Sheila Weller has inked a deal with HarperCollins's Collins division to write a biography of soon-to-be first lady Michelle Obama; executive editor Nancy Miller acquired North American rights to the presently untitled book in an exclusive submission from Ellen Levine at Trident. Weller, who calls Michelle “our new Horatio Alger,” will deliver the book in 2011, so the book will cover the first two years of the Obama administration. The deal also reunites Weller with Miller, who edited Weller's 1997 Saint of Circumstance, about the Alex Kelly rape case, published by Pocket.
This is among the first Michelle-related deals struck since the election, though several publishers had books timed for the election season. Liza Mundy's Michelle (S&S), the first biography out of the gate, hit the New York Times list last month, and Lyons published Elizabeth Lightfoot's Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope last month as well. PublicAffairs just signed up Michelle Obama in Her Own Words, a companion to Barack Obama in His Own Words, last week.
Weller's most recent book was the bestselling Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation, published by Atria earlier this year. She recently profiled members of the Kennedy and Bush families, as well as the progeny of civil rights martyrs James Chaney and Medgar Evers, for Glamour, where she has been senior contributing editor since 2002. Weller is the author of several other books, including the 1995 bestseller Raging Heart, on OJ Simpson.
Trident and HarperCollins UK are presently concluding a separate deal for U.K./Australia/N.Z. rights.
