Eagle Books acquires Dubosarsky short story collection
Eagle Books (an imprint of Christmas Press) and Roffo Court Press (in the UK) have jointly acquired world rights to Life and Breath, a collection of short stories for upper middle-grade/YA readers by Ursula Dubosarsky (Ask Hercules Quick, Midnight at the Library).
The collection is about ‘discoveries from the past, hopes for the future – and the decisions we make on a knife edge that clarify our own sense of self,’ said the publisher. ‘These elements inform Ursula Dubosarsky’s multi-award-winning novels and are in sharp, bright evidence in these 13 beautifully crafted short stories […] previously published in anthologies and magazines but collected together for the very first time. Ursula Dubosarsky has written brand-new notes on the origins of each story.’
Dubosarsky is an Australian writer for children and young people. She has previously published multiple novels, including two books with Christmas Press – Two Tales of Twins from Ancient Greece and Rome (illus by David Allan, 2014) and The Boy Who Could Fly and Other Magical Plays for Children (illus by Amy Golbach, 2019).
‘It’s an uncanny feeling to look back over your writing life over a period of nearly 40 years,’ said Dubosarksy. ‘All these stories were written at very different times, for me, for publishing, for Australia and for the world.
‘And yet, there it is, through them all, that continuous thread of something unmistakably me that’s been in my writing since childhood. I can hardly define what that something is – the writing “me”, I suppose it must be. Gathering the stories together has been like collating photographs together in an album, with all the mystery of your past, present and even future selves between the covers.’
Christmas Press publishing director Sophie Masson said: ‘This is such a special book, in so many ways – not only is it Ursula’s first collection of short stories and her first book for older readers in a while, but its publication is also the fruit of a decades-long friendship between Ursula, Jon Appleton of Roffo Court Press, and myself.’
Appleton, publisher at Roffo Court Press, said: ‘I knew Ursula Dubosarsky’s short stories would be mini gems, as indeed her novels are, and so deserving to be united between covers in a brand-new publication, full of vitality and originality.’
Life and Breath is set to be published in Australia and the UK in March 2026.
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
