S&S acquires Pub Choir creator’s memoir

Simon & Schuster (S&S) Australia has acquired world rights to Average at Best, a memoir by Pub Choir founder and director Astrid Jorgensen, via Alex Adsett Literary Agency.

‘Average at Best is a powerful, funny and deeply honest memoir about embracing mediocrity if you want to get anything done,’ said the publisher. ‘As the creator of Pub Choir – a global phenomenon that unites complete strangers to connect, laugh and make beautiful music – Astrid takes you behind the curtain as she unflinchingly stares down her dizzying highs, her crushing lows and everything in between.’

Previously a high school music teacher, Jorgensen now works as a choral conductor, composer, producer, and ‘entertainer who believes that everybody can sing’. ‘Not well, but literally.’

Jorgensen’s work has received coverage in the New York Times, BBC World News and Vogue, as well as on television shows including Australian Story, Australia’s Biggest Singalong, Spicks and Specks and the Project. She has received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her community work as a musical director.

Acquiring publisher Emma Nolan said: ‘Average at Best is the book we didn’t know we desperately needed – sharp, funny, and wildly relatable. Astrid’s voice leaps off the page with the same warmth and wit that made Pub Choir a global sensation. In a world obsessed with perfection, this memoir is a refreshing celebration of showing up, sometimes messing up, and still making something beautiful.’

Jorgensen said: ‘I’m an introvert with the most extraverted job in the world. I decided to try to explain this ridiculous duality by writing about it. Then I remembered the time I nearly became a Catholic nun despite not believing in God, so I wrote down that story, too. Suddenly the floodgates opened and I’d written a whole book!’

S&S plans to release Average at Best on 30 September.

Photo credit: Kristina Wild.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions