Transit Lounge acquires ‘Rite of Spring’ by Kris Kneen
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to Rite of Spring, a new novel by Kris Kneen, via Jane Novak Literary Agency.
The novel follows a couple, Miranda and Richard, who attempt to repair their relationship by becoming caretakers of a lighthouse on the remote coast of Tasmania, said the publisher.
Kris Kneen (The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen, An Uncertain Grace) is an author of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Their work has been shortlisted on the Stella Prize; their poetry collection Eating My Grandmother won the Thomas Shapcott Prize; and their latest work, Fat Girl Dancing, was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and the South Australian Literary Awards.
Kneen said: ‘I had the idea for this novel when I was visiting my father who lives in Dover in Tasmania. A friend told me about these 6-month stints that caretakers have on Maatsuyker Island. Six months with all your supplies alone on a remote island with just one other person? What could possibly go wrong?
‘I had been wanting to write something that parallels my own gender transition and the idea of a remote island with no way off seemed to be the perfect setting to explore transitions of all kinds. Rite of Spring is the second in four seasonal Tasmanian books I have planned. I spend several months a year in Tasmania with my father, and I see it as a spiritual home. These seasonal offerings take the same elements, gender, science and the uncanny and each will have its own seasonal flavour. ’
Transit Lounge publisher Barry Scott said: ‘I love the way Kneen’s novel so beautifully fuses place, psychological drama, the mystery of the ocean and the personal search for a centre. It’s the sort of knockout book that only an experienced writer could deliver. It is a wildly sexual novel about a woman on the cusp of menopause but much more besides.’
Transit Lounge plans to release Rite of Spring in July 2026.
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
