CANADIAN, NORTH AMERICAN AND UK DEALS 

Fiction

World rights to Nicolas DiDomizio's BURN IT THE F*** DOWN, pitched as Gilmore Girls meets Thelma & Louise, about a young man and his mother, who share a penchant for toxic men; their plans for revenge accidentally go too far and force them to go on the run, sold to T.S. Ferguson at Little, Brown, for publication in Spring/Summer 2021. Contact: Elizabeth Bennett, [email protected]

North American English rights to critically acclaimed author Clifford Jackman's new novel THE BRAVER THING have been acquired by Anne Collins at Random House Canada. At the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, in 1721, Blackbeard's shipmate, Jimmy Kavanagh puts together one last "Company of Gentlemen of Fortune" (i.e., pirates) to undertake an epic journey of theft and pillage that will set them all up for life. As good fortune and rich hauls turn them from hunters into the hunted, and erodes the principles of equality on which good pirating depends, resulting in mutinies, assassinations, show trials worthy of Stalin, tyranny and then a pure struggle for survival. A swashbuckling allegory for our times. Publication is set for May 2020. Contact: Carolyn Forde, [email protected]  

Canadian English-language rights to author of the multiple-award winning, bestselling, internationally published, and acclaimed debut novel,  The Break ,  Katherena Vermette's  next two novels, THE STRANGERS and THE CIRCLE, which feature some of the same beloved and heartbreaking characters who appeared in The Break, sold at auction to Nicole Winstanley, Publisher, Hamish Hamilton, at Penguin Random House. Winstanley said, "Hamish Hamilton Canada is thrilled to be Katherena Vermette's new publishing home. In both novels, readers will find everything they loved and admired about The Break: incredibly propulsive, heart-stopping narratives that are also nuanced portraits of contemporary challenges. The humanity of Vermette's characters is impossible to overlook as she insists we see beyond the simple labels society attaches to them." German-language rights to THE STRANGERS and THE CIRCLE have sold to Regina Kammerer, Publisher, Luchterhand and btb. Contact: Marilyn Biderman, [email protected]

Canadian English-language rights  to Catherine Hernandez's CROSSHAIRS sold  in a two-book deal at auction to  Harper Collins Canada  Editorial Director , Jennifer Lambert. CROSSHAIRS tells the story of a country's slide into fascism and a regime that targets racialized, elderly, LGBTQ, and disabled folks. It follows Kay, a queer Jamaican/Filipino man and a group of persecuted outsiders, as they form an underground resistance and plan for revolution.  English- and Spanish-language rights in the US sold to  Michelle Herrera Mulligan,  Senior Editor at Atria; and Commonwealth, excluding Canada to Cherise Lopes-Baker, Commissioning Editor and Manager of Fiction at Jacaranda Books. Contact: Marilyn Biderman,  [email protected]

World rights to a ward-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller, poet, scholar, and musician, Leanne Betasamosake Sim pson's new book NOOPIMING: THE CURE FOR WHITE LADIES, a bold reimagining of the novel, one that combines narrative and poetic fragments through a careful and fierce reclamation of Anishnaabe aesthetics, sold to  Sarah MacLachlan, President and Publisher, House of Anansi Press, for publication in the fall of 2020 . Noopiming is Anishinaabemowin for "in the bush" and the title is a response to English-Canadian settler and author Susanna Moodie's 1852 colonial memoir Roughing It in the Bush. Stories gather up tiny pieces, one at a time, as they slowly circle through the perspectives of different characters, in a breathtaking act of world-building that rewards patience and deep listening. This is the real world, the one where meaning accumulates through close observation and relationship. Enter and be changed. Deal by Marilyn Biderman, [email protected]. Contact Sonya Lalli, [email protected]

World rights to Ann Shin's HOOP SNAKE sold to Erika Imranyi, Editorial Director at Park Row Books in an exclusive submission. Set in the Chinese underground and inside the world's most secretive regime, North Korea, this stunning debut novel is a searing portrayal of two lovers forced to make unthinkable sacrifices in their struggle towards freedom. Ann Shin is an award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker residing in Toronto, Canada. She has worked for CBC Radio, Sunday Morning Live, and Metro Morning, and has produced programs for such networks as CBC, PBS, HBO, and Discovery, among others. Her films have earned and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy and Emmy Awards.HOOP SNAKE was inspired by the work she did on the documentary film The Defector: Escape from North Korea. Publication is planned for Winter 2021. Contact: Carolyn Forde,   [email protected]

UK and Australian rights to Karma Brown's highly anticipated upcoming novel RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE have sold to Legend Press, and they will publish simultaneously with Dutton in the US and Viking in Canada. Rights have also sold in Czech Republ, Germany, Italy and Ukraine. Contact: Carolyn Forde, [email protected]

North American rights to Kerry Clare's WAITING FOR A STAR TO FALL a commercial novel, in the vein of Joanne Ramos, Zoe Whittall, Emily Giffin, and Taylor Jenkins Reid, about a young woman whose on-again/off-again boyfriend, a political superstar, is brought down by decades-old allegations of sexual misconduct, sold to Bhavna Chauhan at Doubleday Canada. Contact: Samantha Haywood, [email protected]

World rights to Amber McMillan's debut short story collection, THE RUNNING TREES sold to Bethany Gibson at Goose Lane Editions. Amber McMillan is the author of The Woods: A Year on Protection Island, a memoir; and We Can't Ever Do This Again, a book of poetry. THE RUNNING TREES asks what constitutes truth, opinion, and fact, tapping into the current zeitgeist of email, texting, and social media, and examines the murky terrain of feeling and memory. Publication is scheduled for 2021. Contact: Stephanie Sinclair, [email protected].

Audio rights to Claire Tacon's IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT SINGING FLAMINGO have sold to ECW. Chosen for Hamilton Reads 2019, Tacon's novel is a charming, tender and often funny story of a father struggling to let his daughters grow up and of a family struggling against hard odds, taking care of each other when the world lets them down. Contact: Stephanie Sinclair, [email protected].

Non-Fiction

TV/Film rights for Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner  Linden MacIntyre 's, THE WAKE: THE DEADLY LEGACY OF A NEWFOUNDLAND TSUNAMI (August 27, 2019, HarperCollins Canada) have been granted to John Walker Productions. John Walker is one of Canada's most prolific and respected documentary filmmakers. His films have appeared at major international film festivals in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, London and Tokyo. THE WAKE recounts the harrowing tale of the giant tsunami that struck Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula in 1929. The most destructive earthquake-related event in Newfoundland's history, the disaster killed twenty-eight people and left hundreds more homeless or destitute. It forever changed the lives of the inhabitants of the fishing outports along that coast, and marked the beginning of its commercial mining endeavours. Contact: Shaun Bradley, [email protected].

TV/Film rights for  John Zada's critically acclaimed literary travel memoir IN THE VALLEYS OF THE NOBLE BEYOND: IN SEARCH OF SASQUATCH (Canada rights to Greystone, World rights to Grove Atlantic) optioned for development by  Show of Force, known for creating award-winning feature documentaries, event television series, and groundbreaking transmedia projects. The show will look at the mythology of Sasquatch-type creatures in far-flung and environmentally threatened parts of the world.  Contact: Carolyn Forde, [email protected].

TV rights to HOLDING STILL FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE by Zoe Whittall, a story about a controlled, even-keeled paramedic whose orderly life begins to unravel when he gets involved in a love triangle at the same time as PTSD starts to bring his sense of self into question optioned by Marble Media. While still living with Amy, a struggling filmmaker from an wealthy family, he falls in love with Billy, an agoraphobic former teen music star, and things get really complicated. A portrait of queer and trans community in the gentrifying neighbourhood of Parkdale. Contact: Samantha Haywood, [email protected]

TV/Film rights to YOUR LIFE IS MINE by Naben Ruthnum writing as Nathan Ripley, a suspenseful page-turner about a woman whose notorious cult leader
father died when she was a child, but whose legacy comes back to haunt her, optioned by Markham Street Films Inc. The screenplay is to be adapted by Naben Ruthnum and Danishka Esterhazy. Contact: Samantha Haywood, [email protected]


TV/Film rights to HEROES IN MY HEAD by Judy Rebick, based on Judy's riveting memoir, about the eleven personalities she developed in order to help her cope with, and survive, childhood sexual abuse, optioned by Ina Fichman of Intuitive Pictures Inc. Contact: Samantha Haywood, [email protected]