‘Amelia Westlake’ sells into US

9 May 2018 Books+Publishing

Erin Gough’s new queer feminist YA novel, Amelia Westlake (Hardie Grant Egmont), has sold into the US to Little, Brown imprint Poppy.

Gough’s second novel, following her Ampersand Prize-winning debut The Flywheel (Hardie Grant Egmont), follows two teenage students at an elite all-girls private school, who concoct an elaborate hoax to expose injustice and oust their sexist gym teacher.

North American rights were acquired by Poppy editor Deirdre Jones, with Hardie Grant Egmont managing director Annabel Barker and rights coordinator Madeleine Manifold negotiating the deal.

United Talent Agency film agent Mary Pender has also signed on to represent film rights for the title ahead of its publication in the US.

Barker said Pender, who was the film agent on Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give (Walker), ‘instantly fell in love with the cover’ when the two met at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair. ‘Mary felt it would be an ideal movie poster and, after reading Amelia Westlake, realised how timely and special this story was,’ said Barker.

‘It’s no wonder we’ve had such an immediate and excitable response to Erin’s second novel, with multiple rights deals underway after Bologna,’ said Hardie Grant Egmont publisher Marisa Pintado. ‘Amelia Westlake is highly political, bitingly funny, and in the wake of the #MeToo movement, deeply relevant and empowering; as one of the only authors writing queer, own-voice YA in Australia, Erin is a force to be reckoned with.’

Poppy will publish Amelia Westlake under the title Amelia Westlake Was Never Here in the US Spring of 2019.

Category: Junior Local news Rights and acquisitions