Tyndale Fiction Grabs Singer/Songwriter’s Debut
Tyndale House fiction publisher Karen Watson and associate fiction publisher Jan Stob acquired world English rights to The Year of Jubilee, the debut novel by award-winning gospel and pop singer/songwriter Cindy Morgan. Danielle Egan-Miller of Browne & Miller Literary Associates brokered a two-book deal. In the first novel, planned for spring 2023, a young girl in a Kentucky coal-mining town struggles to save her gravely ill younger brother.
Convergent Acquires Title on LGBTQ+ Youth and Homelessness
Derek Reed, executive editor for Convergent, a division of Penguin Random House, has acquired North American rights to Carl Siciliano’s Strong as Death, Sweet as Love. The author was represented by Jesseca Salky at Salky Literary Management, in association with Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency (NA). The book focuses on Siciliano’s work with homeless LGBTQ+ youths in New York City and his friendship with Ali Forney, a nonbinary youth whose life and death inspired the author to establish the Ali Forney Center, dedicated to housing and supporting homeless LGBTQ+ youth. Release is set for summer 2023.
Zondervan Title Looks at Good Samaritan Story
Andrea Heinecke of The Bindery sold world rights to Carolyn McCready at Zondervan to The Science of the Good Samaritan by surgeon Emily Smith, assistant professor at the Duke Global Health Institute who posts on Facebook as the Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist. Her debut book examines the contemporary messages in the biblical story. It's planned for publication in September 2023.
IVP Buys Podcaster’s Book on Grief
IVP associate editor Ethan McCarthy and Mary DeMuth of Books & Such Literary Management have negotiated North American rights to writer, speaker, grief expert and podcaster Natasha Smith’s tentatively titled Can You Just Sit with Me. In the book, set for a summer 2023 release, Smith addresses dealing with grief, not only for the death of a loved one, but also grief over other significant losses, failed expectations, and traumatic experiences.
Book on Toxic Theology to St. Martin’s
Trinity McFadden of The Bindery sold world rights to acquisition editor Elisabeth Dyssegaard of St. Martin’s Essentials to Jo Luehmann’s tentatively titled Predatory God: How to Overcome Toxic Theology and Find Healing and Liberation, set for an unspecified 2024 release. Luehmann, a speaker and educator, details her view that systems of oppression have co-opted Christianity and presents her ideas for a theology to liberate people from harmful beliefs.
Wright Sends Two Novels to Tyndale Fiction
Jan Stob, associate publisher at Tyndale Fiction, has acquired world rights to two novels from historical fiction author Jennifer L. Wright (If It Rains), via Adria Goetz at Martin Literary Management. The Girl from the Papers, scheduled for summer 2023 release, is a Bonnie and Clyde-inspired story set during the Great Depression in which Beatrice Carraway is swept into a life of crime when Jack Turner walks into her life. A second untitled novel is scheduled for summer 2024.
Picture Book Trio to WaterBrook Multnomah
Bunmi Ishola, children’s editor at WaterBrook Multnomah, has acquired North American rights, via Mary DeMuth of Books & Such Literary Management, for three picture books from sisters and coauthors Peace Amadi and Ndidi Amadi. The first, Chichi and Didi Love Their Names, is a rerelease and rewrite of their 2019 self-published book. It will be published in summer 2024, with the next two original books due out in the summers of 2025 and 2026. The books, which include light faith elements such as prayers, follow the lives of elementary school sisters Chichi and Didi navigating their world as children of Nigerian immigrant parents living in the United States. Peace Amadi is a professor, psychologist, and author of Why Do I Feel Like This? Ndidi Amadi is a lawyer, professor, and artist. The illustrator is yet to be determined.
