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Dear Friends, The biggest literary season of the year is upon us - welcome to Fall! Check out our great new clients, recent deals, rave reviews & award announcements below [Spoiler Alert: we have 2 authors longlisted for the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize!]. Samantha is attending Frankfurt Book Fair and while her schedule is booked, we'd love for you to peruse the hot-off-the-press new Fall International Rights List. Send us your requests!
Looking forward to hearing from you soon,
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New Deal Announcements
CANADIAN AND NORTH AMERICAN DEALS
Fiction:
Canada English rights to Karen Smythe's THIS SIDE OF SAD to Bethany Gibson at Goose Lane Editions for Fall 2017. For fans of Joan Didion and Sheila Heti, and reminiscent of Jenny Offill's The Department of Speculation, THIS SIDE OF SAD is a mesmerizing tour of a woman's fractured past-- a provocative and piercing novel that lingers in mind and heart. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
Canada English rights to Daniel Griffin's TWO ROADS HOME to Freehand Books. Pitched in the tradition of Snow Falling on Cedars, TWO ROADS HOME, a literary novel with eco-thriller overtones, reimagining the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests when the fall-out from a bomb blast at a logging company warehouse ends in the unplanned death of a security guard. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
Canada English rights to Genevieve Scott's CATCH MY DRIFT to Bethany Gibson at Goose Lane Editions for Spring 2018 - a novel-in-stories reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, spanning decades in the life of a family, reminding us of our lifelong labor to connect with others, even as we tackle most of life's complications alone. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
Non-Fiction:
U.S. rights for Pauline Dakin's forthcoming memoir, RUN, HIDE, REPEAT have been granted to the originating publisher, Penguin Books Canada, giving them English-language North American rights. The book will be published in Fall 2017 in both territories. Contact: shaun@transatlanticagency.com
North American rights to Stacey May Fowles' BASEBALL LIFE ADVICE to Anita Chong at McClelland & Stewart. Pitched as Bad Feminist takes on baseball, BASEBALL LIFE ADVICE is a collection of insightful and heartfelt essays about baseball, it's culture and community from one of Canada's most astute cultural commentators, which both celebrates and challenges the game, and reveals why it really matters. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
 World rights to Naben Ruthnum's CURRY: Eating, Reading and Race, a genre-bending essay about how one inauthentic dish is a fraught shorthand for identity in both literature and life by for Exploded Views Series, edited by Emily Keeler, Coach House Books. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com and samantha@transatlanticagency.com
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Foreign Rights Sales:
 German rights to Iain Reid's I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS a philosophical thriller seemingly about an unusual couple on a harrowing road trip, to Droemer. Previous rights sold: Scout Press, S&S US; S&S Canada; Text Publishing UK & ANZ; (simultaneous publication in English in June 2016), Prometheus, The Netherlands; Rocco Brazil; Presses de la Cite, France; HaKursa, Israel; Lindhardt og Ringhof, Denmark; Teas, Turkey; Prosznski, Poland and WeLearn, Thailand. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
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Film Deals:
 Film/TV rights to Plum Johnson's memoir, THEY LEFT US EVERYTHING, the highly relatable tale of a baby boomer, packing up the eccentric house she grew up in after the death of her mother, to BUCK Productions by Samantha Haywood in association with Samantha London at the Alpern Group
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Drawn & Quarterly Deals
 Turkish rights to Seth's IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN to Karakarga.  Chinese rights to Nick Drnaso's BEVERLY to Gingko.
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Awards and Citations
We are pleased to congratulate Gary Barwin (YIDDISH FOR PIRATES, Random House Canada) and Zoe Whittall (THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE, House of Anansi) on their longlist nominations for the 2016 Scotiabank  Giller Prize, Canada's largest and most prestigious honour for new works of fiction. A shortlist will be unveiled on September 26th, followed by the Prize ceremony on November 7th in Toronto. Both novels are available for world rights ex: Canada. Contact: shaun@transatlanticagency.com regarding Barwin; samantha@transatlanticagency.com regarding Whittall.
Zoe Whittall's THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE has also made the Toronto Star bestseller list at #10 and The Globe and Mail bestseller list at #4, both in the Canadian Fiction category.
Congratulations to Plum Johnson whose memoir, THEY LEFT US EVERYTHING, made the CBC Books best seller list at #4 in the Canadian Non-Fiction category.
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Rave Reviews
Praise for Alice Zorn's FIVE ROSES (World Rights, Dundurn, July 2016):
"Zorn soulfully articulates the pain of her characters, but also their remarkable resiliency and resourcefulness." -Quill and Quire
"The real sweetness of Five Roses lies beneath physical details, in the glimpses she offers of human hearts." -Montreal Review of Books
"The overall effect is like that of a well-arranged piece of chamber music where a set of exquisitely wrought individual parts gradually entwines into a deeply satisfying whole." -Montreal Gazette
"Said the late American author Eudora Welty: 'People give pain, are callous and insensitive, empty and cruel, but place heals the hurt and soothes the outrage.' Such is the case in Alice Zorn's compassionate sophomore novel about secrets, loss and the role played by home in the lives of the three heroines." -Winnipeg Free Press
"Alice Zorn is a writer of incredible sensitivity and precision, and this haunting, tender novel is her finest work yet. Five Roses weaves together the delicate dance of friendship, the intensity of love, and the aftermath of loss in a story as vivid and remarkable as life itself. Its people and places will linger with you long after you have put it down."
-Saleema Nawaz, author of Bone and Bread
Praise for Russell Wangersky's THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE (World Rights, House of Anansi, September 2016):
"With The Path of Most Resistance, his first new collection since the Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted Whirl Away in 2012, Russell Wangersky affirms his position as one of the finest short-story writers currently working in this country. [It] will leave most readers - and likely most other writers - utterly devastated and in a state of awed wonder." -Quill & Quire
"...tempered by Wangersky's humour and honest treatment of his characters - a group that readers will recognize in their friends and neighbours, people going about their lives, knowing that no matter the frustration, there's nothing to do but keep on going."
-National Post
"Wangersky transports us on a lively voyeuristic journey into his characters' all-too-human minds." -Winnipeg Free Press
"Wangersky is adept at creating crystalline moments in which events or lives change or reorganize themselves; rarely does he offer closure or pat solutions to the situations he imagines." -The Globe and Mail
Praise for Iain Reid's I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (World Rights Available Ex: Scout Press, S&S US; S&S Canada; Text Publishing UK & ANZ; (simultaneous publication in English in June 2016), Prometheus, The Netherlands; Rocco Brazil; Presses de la Cite, France; HaKursa, Israel; Lindhardt og Ringhof, Denmark; Droemer, Germany; Teas, Turkey; Prosznski, Poland and WeLearn, Thailand:
" I'm Thinking of Ending Things is an ingeniously twisted nightmare road trip through the fragile psyches of two young lovers. My kind of fun!"
-Academy-award winning writer Charlie Kaufman
"Your dread and unease will mount with every passing page of this relationship tale."
-Entertainment Weekly
"Iain Reid's book is somewhat of a philosophical tract as well as a novel. The narrator often muses over big life-and-death ideas such as the one above, but in a disarming way that renders these thoughts to feel like a seamless part of the narrative. It's an incredibly hard thing to achieve, and Reid has done it to perfection: introducing ideas to the reader without taking them out of the narrative." -Electric Literature "A superbly crafted psychological thriller, with forays into the metaphysical, which promises to keep you up at night." -Macleans
Praise for Marni Jackson's DON'T I KNOW YOU? (World Rights Available Ex: North America, Flatiron Books, October 2016):
"Jackson has created entertaining fictional encounters that range from hilariously normal to confoundingly surreal. With its backdrop of cultural touchstones that define the passing generations, this playful journey will especially appeal to fiction lovers who are also pop culture fans." -Booklist
Praise for Genevieve Scott's CATCH MY DRIFT (World Rights Available Ex: Canada English, Goose Lane Editions, Spring 2018):
"Genevieve Scott's Catch My Drift is a brilliant novel in linked stories, a mother/daughter tale like none I've read before. Scott writes with a sharp beauty that leaves me not just breathless but wanting more. I love her prose." -Joseph Boyden, bestselling author of The Orenda and Through Black Spruce
"Like the best contemporary novels, Genevieve Scott's Catch My Drift is alchemical. Scott harnesses the flinty realism and breathtaking prose of short fiction, mixes it with the emotional urgency and scope of a layered intergenerational drama and creates a compelling and thoroughly original portrait of the modern family. Rendered with sensitivity and insight, Catch My Drift is elegant, ambitious and tender, a rare novel in which an entire family comes of age." -Nancy Lee, author of The Age and Dead Girls
Praise for Karen Smythe's THIS SIDE OF SAD (World Rights Available Ex: Canada English, Goose Lane Editions, Fall 2017):
"Karen Smythe is a bright original. Her writing is wry, visceral, intriguing, and very moving. What Smythe has done here is really quite brilliant: she has found new ways to write about a difficult subject-the peculiar passion that is longing-and to make it palpable, leaving the reader with something profound to hang onto." -Diane Schoemperlen, award-winning author of Forms of Devotion
"Mesmerizing." -Antanas Sileika, author of Underground
Praise for Shauna Singh Baldwin's essay collection RELUCTANT REBELLIONS: New and Selected Non-Fiction, featuring a collection of yet unpublished pieces (World Rights to University of the Fraser Valley Press):
"A beautiful, powerful book of essays and speeches that traverse continents and decades to examine the complicated experience of being a South Asian woman who belongs to many tribes, some of which are in conflict with others. Intelligent, informed, and unafraid of asking tough questions, this book is sure to delight intelligent readers of all backgrounds." -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of Oleander Girl and Before We Visit the Goddess
Praise for Kerry Clare's debut novel, MITZI BYTES (World Rights Available Ex: Canada, HarperCollins, Spring 2017):
"A provocative, compelling novel that should be - and will be - discussed between friends and debated at book clubs. Wise, perceptive and rebelliously funny Kerry Clare has given a voice to what we think but don't say, feel but can't accept, about parenthood, relationships and the struggle to reconcile our public selves with the truths that lurk within." -Marissa Stapley, bestselling author of Mating for Life
Praise for Leesa Dean's WAITING FOR THE CYCLONE (World Rights to Brindle and Glass, Fall 2016):
"Subversive, illicit, and with a knack for final lines packed with innuendo, Waiting for the Cyclone is a pleasure readers need not feel guilty about." -Quill & Quire
Praise for Zoe Whittall's THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE (World Rights sold to House of Anansi, World Ex: Canada presently available, released September 2016):
Among The Globe and Mail's 20 most anticipated books of 2016:
Featured in the CBC Books Fall 2016 Preview:
One of 5 books that CBC Books was excited to read in August!:
"Zoe Whittall is one of our sharpest observers of modern life, and it's been seven years since her last novel - far too long. In The Best Kind of People, a Connecticut family is rocked to its core when sexual-assault accusations are levelled against the father, George, a popular teacher at the local private school. Whittall's third novel interrogates the idea of family, and whether we must always stand by the people we love." -The Globe and Mail
"The Best Kind of People, is the best kind of book - it's got a compelling story, characters readers will recognize and come to love, and writing that makes it effortless to turn page after page." -Vancouver Sun
"Taut, compassionate and clever.." -Toronto Star
"While Whittall started writing The Best Kind of People years ago, its release surfs the wake of the Bill Cosby and Jian Ghomeshi cases, posing many of the same difficult questions and demonstrating how insiders can find themselves cast out. Yet despite the heaviness of the subject matter, Whittall has penned what could be described as a breezy summer read: fast-paced, full of parody, not exactly subtle, but never melodramatic." -Macleans
'Nuanced to the end, Whittall's novel achieves something that's rare in real-life cases of sexual violence. She gives a voice to the ones we never hear from: those who are collateral damage." -Chatelaine
"An astounding portrait of a character by omission." -National Post
"Heartbreaking and complex, The Best Kind of People offers no easy answers. This is a masterly exploration of the damage an entire community incurs when the secret at the heart of its most perfect family detonates." -Lynn Coady author of The Antagonist
"With incredibly rare nuance, sensitivity, and insight, Zoe Whittall takes us deep into our contemporary conversation around sexual violence and shines a vital spotlight on the individuals and communities that live in its long shadow. Whittall's undisputed talent as a writer shines, as does her understanding into the complexity of our sympathies, our morality, and our humanity. With The Best Kind of People, Whittall has created an urgent and timely document, one that asks us to reflect on how we can best serve survivors of abuse and best support all of those who exist in its aftermath. With incredible empathy, and undeniable skill, this book is sure to spark much needed dialogue, vital debate, and richly deserved acclaim." -Stacey May Fowles, author of Infidelity
"The Best Kind of People examines the effects of rape culture on an entire community with rare nuance and insight. Every character is fully rounded, flawed, and achingly human. It puts me in mind of a twenty-first-century Ordinary People - which, for the record, is one of my favourite novels." -Kate Harding, author of Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture - and What We Can Do About It
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New Clients
Perdita Felicien
Perdita Felicien is an Olympian, 10-time National Champion and the first Canadian woman to win a World Championship gold medal in track and field. During her career as a 100-metre hurdler she earned numerous honours, including Canada's Athlete of the Year, Keys to the City of Pickering, and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal. Perdita retired from professional sport in 2013 and is now a broadcast journalist. She has worked for CHCH News, TSN and been a contributor for Newstalk 1010. In 2016 she will be part of CBC's broadcast team at the summer Olympic Games in Rio, and inducted into Athletics Canada's Hall of Fame. A long time advocate for social responsibility, she and her mother, Catherine Felicien Browne are part of a campaign that will help raise funds to build a new home for The Denise House, the women's shelter in Durham Region they credit with helping the family get on their feet in the late 1980's. Perdita is at work on her first book, which chronicles her experience as a sports figure and first-generation Canadian. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
Genni Gunn
Genni Gunn is an author, translator, creative writing instructor and musician. She has published eleven books: three novels: Solitaria (Signature Editions), longlisted for the Giller Prize 2011; Tracing Iris, made into a film titled The Riverbank; and Thrice Upon a Time, finalist for the Commonwealth Prize; two story collections: On the Road and Hungers; two poetry collections: Mating in Captivity, finalist for the Gerald Lampert Poetry Award, andFaceless; two collections of poetry in translation of Dacia Maraini's, Devour Me Too, finalist for the John Glassco Prize and Travelling in the Gait of a Fox, finalist for the Premio Internazionale Diego Valeri; and one poetry collection of Corrado Calabrň's Text Me. She has also written the libretto for the opera Alternate Visions, produced in Montreal in 2007, and showcased at the Opera America Conference in Vancouver, May 2013. Two of her books have been translated into various languages (including Italian). She is an inveterate traveler, and her experiences are reflected in her most recent book of travel essays, Tracks: Journeys in Time and Place (Signature Editions, 2013). Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
David Huebert
David Huebert's story, "Enigma," won the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize. His fiction has also won The Dalhousie Review's short story contest, The Antigonish Review's Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize, and the Marguerite Dow Canadian Heritage Award. David has published stories in magazines such as enRoute, Grain, Matrix, The Puritan, Broken Pencil, and The Antigonish Review. His first collection of poetry, We Are No Longer The Smart Kids In Class, was published by Guernica Editions in 2015. David grew up in Halifax and currently lives in London, Ontario. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
Fran Kimmel
Fran Kimmel's writing portfolio includes fiction, newspaper and magazine features, teen magazine columns, radio drama, educational videos, and corporate writing. In 2013, Fran's debut novel, The Shore Girl, was shortlisted for an Alberta trade fiction award, named a CBC Top 40 Book, and won the Alberta Readers' Choice Award. Fran's short stories have appeared in literary journals from coast to coast and have twice been selected for The Journey Prize Stories anthology. Her radio plays and theatre scripts have also won CBC and Scripts at Work awards. During her career Fran has worked closely with troubled kids, including stints as youth worker and director of a Boys and Girls Club, and these experiences have influenced the characters and storyline in her latest novel, HOW THE BIRD STAYED UPRIGHT. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
Anna Maximyw
Anna Maxymiw completed her MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia in 2012; her work has appeared in a range of Canadian and American publications, with some of the more notable being The Globe and Mail and The Walrus. Essays from her forthcoming memoir have been published in The Malahat Review, Maisonneuve, and Hazlitt and won Silver in the Humour category at the National Magazine Awards, where the piece was also nominated in the Personal Journalism category. Her memoir offers a glimpse into the joy, fear, filth, and ferocity of working at a remote fishing lodge in the boreal forest of Northern Ontario. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
Suzanne Methot
Suzanne Methot's fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have been published in anthologies including Steal My Rage: New Native Voices (Douglas & McIntyre) and Let the Drums Be Your Heart (Douglas & McIntyre). Her feature articles, guest columns, profiles, and book reviews have appeared in the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, and Canadian Geographic. Suzanne was managing editor of Fuse Magazine and Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly, and also worked as a copy editor for Ningwakwe Learning Press, NOW magazine, and art galleries including A Space and the McMaster Museum of Art. In addition to her work as a writer and editor, Suzanne has worked extensively in the non-profit sector as an adult literacy practitioner and in social-service environments including the Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto. From 2007 to 2012, Suzanne was a teacher with the Toronto District School Board, teaching grades 1-8. She is co-author of the Grade 11 textbook Aboriginal Beliefs, Values, and Aspirations (Pearson Canada) and is also a primary contributor to Scholastic Canada's Take Action! series of classroom resource books, focusing on social justice, sustainability, and ethical citizenship. In 2014 Suzanne was nominated for the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Literature. Born in Vancouver and raised in Sagitawa (Peace River, Alberta), she now lives in Toronto, where she is working on a non-fiction book that examines intergenerational trauma in Indigenous communities, including mechanisms of transmission and approaches to healing. Contact: stephanie@transatlanticagency.com
Lauren Pirie
Lauren Pirie is a freelance illustrator and multi-disciplinary artist based in Toronto. She is best known for; her intricate ink drawings, which defy the boundaries of reality; her illustration work for publishing, film, and fashion; and sustainability projects, as Co-founder and Creative Director of the About Face Collective. Recently, Lauren illustrated her first children's book, Ella And The Balloons In the Sky for Tundra Books/ Random House. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
Robin Richardson
Robin Richardson is a poet, prose writer, and illustrator. She has published two collections of poetry, and is Editor-in-Chief at Minola Review. Her work is forthcoming in POETRY, and has appeared in Tin House, Partisan, The North American Review, and Hazlitt, among others. She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been shortlisted for the CBC, Walrus, and Lemon Hound Poetry Prizes. Richardson's latest collection, Sit How You Want, is forthcoming with Véhicule Press. Poems from the collection have been adapted to song by composer Andrew Staniland for The Brooklyn Art Song Society, and premiered in 2016 in New York. Her memoir, LIKE FATHER, unapologetically takes on sex, power, and spirituality in one woman's youth of witchcraft, gambling, and alcoholism. Think Sheila Heti meets Carl Jung meets Leslie Jamison. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
Leah Rumack
Leah Rumack is a longtime writer and the deputy editor of Today's Parent, Canada's largest family lifestyle brand. Leah is the creator of the popular #ThisIsMyLife comic strip and has been nominated for multiple National Magazine awards, including ones for Humour and Personal Journalism. She has written for many major publications across Canada, including Chatelaine,Toronto Life, Fashion, Flare, National Post, Now Magazine and The Globe and Mail. She lives in Toronto, Canada. Contact: samantha@transatlanticagency.com
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