DEAL OF THE WEEK

Cherry Tackles ‘Forgiveness’ for PUP

After a 10-way auction, Princeton University Press won North American rights to Myisha Cherry’s The Failures of Forgiveness. Rob Tempio at PUP brokered the six-figure agreement with Margo Beth Fleming at Brockman. Cherry is the author of Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice and an assistant professor of philosophy at University of California, Riverside. PUP said Failures of Forgiveness, scheduled for spring 2023, recasts standardized notions that forgiveness is “letting go of negative feelings and behavior.” Instead, Cherry shows how we can “change our personal and social relationships with forgiveness” by relying on an approach that’s “philosophically grounded and psychologically supported.”

FROM THE U.S.

Parton Gets Lyrical at Chronicle

Singer, songwriter, and country music icon Dolly Parton sold Dolly Parton, Songteller to Chronicle Books. The deluxe volume, priced at $50, is subtitled My Life in Lyrics. Chronicle said the book is “a visual memoir and annotated songbook” that explores Parton’s life “through 175 of her best-loved songs.” In the deal, Jeff Kleinman and Steve Troha at Folio Literary Management sold world rights to Chronicle’s Christine Carswell and Rebecca Hunt.

Putnam Welcomes Katsu’s ‘Widow’

For Putnam, Sally Kim nabbed world rights to Alma Katsu’s Red Widow. The thriller, acquired from Inkwell Management’s Richard Pine and Eliza Rothstein, follows two female CIA agents who, Kim explained, “become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division—one that’s coming from inside the agency.” Katsu (The Deep) is a former senior intelligence analyst who worked for the CIA and NSA. Kim added that book is “in the spirit of Homeland and The Americans.”

S&S’s Millner Takes ‘Blood’ to St. Martin’s

Denene Millner, a bestselling author of adult and children’s titles and the editor of an eponymous imprint at Simon & Schuster, sold One Blood to St. Martin’s Press. Monique Patterson preempted North American rights to the book from Victoria Sanders at Victoria Sanders & Associates. The novel is, SMP said, a “multigenerational epic” with three settings: the South during the Great Migration, New York City during the civil rights movement, and present-day Atlanta. It explores, SMP went on, “the connection between three Black women: a birth mother who had her child taken away, the adoptive mother who raised that child, and the child who is the literal product of the two.”


Hur’s ‘Palace’ Built at Feiwel and Friends

June Hur, whose April novel The Silence of the Bones was a Junior Library Guild selection, sold The Red Palace to Feiwel and Friends. Amy Elizabeth Bishop at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret brokered the North American deal with Emily Settle at Feiwel. Bishop said the YA novel, set in 1750s Korea, follows a 17-year-old nurse and 18-year-old police inspector trying to “clear the crown prince’s name” after a massacre at court. Bishop added that the book is based on “a well-known story in Korea and among historical K-drama fans” about Prince Sado.


Cooper Moves to FSG

Brittney Cooper, author of the 2018 bestseller Eloquent Rage, struck a two-book deal with Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Jenna Johnson preempted world rights to How to Love a Feminist and On the Clock from Tanya McKinnon at McKinnon Literary. McKinnon said How to Love a Feminist is an essay collection about “love, justice, intersectional feminism, and activism,” while On the Clock examines “the powerful connections between racism and the ways we think about time.”