Bloomsbury Closes Double with NBA Finalist
In a world English rights deal, Nancy Miller at Bloomsbury acquired two novels by three-time National Book Award–finalist Gail Godwin. The first book in the deal, Grief Cottage, is about a boy who, after his mother’s death, is sent to live with his artist aunt in coastal South Carolina. Once in his new surroundings, Bloomsbury said, he is “drawn to an abandoned cottage and the haunting mystery of what happened to its inhabitants.” Moses Cardona at John Hawkins & Associates represented Godwin, and Grief Cottage is slated for a June 2017 release.
Moss Gets Graphic, and Goes Adult, at Conari
For Red Wheel/Weiser’s Conari Press, Christine LeBlond took world rights to Marissa Moss’s debut adult novel, Last Things. Moss is a children’s author known for her bestselling chapter book series Amelia’s Notebook. Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency, who represented Moss, said the books in the Amelia’s Notebook series have, to date, sold more than five million copies. In Last Things, a graphic memoir, Moss tackles her husband’s battle with ALS and how, Fleissig said, she and her sons “found the resilience to reshape their family.” The book is slated for spring 2017.
Coscarelli Brings Vegan Treats to Clarkson Potter
Chloe Coscarelli, executive chef and co-founder of the restaurant By Chloe, sold her latest vegan cookbook to Clarkson Potter at auction. Amanda Englander took world rights to the currently untitled work, which will feature 150 comfort food recipes. Coscarelli, whose fast-casual vegan restaurant has locations in New York City and Los Angeles, and is coming soon to Boston, published her last three cookbooks (including Chloe’s Vegan Desserts) with Atria. Known for being the first vegan chef to win Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, Coscarelli also regularly appears on the Today show. Alyssa Reuben at Paradigm brokered the deal.
Macmillan Kids Inks Brosgol to Triple
Eisner Award–winner Vera Brosgol (Anya’s Ghost) closed a three-book world-rights deal with Macmillan Children’s Books. Judy Hansen at Hansen Literary brokered the agreement, for two picture books and one middle grade graphic novel, with Roaring Brook Press’s Connie Hsu and First Second’s Mark Siegel. Brosgol will write and illustrate both picture books for Roaring Brook; the first, set for September and called Leave Me Alone!, is about, Macmillan said, “a grandmother’s epic quest for quiet.” The second picture book is currently untitled. The middle grade book is a graphic memoir called Be Prepared that recounts the author’s time at a Russian Orthodox summer camp in Upstate New York.
Clare Closes Double at Imprint
In a second deal at Macmillan Children’s Books, Erin Stein acquired world rights to Gwendolyn Clare’s YA novel, Ink, Iron and Glass, for her new imprint, called Imprint. Jennifer Azantian, who has an eponymous shingle, represented Clare, selling two books in the deal. Ink, Iron and Glass, which is Clare’s debut and is scheduled for a winter 2018 release, features a 17-year-old named Elsa who is living in an alternate version of 19th-century Italy. Azantian said the novel follows Elsa as she is forced to leave her home in order to “enlist the help of a secret order and a handsome mechanist to save her mother and protect a powerful object—a book with the power to edit the real world.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story identified Chloe Coscarelli as the owner of By Chloe; she is executive chef and co-owner of the restaurant.
