Cat Clyne at Mira landed North American rights, in a two-book deal via an exclusive submission, to The Emperor’s Enemy by Jasmine Mas (pictured l.) from Kimberly Whalen at the Whalen Agency. The novel kicks off the Blood of Hercules author’s new romantasy duology, Unsurvivable Love Duet, “set in a world full of dark magic, rebellion, and vicious rivalry,” per the publisher. HarperVoyager UK preempted U.K. and Commonwealth rights, and Verso preempted French rights. Publication is set for fall 2026.

Kate Roddy at akaStory bought North American rights, at auction, to The Paris Proposal and two other romance novels by Kristen Gordon Chaudière and Erin Baldwin from Stephen Barbara at InkWell Management, on behalf of Chaudière and editor Jenna Brickley at IP packager StoryGiants. Lauren Spieller at Folio Literary Management represents Baldwin. The novel, per InkWell, follows Jess, “a Filipino American woman on a work visa in Paris who devises a scheme to marry a Frenchman to extend her stay at the Louvre—but who gets more than she bargained for when sparks fly as her type-A ambition and her fake husband Theo’s laissez-faire ways collide.” A spring 2027 release is planned.

Ibrahim Ahmad at Viking landed world rights to Jermaine Fowler’s The American Myth Machine: Power, Memory, and the Fight for the Past from Sarah Fuentes at UTA. The book, per the publisher, examines “how U.S. history gets written, erased, and weaponized, offering new perspectives on our national origin stories and collective memory, from George Washington’s cherry tree and Sacagawea as willing guide to immigrant deportation and post-9/11 surveillance.” No pub date has been announced.

Scott Moyers at Penguin Press took world English rights to The Innocents: Murder, Mafia, and the True Tale of an American Lynching by Chris Hayes from Will Lippincott at Aevitas Creative Management. The MS NOW host’s latest, per the publisher, is “a narrative history of the largest mass lynching in U.S. history, of a group of Italian men in late-19th-century New Orleans—a story that both deepens and challenges some of our most fundamental frameworks for making sense of issues of justice, race, anti-immigration panic,” and more. Publication is planned for spring 2029.

Annie Chagnot at Park Row won North American rights to Leslie Wolfe’s The Body Keeper, along with two backlist titles, from Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. The suspense novel, per the agency, follows “an FBI special agent who infiltrates an organ trafficking ring in order to find her husband.” Release is set for August 2027.

In Brief

  • Judy Clain at Summit netted U.S., Canadian, and open market rights to Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID, by former senior USAID official Nicholas Enrich, from David Patterson at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, for an April 2026 release.

  • Sierra Hahn at Archaia acquired world all-language rights to A Confederacy of Dunces: The Graphic Novel, adapted from John Kennedy Toole’s Pulitzer-winning novel by author and illustrator Albert Monteys, from Elizabeth Winick Rubinstein at McIntosh and Otis, for a fall 2026 release.

  • Callie Garnett at Bloomsbury picked up North American rights to National Book Award finalist Laird Hunt’s Final Night, a work of historical fiction following a group of interlocking characters during the Battle of Crete in WWII, from Anna Stein at CAA, for a spring 2027 release.

  • Pippa White at Lake Union preempted world rights to Kathleen Fox’s adult debut, Evie Walters Takes the Wheel, about a 71-year-old widow who hits the road in a camper van to reclaim her independence and find her long-lost first love, from Leslie Zampetti at Open Book Literary, for a fall 2026 release.

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