leslie Tuttle is the agent for this project.)

In Kald, where sonatas ease pain and symphonies summon storms, Eidlan was a rising star composer until one of his magical concertos backfired violently three years ago, disabling him and sending him into hiding. But when his mentor Aleksandra Vath, renowned conductor of the Kaldan Imperial Symphony, is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Eidlan is tapped as her successor. Though the Kaldan High Council has brushed Vath’s death under the rug, Eidlan is determined to uncover who killed her—and suspects the motive relates to her Hu’ani ethnicity, a background he shares. It feels too coincidental that Kald is gearing up for war with Hu’an, and that the Council is pressuring Eidlan to compose “ethnic” music despite his mostly Kaldan upbringing. Eidlan partners with his assigned healer-servant, Feru—a temperamental, disgraced violin prodigy hoping to use Eidlan’s status to reclaim their spot in the Symphony—and the two are drawn unexpectedly closer as they hunt for the truth behind Vath’s death, navigate a treacherous web of imperial interests, and uncover exactly how Kald intends to harness Eidlan’s music magic in the impending war. Written by Ignyte-, Rhysling-, and Locus-nominated author P.H. Low, OUR BEATING HEARTS A SYMPHONY is a queer, politically-minded romantic fantasy centering neurodivergent and disabled characters, perfect for fans of Babel by R. F. Kuang and A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent for this project.) 

Budding philosopher Cyril’s life is turned upside down when the radical—and possibly treasonous—treatise he wrote in private is published behind his back. Amid the scandal, Cyril is forced to flee the capital city, taking a job in the small town of Telannum in hopes that the stir will die down. Ashamed and wary, Cyril vows to keep to himself, but the moment he arrives he collides, quite literally, with Elisar, a local weaving apprentice. Gregarious and thoroughly drunk, Elisar insists Cyril visit him the next day so that he can make amends—and suddenly, the handsome weaver has unraveled Cyril’s vow of solitude. Elisar has problems of his own: all that stands between him and promotion to the next rank in the weaver’s guild is a showpiece tapestry, but his perfectionism is holding him back. His years-long delay is putting his mentor’s workshop at risk, and the pressure to find a subject and complete his tapestry threatens to crush him. As Elisar and Cyril’s lives begin to interweave, they find themselves simultaneously frustrated by and fascinated with each other, and as the consequences of both Cyril’s treatise and Elisar’s showpiece come to a head, they just might have to admit how much they’ve come to feel for—and inspire—each other. Written by Neil Cochrane, WOVEN INTO YOU is a queer, cozy romantasy-of-manners for fans of Freya Marske and Cat Sebastian. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent for this project.) 

Ten years after a humiliating fall from grace, former teen pop star Deanna Day is ready to make her comeback as a serious musician. She doesn't expect her headlining show to take place at a luxury island resort or to have sexy documentarian Theo Harper filming her every move, but she resigns herself to rolling with the punches… even after she wakes up with a massive hangover and an even bigger diamond on her finger. With their wedding ceremony plastered across the internet and her reputation on the line, Deanna convinces Theo to play along with their midnight marriage, sweetening the deal by offering to use her pop star appeal to take down Theo’s professional nemesis. With her handsome new “husband” at her side, Deanna’s star power burns brighter than ever, but not everyone is easily fooled. To pull off the PR stunt, Deanna must navigate overzealous management, invasive in-laws, and spotlight-hungry nepo babies, all while trying not to fall in love with her husband and further complicate an already risky arrangement. FULL DISCLOSURE WITH DEANNA DAY by Jessica Banks is perfect for fans of The Paradise Problem and anyone who has been cheering for Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears all along. (Please note, this project is represented by Kendall Berdinsky.)

At twenty-seven, Natalie thought she’d be on her way to curating major exhibitions, not fielding coffee orders and eye rolls from her gallery’s nightmare boss. Instead, she’s stuck in assistant limbo, quietly questioning every life choice that got her here. But everything changes the day she meets world-renowned portrait artist André de Saint-Yves. He’s talented, intense, maddeningly charming—and a confirmed bachelor with a reputation as carefully cultivated as his brushstrokes. He hasn’t painted in years…but something about Natalie lights a spark. He wants her to be his newest muse. There’s just one catch: she has to pose nude. Natalie’s first instinct is to laugh. Her second is to say yes. What starts as creative collaboration soon stirs something deeper. Between long glances, late-night wine, and the occasional existential crisis, Natalie starts to realize that this opportunity might be about more than art—and that the man behind the canvas might be more complicated, and more vulnerable, than his reputation suggests. But with André’s walls still firmly in place, Natalie has one burning question: when the painting’s done, will he still want her in the picture? WORK OF ART by Allison Page is a sharp, emotionally rich debut about ambition, trust, and the messy art of falling in love. Perfect for fans of Abby Jimenez and Carley Fortune—with a dash of French flair and a whole lot of heat. (Please note, this project is represented by Kendall Berdinsky.)

NON-FICTION

When David Fleming discovered that a staggering number of condemned prisoners in Texas used their last words to shout out their favorite sports teams, the author and longtime ESPN and Sports Illustrated reporter just had to know more. Fleming’s extraordinary day reporting from Death Row inside the notorious Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, instantly went viral, was cited by the Innocence Project, and became a 2024 Peabody-nominated episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out with millions of viewers and downloads. The episode ultimately inspired Fleming’s latest ground-breaking, literary adventure DIEHARDS: LOVING SPORTS TO DEATH AND BEYOND. Sports have always united us. Now, even in death, at the final frontier of the sports fandom universe, where John Madden meets Mary Roach, sports continue to hold space at the forefront of our minds. Authoritative, relentlessly curious and irresistibly droll, DIEHARDS takes readers on a global quest to explore the profoundly strange (and, strangely profound) connection between sports and death: from Super Bowl Sunday on Death Row, to the corpse-littered summit of Mount Everest, to the Dallas home of an NFL star grieving the death of his son, to the cadaver tissue harvesting facility in Colorado that saved Steph Curry’s career, to Bryant-Denny stadium where Bama fans dump a mountain of human remains each fall, to the haunted hotel MLB players refuse to stay in, to a factory in New Jersey turning duffers’ ashes into golf balls, and to the brand new columbarium under the pitch in Barcelona where 30,000 fans have been granted their final wish, to spend eternity as true diehards. 

What happens when a broken man meets a broken cat in a city destroyed by decades of war? Can they find a way to help each other become whole again, or are there too many missing pieces for them to ever truly heal? Major Thad Krasnesky, an intelligence officer on his fifth combat deployment, meets No Tail, a wounded street cat in Afghanistan, and together they begin a journey that starts in an alley in Kabul, and eventually takes them both to a Victorian mansion in Kansas. THE CAT FROM KABUL tells the story of a soldier and a cat who discover that leaving the war behind is a lot harder than simply getting on a plane. Their tale is one of survival amidst extreme adversity and will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled to rise to their feet one more time, when it would be so much easier to just stay down. It is a story of grace, and hopefully, a story of redemption, but above all, THE CAT FROM KABUL is simply a love story between a man and his cat. 

One morning, veteran podcaster and freelance pop-culture writer Eric Nuzum looked at some notes he’d recently taken—and couldn’t read them. They were a mess of indecipherable scribbles. So, he set out on what seemed like a simple quest: to write more clearly. Soon, he discovered that sloppy handwriting wasn’t the problem (for him or any other wobbly writer)—it was a symptom of something deeper. In a world engineered for distraction—where speed passes for connection and depth quietly disappears—we move fast, communicate faster, and rarely pause to ask: what are we rushing toward, and what have we lost along the way? LONGHAND is a book about that space in between. As Eric tries to untangle why his handwriting is so sloppy, he finds himself also striving to untangle a life pulled in too many directions. What begins as a mission to fix cursive becomes a quiet rebellion against speed, superficiality, and digital overload. Part memoir, part cultural reckoning, and part love letter to the analog, LONGHAND is about rediscovering depth through the seemingly small act of handwriting—setting intentions, reclaiming attention, and remembering how to truly connect: with others, with ideas, and with yourself. Tender, funny, and unexpectedly profound, LONGHAND is a meditation on the power of small rituals, the intimacy of the handwritten word, and the radical act of putting pen to paper in a world that’s forgotten how. 

Why does a 92-year-old billionaire still chase the future instead of settling into retirement? Why do people accumulate wealth and objects far beyond their basic needs? Why do some people burn with relentless drive while others are content to coast?  In AMBITION: THE SCIENCE OF WHY WE STRIVE, award-winning science journalist Sara Phillips takes us on a riveting journey from the boardrooms of billionaires to the evolutionary roots of animal hierarchies. With the storytelling verve of a journalist and the curiosity of a psychologist, she unpacks the true nature of ambition—not as internal drive, but as something formed by those around us. Blending decades of research with unforgettable human stories, this is a book about what happens when the desire to be more collides with the reality of what we need. It’s a story about status, competition, and the hidden scaffolding of society—and it might just change the way you see success, pride, envy and your relationship with other people. AMBITION will appeal to readers wanting to better understand the psychology of the corporate jungle or those wanting to comprehend their urge to reject the old corporate playbook. AMBITION is not a book about how to achieve your dreams—it’s a book about why we have dreams at all.

What happens when the storyteller becomes the story? In I HATE TO BREAK THE NEWS, Selene San Felice recounts going from a rookie reporter at her hometown newspaper to surviving the deadliest attack on journalists in American history. Thrust into a surreal world of grief and fame, a million people watched as she told Anderson Cooper, uncensored, that she "couldn't give a fuck" about thoughts and prayers from President Trump. But surviving the attack was just the beginning. The Capital Gazette shooting in 2018 became a catalyst for San Felice to face the failures and broken promises of the journalism industry and to address predatory men who don't need to possess a gun to threaten a woman's survival. With raw candor and humor, San Felice chronicles the challenges she and her Capital Gazette coworkers face in keeping their newspaper alive while mourning five colleagues—ultimately finding the strength to face her would-be killer. With poignant, cutting analysis in the tradition of Ronan Farrow, I HATE TO BREAK THE NEWS is a timely nonfiction narrative in the vein of Chanel Miller’s Know My Name and Salman Rushdie’s Knife, landing amidst the political turmoil of Trump’s second presidency and a new age of queer feminism.

FOOD MEMORIES: FIFTY PERSONAL STORIES, WITH RECIPES by Susan Herrmann Loomis, award-winning and internationally recognized journalist and chef, profiles people from all walks of life whom she has met as she’s crisscrossed countries and continents interviewing fishers and farmers, chefs, food historians, and others about their work. Herrmann Loomis has gathered their stories and their food memories, which are more important and precious than ever as we live in an era of chaos, where cultures seem to be unravelling, and things we hold dear are disappearing. As we recreate the foods we love, we reconnect with our identities and where we come from, sharing what is fundamental about us. Through illuminating personal stories, Herrmann Loomis finds that people who migrate, either by force or by choice, cling to food memories, tethering them to their loved ones and their cultures.  By referring to our memories and making them real on the plate, we give ourselves roots, comfort, culture, and sometimes even the passion to create. In FOOD MEMORIES, Herrmann Loomis introduces us to lively characters and their favorite recipes, such as Omaç, a Turkish bread salad, chicken with apricots, fresh ginger cake, and a fresh take on a classic Caesar salad.

RX: RESILIENCE is an adrenaline-fueled personal narrative of Dr. Sarah Spelsberg, an emergency and expedition physician whose practice spans some of the world’s most extreme environments. From coordinating medevacs around erupting volcanic islands, treating patients out in the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea, consulting on the management of shark bites in the South Pacific, diving for house calls in an undersea habitat, or on the set of a global reality TV show, she brings medicine to the edge of what is possible. There’s no backup and no guarantee the weather will cooperate. But the true power of her story lies beyond the adrenaline. After a devastating spinal injury, she was told she might never walk again, let alone practice medicine. Subsequently diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, Spelsberg clawed her way back from illness, personal loss, and professional setbacks to build a life of service and purpose in some of the world’s hardest places. Through her journey, she redefines what it means to survive, to serve, and to lead with compassion under pressure. In the spirit of Into the Planet, Endurance, and Adrift, RX: RESILIENCE is a gripping account of danger, discovery, and dogged determination. 

A HEARTBEAT AWAY: WHY THE VICE PRESIDENT MATTERS is the story of America’s consequential VPs and the mark they made on the American experience. Written as a compelling narrative, A HEARTBEAT AWAY illuminates the ramifications of unpreparedness, leadership, and failure through the lens of the nation’s deputy presidents. James H. Lumley and Wendy Lee categorically re-examine America’s fifty vice presidents and the consequences of their tenure. They bring to life the riveting stories of those who floundered, those who served nobly, and why it mattered. Imagine the vice president of the United States “sobbing like a child” when he learned that he had become POTUS. That’s how Chester Arthur reacted after reading the telegram informing him of Garfield’s death. In 1960, JFK told his campaign staff, “I’m forty-three years. I’m not going to die in office. So, the vice presidency doesn’t mean anything.” What is riveting is that misjudgment is still occurring in the twenty-first century. Despite the lessons of history, presidential nominees continue to choose running mates who are not prepared to lead a global superpower. Lumley and Lee chronicle the best and worst vice-presidential picks from Calhoun to Quayle, and those who were truant and treasonous, as well as the triggerman, Aaron Burr, who murdered Alexander Hamilton while serving as Jefferson’s VP. (If Americans think we are in turbulent times now, they need only to harken back to the nineteenth century.) A HEARTBEAT AWAY will be a true historical tour de force.

When Elizabeth Humphreys’ mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, what follows isn’t a single moment of tragedy—but a decade-plus unraveling of roles, identity, and expectations. In this brutally honest and unexpectedly tender reflection, Humphreys chronicles the lived experience of caregiving: the guilt, the absurdity, the tiny victories, and the deep wells of grief that open up when you lose someone in slow motion. This isn’t a clinical guide to Alzheimer’s, or a memoir soaked in despair. It’s a book full of stories, hard truths, real laughs, and the emotional rollercoaster of loving someone who’s disappearing in front of you. It’s candid and often gutting—but also beautiful, and sometimes hilarious, because that’s what the journey is like. Through sharp observation and bone-dry wit, Humphreys resists easy platitudes and offers something more valuable than any doctor can: truth. The messy, nonlinear, complicated kind, told through vivid storytelling and lived experience. Woven with heartbreak and humor, TOO BAD ABOUT THAT: A GUIDE TO TERMINAL LIVING speaks to anyone stuck in the liminal space between caregiving and collapsing. With literary precision and emotional clarity, Humphreys offers not a guide to dying, but a guide to living—when life turns unrecognizable and love is the only thing that still makes sense. For anyone tangled in the middle of motherhood, identity, and loss, this book says the quiet parts out loud and provides understanding for every messy emotion felt along the caregiving journey.

In 1955, across the United States, half a million people were confined to publicly funded mental hospitals. Thirty years later, that number had dropped to 110,000 due to a movement—sparked by journalists who exposed the scandalous conditions of the country’s overcrowded and understaffed mental hospitals—for community-based mental health care, intertwining advocacy from politicians, psychiatrists, social workers, and former patients, aimed at keeping patients out of the hospital. But while suburban leaders and residents eagerly welcomed mental health clinics in the 1950s and 60s, by the 1970s and 80s, they grew more resistant to integrating ex-patients, turning to the courts to bar them from resettling in their towns. Social conservatives then deemed deinstitutionalization a failure, blaming ex-patient and antipsychiatry activists for rising rates of homelessness, even as they pushed to cut funding for community-based care and dismantled public housing options. In ON OUR OWN: HOW REACTIONARIES AND NIMBYs DEFERRED THE DREAM OF BETTER MENTAL HEALTHCARE, author Stephen Vider (The Queerness of Home) traces how and why activists pushed to shutter psychiatric hospitals and what happened when they succeeded, exploring the pathways and impacts of deinstitutionalization as they unfolded. Drawing on oral histories and previously unexamined archives, ON OUR OWN uncovers the stories of little-known activists who pioneered more affirming models of mental healthcare and explores how deinstitutionalization altered how Americans view people living with mental illness and understand mental illness itself. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent for this project.)

The history of womankind can be told with a look at her single most recognizable characteristic—her breasts. BREASTS OUT FRONT is a “titillating” history of the breast in art, entertainment, fashion, and culture that celebrates the critical part of the female anatomy which, since ancient times, has impacted and influenced every aspect of a woman’s life. In art, entertainment, fashion and popular culture breasts dominate. BREASTS OUT FRONT considers the impact of breasts as the universal theme in a historical manner. Jan Jewett, award-winning designer, educator, curator, and author gives voice to the outsized role breasts play in history across the topics she traces through photos, illustrations, and detailed descriptions. For tens of thousands of years breasts have been celebrated in fashion, entertainment and conceptualized in various art mediums. No other body part has been artistically rendered more than a woman’s breasts. Historically, the representation of the breast has changed throughout the centuries reflecting the period’s social concerns, religious beliefs, and moral values. Beginning as early as the 5th century B.C and continuing into the 21st century no other part of the female anatomy has held more influence than the breast. Public interest in the examination of the significant role breasts have played in our history is trending nationally as the 60th Venice Biennale, the world’s preeminent art event, featured the exhibition Breasts, which was widely reported and featured in mainstream media. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent for this project.)  

Julie Story didn’t just miss out on the perfect white‑picket‑fence life—she got the demolition version. By twenty‑three, she was a single mom of two, divorced, and boarding a one‑way flight back to her teenage bedroom. Weeks later, she was in a cement stairwell at a job she hated, staring at a stack of bills she couldn’t pay, wondering how to give her children magical memories when her own life was falling apart. She’s rebuilt more times than she can count—through abusive relationships, single motherhood, financial collapse, religious trauma, and the relentless chaos of toxic friendships—armed only with resilience, unhinged humor, and the questionable life skills passed down through generational dysfunction. FUNNY STORY, I’M NOT FINE is her laugh‑out‑loud, brutally honest guide to surviving the messy middle of life: the part between the breakdown and the breakthrough. Comedian and content creator Julie Story—whose videos have earned over a million devoted followers—shares the unglamorous truth about rebuilding when your happy ending keeps moving in a different direction. With cinematic metaphors, absurdist “internal characters” (Grief cosplaying as Loneliness, Trauma as the houseguest who never leaves, and Joy begging for the microphone), and laugh‑cry storytelling, Julie turns personal disasters into resilience lessons anyone can use. For fans of I’m Glad My Mom Died, this is the book you clutch when you think you’re the only one barely holding it together—proof you can start over, lose it all, start again, and still build a life you love. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent for this project.) 

For readers of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, Dr. Leslie Blackhall’s LAZARUS AND THE MUSTARD SEED is a fresh and spiritually grounded perspective on death and dying. Dr. Blackhall is a palliative care physician and a leader in her field, with more than forty years of experience. Her passion for end-of-life care began at age eight, when she sat at her father’s funeral and felt, deep in her bones, the truth that all of us die. That moment sparked a lifelong quest to understand what it means to live in a mortal world. LAZARUS AND THE MUSTARD SEED is a meditation on mortality and a critique of how the medical profession fails people at the end of life, and a memoir of Blackhall’s life’s work. It chronicles her efforts to transform the way we care for dying people. Through vivid patient stories, the book reveals what it means to be human in the face of death. It also traces Dr. Blackhall’s spiritual journey as a practicing Buddhist—a path she has walked for as long as she has practiced medicine. Like her life, the book is infused with sadness, joy, passion, and humor. Dr. Leslie Blackhall is the Section Head of Palliative Care at the University of Virginia School of Medicine where she holds the Tussi and John Kluge Chair for Palliative Medicine. She has MA in Theology from the Harvard Divinity School and is an expert in Tibetan Medicine. Her TEDx talk “Living dying and the problem with hope” has more than 100,000 views on YouTube. (Please note, Jessica Papin is the agent for this project.)

In the vein of Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing, MURDER IN THE SHRINE CITY by Simona Foltyn is a riveting work of true crime and political history that investigates the unsolved murder of a prominent activist who led the biggest anti-government protest Iraq witnessed since 2003. Set in the southern city of Karbala, one of the holiest sites of Shia Islam, Foltyn chronicles a turbulent period in Iraq marked by violent attacks, assassinations, and arrests that rocked Iraq in the wake of the war against ISIS. Part profile of a country in crisis, part murder mystery, the book delves into the dramatic stories of three people who lived through the upheaval, documenting their fight for survival and justice. Drawing on more than six years of original on-the-ground reporting, Foltyn leads readers on a captivating search for the truth, into the heart of an uprising—inside torture chambers, court rooms, secret operation rooms, and militia bases, shedding unique light on the country Iraq has become twenty years after the U.S.-led invasion. At a time when Iraqis finally hoped for peace, a new power struggle tore their country apart, amplified by growing animosity between the U.S. and Iran, who began settling their scores on Iraqi soil. Simona Foltyn is an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker who lived in Baghdad during this volatile period, working for the PBS NewsHour, BBC, Al Jazeera English and the Guardian, among others. A fluent Arabic speaker, she gained exclusive access to the Iran-backed commander accused of the killing. Her investigation paints a nuanced and compelling portrait of a country that many Western observers still struggle to understand. (Please note, Jessica Papin is the agent for this project.)

We see plants as mere scenery—a green backdrop to the more important lives of animals, including ourselves. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Over the course of their evolution, plants have transformed the oceans, the land, even the atmosphere—to an enormous degree. The world as we now see it was created through the geo-engineering activities of plants. In VERDANT: HOW PLANTS CREATED THE WORLD WE KNOW, author and evolutionary biologist Erin Zimmerman will look at the evolution of the plant kingdom, one key innovation at a time, to explore exactly how plants brought the world from a barren, poisonous hellscape to the green and pleasant planet of today. We’ll look at how flowers use animals with exquisite precision to achieve their goals, and how their appearance led to entirely new biomes like rainforests and grasslands, and how plants conquered the cold and dry regions of the planet using time travel in the form of seeds. Additionally, Zimmerman examines how the evolution of roots and leaves helped trigger an ice age that lasted 100 million years, and how a little parenting trick allowed plants to conquer land and green the planet. Readers will come away with the sense that, far from being passive scenery in the exciting lives of animals, plants have remade the world in their image, and have been some of the most active, and even aggressive, participants in the evolution of life on Earth. It’s a plant’s world… we’re just living in it. (Please note, Jessica Papin is the agent for this project.)

In 1928, as the Maserati brothers, Ferdinand Porsche and Enzo Ferrari, were laying the foundations for auto racing’s future, the biggest star on the track was a young woman from Czechoslovakia. Standing only 5’0”, with a blonde bob, lightning wit, and command of a half-dozen languages, Elizabeth Junek was a favorite on the Grand Prix circuit. In her bright yellow Bugatti, she raced in France, Germany, and Italy, regularly beating the top male drivers. And yet, at age 28 and the peak of her racing prowess, she unexpectedly retired and set off to drive a Bugatti across India. QUEEN OF THE GRAND PRIX: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ELIZABETH JUNEK AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF RACING by sports historian Bruce Berglund (The Moscow Playbook) tells Elizabeth’s story for the first time. Riding alongside Elizabeth, readers get a behind-the-wheel look at the dangerous world of 1920s open-cockpit speedsters, the prelude to today’s Formula One. We also meet the dashing racers and visionary tycoons of racing’s Golden Age, specifically Ettore Bugatti, the designer of Elizabeth’s cars. Based on Elizabeth’s unpublished letters and journals, QUEEN OF THE GRAND PRIX unfolds her remarkable path of uncompromising adventure, from Prague to Paris, Sicily to South Asia. Drivers of the 1920s respected Elizabeth Junek; racing fans loved her. And readers will, too. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent for this project.)

In the winter of October 1858, the sailors of the Nantucket whaling ship Phoenix heard the first bone-chilling crack of rock against the hull. Her anchor dragged under the full force of a furious blizzard, sliding backwards in the unforgiving grip of the Siberian Sea of Okhotsk. Yet what followed was not just a shipwreck, but an extraordinary saga of survival: the crew's desperate plight on an uninhabited island in the remote Shantar Archipelago, and a captain's audacious mid-winter trek through hundreds of miles of sub-Arctic wilderness to find salvation at a distant Russian prison camp. With THE MARGINAL SEA: SHIPWRECK AND SURVIVAL ON SIBERIA’S SEA OF OKHOTSK, former Forbes reporter David Churbuck draws on previously unseen sources to tell the story of the Phoenix for the first time, focusing not only on the shipwreck but the deep friendship and rivalry between two young sea captains from Cape Cod whose fates were intertwined by disaster, fortitude, and an indefatigable will to survive. Like David Gann’s The Wager and Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, THE MARGINAL SEA will captivate and enrich readers with a survival story for the ages. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent for this project.)

When three of University of Pittsburgh English professor Jonathan Callard’s student-athletes wrote about their Western Pennsylvania hometown of Clairton, where the century-old mill and high school football create a tight community, Callard had to investigate. The Clairton Bears’ fans are second to none -- for a reason -- the team has sent dozens to Division One football programs, and five to the NFL, racking up the most state wins in the past 15 years. Key to the Bears’ success is Coach Wayne “Rinky” Wade, a former pro, whose colorful aphorisms teach his team about matters bigger than football, helping them break out of their decaying town’s cycle of violence and poverty. In the tradition of Friday Night Lights, The Boys from Riverside, and Playing Through the Whistle, FAMILY TOGETHER: THE GOSPEL OF FOOTBALL IN THE CITY OF PRAYER follows the record-setting Clairton Bears through two football seasons, the losses and triumphs, tracking Coach Wade and three of his top players, all still reeling from the murder of the quarterback who led them to their last state crown. Underlying FAMILY TOGETHER is the importance of social connection -- the people of Clairton stay to help each other, giving back rather than getting out, including in response to the Coke Works’ recent tragic explosion. Ultimately, FAMILY TOGETHER, the Bears’ pre-game locker-room chant, opens a window into the communion that sports can provide, and shows what Clairton can teach us all about courage, love, and home. (Please note, Leslie Meredith represents this project.)

Rights Round Up

GARDEN OF GRAVES by Maria Eftimiades went to MMB Media LLC for World English audio rights. OUTLAW and HELL OR HIGH WATER by Abbi Glines went to Podium Publishing for World English audio rights. BLACK HEART, A SUDDEN RESPONSE, and BETRAYED by R.L. Mathewson went to Audible for World English audio rights. THE SECRET MIND by Bonnie Buckner PhD went to Dreamscape for World English audio rights.

WHY SMART PEOPLE MAKE BIG MONEY MISTAKES by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich went to Wewe Technology Co for Vietnamese rights. THE BRIGHT YEARS by Sarah Damoff went to LAB Publishers/VBK for Dutch rights and Ithaki Publishing for Turkish rights. CORRUPT by Penelope Douglas went to Mozaik Knjiga for Croatian rights and Euromedia for Czech rights. TRYST SIX VENOM went to Family Leisure Club for Ukrainian rights. HIDEAWAY went to Euromedia for Czech rights. CREDENCE went to Black Ink Editions for French rights. CAT’S PEOPLE by Tanya Guerrero went to Ikar for Slovak rights. VERITY by Colleen Hoover went to Al Rewaq for Arabic rights. HOPELESS and LAYLA, went to WSOY for Finnish rights. REGRETTING YOU went to Bokabeitan for Icelandic rights. TOO LATE went to Baltos Lankos for Lithuanian rights. LAYLA went to Planeta for Spanish rights. REGRETTING YOU went to Palitra L Publishing for Georgian rights. VERITY went to Futami Shobo for Japanese rights. MAYBE NOW went to Baltos Lankos for Lithuanian rights. THE THINGS WE WATER by Mariana Zapata went to Konyvmolykepzo for Hungarian rights, Newton Compton for Italian rights, Niezwykle for Polish rights, and Vajosh Verlag/Schöche Verlagsgruppe for German rights. RHYTHM, CHORD & MALYKHIN and FROM LUKOV WITH LOVE went to Albatros for Czech rights. RHYTHM, CHORD & MALYKHIN and LUNA & THE LIE went to MxM for French rights. UNDER LOCKE and THE THINGS WE WATER went to Albatros for Czech rights. BETTER THE DEVIL by Erik J. Brown went to Albatros Media for Czech rights. THE EYE OF MINDS by James Dashner went to Pocket Jeunesse for French rights. STORY THIEVES and THE STOLEN CHAPTERS by James Riley went to RM Books for Ukrainian rights. THE MENTAL STRENGTH PLAYBOOK went to Ebury/PRH UK for UK & Commonwealth rights. SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL by Jessica Brody, based on books by Blake Snyder went to Ginkgo Book Co for Mainland Chinese rights. AN ANCIENT WITCH’S GUIDE TO MODERN DATING by Cecilia Edward went to V&R Editora for Portuguese rights and Pioneer Books/Alexandra Group for Hungarian rights. LAST SACRIFICE by Richelle Mead went to Poradnia K for Polish rights. SILVER SHADOWS went to Slovart for Slovak rights. I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST by Mason Deaver went to Saga Egmont for Dutch rights. SHAKESPEARE’S MONKEY by Tom Mitchell went to HarperCollins UK for World rights. ON LOVEROSE LANE by Samantha Young went to Pukka Yayinlari for Turkish rights. THE FAVORITES by Layne Fargo went to Rahya Raamat for Estonian rights. THEY NEVER LEARN went to Chatto & Windus for UK & Commonwealth rights, and Vivat for Ukrainian rights. MOTH DARK by Kika Hatzopoulou went to Loewe for German rights. HEARTS THAT CUT went to Olimpos for Turkish rights.

RECENT SALES 

BIOGRAPHY OF ROGER GOODELL by Andrew Beaton went to Avid Reader Press in a World rights deal.

Nicole Melleby’s WE ALL WE GOT, WE ALL WE NEED: THE RISE OF WOMEN’S BASKETBALL went to Sourcebooks in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

World English rights to MIND NOT THE TIMID by Rebecca E.F. Barone went to Amulet in a deal by Michael Bourret.

THE WONDER OF CHIMPANZEES by Katherine Cronin went to Church Publishing in a World rights deal.

Victoria Laurie’s next two mystery novels went to Kensington in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.  

World rights to LIFE DRAWING: 50 YEARS OF MARY ENGELBREIT by Mary Engelbreit and Patrick Regan went to Workman in a deal by Sharon Pelletier.

MAKE YOUR STORY MATTER by Abbie Emmons went to BenBella in a World English rights deal by Stacey Glick.

Jim McCarthy sold HOW TO TRAIN YOUR EVIL ROBOT by Joy McCullough to Sourcebooks in a World rights deal.  

James Lang’s THE END OF READING? went to W,W. Norton in a World rights deal by Jessica Papin.

Leslie Meredith sold WILDTYPE by Rebecca Calisi-Rodriguez, PhD to Dutton/Plume in a World English rights deal.

RANK CHASERS by Dina Havranek went to Peachtree Teen in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.  

UNTITLED by Jared Huffman went to W.W. Norton in USCOM deal.

MILK MONEY by Dave Wheeler went to Charlesbridge in a World rights deal by John Rudolph.

Vivek Maru’s BAREFOOT LAWYERS went to Bloomsbury in a World rights deal by Jessica Papin.

North American rights to SETTING THE STAGE FOR CHRISTMAS by Tanya Boteju went to S&S Canada in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

JANE AUSTEN’S FINISHING SCHOOL by Veeda Bybee went to Shadow Mountain in a World English rights deal by Ann Leslie Tuttle.

Adrienne Tooley’s OUTSIDE VOICES went to Delacorte in a World English rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Stacey Glick sold MODERN HOMESTEAD by Eva Kosmas Flores to Rodale in a World rights deal.

WE BECAME WILD by H.D. Carver went to Norton Young Readers in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

World rights to WHAT’S GOING RIGHT by Emma Varvaloucas went to BenBella in a deal by Leslie Meredith.

Sarah Crouch’s MOUNTAIN HOUNDS went to Atria in a North American rights deal.

Jim McCarthy sold GHOSTED by Talia Tucker to Feiwel & Friends in a World English rights deal.  

World English rights to POISON AND POLITICS by Neil Bradbury went to St. Martin’s Press in a deal by Jessica Papin.

Stacey Glick sold SO THEY GATHER by Julie H. Case to Counterpoint in a North American rights deal.

Thomas Fuller’s FORBBIDEN FRUIT went to Knopf/Doubleday in a North American rights deal.

UNDER THE GOOD NIGHT MOTEL by Tehlor Kay Mejia went to Delacorte in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Michael Bourret sold CLASS MARKS by Sara Ryan to Dutton in a World English rights deal. 

World rights to WHY WE LOVE BIRDS by Scott Harris went to Timber Press in a deal by Leslie Meredith.

THE MIDNIGHT BUS by Shawntelle Madison went to Storehouse Voices in a World English rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Charlotte Balogh’s CAPSIZED went to Delacorte Press in a World English rights deal by Michael Bourret.

Stacey Glick sold THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE PLAYBOOK by Brian Mazza to BenBella Books in a World rights deal.

Michael Bourret sold WHAT A STRANGE CREATURE! And UNTITLED BOOK 2 by Evan Griffith to Knopf Books for Young Readers in a World rights deal.

THE CLEAT STEPS OF THE GODS by Ryan McGee went to Knopf/Doubleday in a North American rights deal.

THE GRASSLAND QUEEN by Priyanka Kumar went to Island Press in a World English rights deal by Leslie Meredith.

World English to MADDER LAKE and UNTITLED BOOK 2 by Katie Wu went to Harper Voyager in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

Matthew Kastel’s BOTTOM OF THE NINTH went to University of Nebraska Press in a World rights deal.