Beatles Book to Blue Rider
Andrew Blauner, who runs the Blauner Books Literary Agency, is wearing two hats in bringing a new anthology about the Beatles to life. In addition to editing an anthology with the working title of In Their Lives: A Chorus of Writers Sing the Praises of Their Favorite Beatles Songs, Blauner has sold world rights to Becky Cole at the Penguin Random House imprint Blue Rider Press. The anthology, Blauner said, will feature original essays and stories by writers, discussing their favorite Fab Four songs and what those songs mean to them. Contributors include Roz Chast, David Duchovny, Adam Gopnik, David Hajdu, Pico Iyer, Rick Moody, and Francine Prose. Hardcover publication is planned for 2017.
Ecco Hot for Hawker Fare
Ecco president and publisher Dan Halpern acquired North American rights from Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management to the first cookbook by Bay Area restaurateur James Syhabout. Hawker Fare will be published through Anthony Bourdain’s line of books at Ecco in 2017. Syhabout is the chef and proprietor of Hawker Fare, which has added a San Francisco location to its original restaurant in Oakland; Syhabout also runs the Dock at Linden Street and the Michelin-rated Commis. Syhabout immigrated with his family from Laos when he was two, settling in a Laotion community in Oakland where he learned to cook by helping his mother. The cookbook will feature Southeast Asian recipes accompanied by stories about his immigrant community and recipe tips, along with photographs by Eric Wolfinger.
Medina Stays at Candlewick
Jennifer Rofé at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency brokered a six-figure deal for world rights to two new books by Meg Medina. Kate Fletcher at Candlewick acquired the pair—one an untitled YA novel and the second an untitled middle-grade book. According to Rofé, the young adult novel follows siblings, one of whom has intellectual disabilities, as they navigate their first year of high school together. The middle-grade novel is about an “interfering, multigenerational family living under the same roof in Queens,” Rofé said. Candlewick published Fletcher’s Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass in August 2014, and Burn Baby Burn is due out next March.
Aladdin Gets Two More Dee Middle-Grade Novels
Barbara Dee, author of The Almost Perfect Guide to Imperfect Boys, sold her next two middle-grade novels to Alyson Heller at Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin imprint, who bought North American rights. The first book, Star-Crossed, is about a tween girl who develops a crush on another girl, who’s playing Juliet in the middle school production of Romeo and Juliet. Stuff I Know About You hinges on a tween girl’s suspicions during a field trip to Washington, D.C., that her roommate has an eating disorder. Jill Grinberg of Jill Grinberg Literary Management negotiated the deal.
Briefs
Bob Diforio of D4EO Literary Agency has sold the movie option to If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch to John Ufland/Protocol Entertainment (producer of Secret in Their Eyes, starring Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman), with Sylvia Saether adapting and directing. If You Find Me was published by St. Martin’s.
