Heated auctions for works by the recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Paul Harding, have just closed. Kent Wolf, at Global Literary Management, oversaw a seven-publisher auction for the U.K. rights to the prize-winning Tinkers which is published in the U.S. by Bellevue Literary Press. Wolf, who was overseeing the auction for Bellevue's Erika Goldman, said he had a "best-bid scenario" with Jason Arthur of Random House UK's Heinemann imprint emerging as the victor. RH UK will publish the British edition of Tinkers in September. Wolf said that he's also reviewing bids for foreign rights from Italy, Germany, and France, and expects to close sales in those countries soon.
Claire Roberts at Trident, working on behalf of agent Ellen Levine, fielded intense interest in Harding at LBF as well. She handled an auction for foreign rights to his forthcoming novel, Enon (which Random House will be publishing in the U.S.). Roberts also wound up selling UK rights to Enon, as well as a third untitled novel by Harding, to Heinemann.
