‘Extinctions’ sold to UK, North America following Miles Franklin win

UWA Publishing has sold UK and North American rights to Josephine Wilson’s Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Extinctions.

UK & Commonwealth rights (ex ANZ and Canada) were sold to Serpent’s Tail and US and Canadian rights to Tin House. Rights were acquired by Hannah Westland at Serpent’s Tail and Masie Cochran at Tin House.

The deals were negotiated by Catherine Drayton at Inkwell Management, who has reported interest in the book from other territories.

UWA Publishing director Terri-ann White told Books+Publishing that the publisher had been ‘inundated’ with interest from international publishers and agents after Wilson won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in September, describing it as ‘a pleasure as well as a daunting moment’.

White said that receiving testimonials from Westland and Cochran had been ‘huge emotional moments’ for herself and Wilson. ‘Both [Serpent’s Tail and Tin House] have very high hopes for the book in their markets and I have no choice but to match their optimism … This is a book that continues to astound me with the way it intersects into the lives of readers,’ said White.

In a statement to Book Brunch, Westland described Extinctions as ‘a wonderful novel; a rich, complex family story replete with comedy and tragedy that is also full of unexpected detail about modernist design and extinct and endangered species’.

Serpent’s Tail will publish Extinctions in the UK in March 2018 and Tin House will publish it in the 2018 American Fall season.

Category: Local news