Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency

News

October 30, 2024

The Secret War of Julia Child  (released last week) has hit  #7 on the Northern California Indie Bestsellers List, Trade Paperback Fiction.


October 16, 2024

Matthew Longo’s THE PICNIC (W.W. Norton, 2023) has been shortlisted for the UK History Writers’ Association 2024 Crown Award for Nonfiction.


September 26, 2024

Charlotte Wood’s STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL has been shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. It will be published in the US by Riverhead.
https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/stone-yard-devotional


September 23, 2024

Matthew Longo’s THE PICNIC (W.W. Norton, 2023) has been longlisted for the UK History Writers’ Association 2024 Crown Award for Nonfiction.


September 21, 2024

New Yorker’s Cartoonist, Ken Krimstein’s KAFKA IN WONDERLAND will be released August 20, 2024 with Bloomsbury USA & UK and to be sold to multiple other countries.


September 20, 2024

THE CROWN by Evanthia Bromiley, forthcoming August 2024 with Grove Atlantic, Elisabeth Schmitz.


September 18, 2024

NYU Tisch & UPENN Professor, Donald Bogle, expert in American History & Film Entertainment, HOLLYWOOD BLACK published by Running Press/Turner Classics will air in a four part series on August 11 with Amazon MGM Studios. Directed by Justin Simien, creator of Dear White People, starring Forest Whitaker.


September 16, 2024

Pulitzer Prize Winner, Oscar Hijuelos THE MAMBO KINGS PLAYS SONGS OF LOVE has sold to a Broadway producer.


September 11, 2024

Tanya Bolden author of over 40 books and recipient of the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR: THE RICHEST BLACK GIRL IN AMERICA has sold to Amazon Films & MPM. Earlier she worked on the children’s books, and in 2023 a book called The Green Piano by Roberta Flack, published by Anne Schartz/Random House.


September 9, 2024

Matthew Longo’s THE PICNIC: an Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain (W.W. Norton / Bodley Head) has won the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.


September 7, 2024

Charlotte Wood, author of STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL, THE WEEKEND, and THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS is longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.


September 2, 2024

Edward Cahill’s DISORDERLY MEN (Fordham University Press/Empire State Editions) was shortlisted for the 2024 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.


August 31, 2024

In a strong follow up to his bestselling nonfiction debut, NORCO ’80, congratulations to Peter Houlahan on the debut this week of REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn. This new work explores how an explosive trial over the death of a San Diego police officer in 1985 not only ended remarkably but also threatened to tear the city apart. “In a colorful narrative populated with well-drawn characters, Houlahan explains how the case laid bare the city’s long-simmering tensions over policing and how the verdict served to turn down the heat, opening meaningful dialogue between police and the Black community. The result is a propulsive legal thriller with deep insight into Southern California policing history.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review). https://www.amazon.com/Reap-Whirlwind-Violence-Justice-Story/dp/1640094512/.M Studios. Directed by Justin Simien, creator of Dear White People, starring Forest Whitaker.


June 20, 2023

Silver Hollow Audio publishes the audiobook edition of Uncharted: A Couple’s Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from One Life to Another by Kim Brown Seely, a seasoned world traveler and former senior editor at Travel & Leisure and contributing editor at National Geographic Adventure.


August 22, 2022

Faith Merino, author of CORMORANT LAKE, is a Stegner Fellow (2022-2024) https://creativewriting.stanford.edu/meet-stegner-fellows


November 1, 2021

Ken Krimstein’s When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers (Bloomsbury)has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly


October 13, 2021

Sharon Flake’s The Life I’m In was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Young Adult Literature. 


May 12, 2021

Publishers Weekly revealed former Sesame Street star Sonia Manzano’s new historical middle-grade novel, Coming Up Cuban, which will be released April 2022 as part of a 4-book deal with Scholastic.


April 5, 2021

Avi Steinberg was named one of the 2021-2022 Cullman Center Fellows. He will be working on Grace Paley: A Life.


July 16, 2020

Tara June Winch has won the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, for her novel THE YIELD (ANZ: Hamish Hamilton; US/Canada/UK: HarperVia). The novel had previously won, among other honors, the Christina Stead Prize.


March 5, 2020

Charlotte Wood’s THE WEEKEND and Tara June Winch’s THE YIELD are both shortlisted for Australia’s 2020 Stella Prize.


February 6, 2020

Charlotte Wood’s THE WEEKEND and Tara June Winch’s THE YIELD are both nominated for Australia’s 2020 Stella Prize.


January 22, 2020

Peter Houlahan’s NORCO ’80 nominated for 2020 Edgar Award in the category of Best Fact Crime


April 15, 2019

Outdoor/wildlife artist Bob White’s untitled collection of art and notes on his plein-air technique and life as a working artist, the first retrospective collection of his art to appear in book form, to Judith Schnell at Stackpole, for publication in fall 2020, by Pamela Malpas at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency.
Rights: pamela@jenniferlyonsliteraryagency.com


April 10, 2019

Rebecca Baum’s LIFELIKE CREATURES, about a 13-year-old girl struggling with an alcoholic and opioid-addicted mother to avoid forced evacuation from their home due to a catastrophic sinkhole, to Jaynie Royal at Regal House, for publication in fall 2020, by Jeff Ourvan at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (world).


March 27, 2019

The 87-year-old author of the NYT bestselling THE HIDDEN LIFE OF DOGS Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’s GROWING OLD: A VENTURE TO THE UNKNOWN, an exploration of aging that combines personal account with anthropological research, to Shannon Welch at Harper One, in a pre-empt, for publication in spring 2020, by Jennifer Lyons at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (world English).


March 26, 2019

Ken Krimstein’s THE THREE ESCAPES OF HANNAH ARENDT, to WMF Martins (Brazil), by Jennifer Lyons at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency, on behalf of Ines Planell at MB Literary Agency.


January 11, 2019

Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winning author of THE SKIN I’M IN Sharon Flake’s sequel, about an African-American girl and the ridicule she faces about her skin color, to Andrea Pinkney at Scholastic. A major deal, in a pre-empt, and a two-book deal, by Jennifer Lyons at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (NA). Rights: jenniferlyonsagency@gmail.com


December 20, 2018

NASA mathematician whose story was made famous in the book and Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures, Katherine Johnson’s REACHING FOR THE MOON, an autobiography which will highlight Johnson’s childhood as a precocious young African-American girl with an exceptional aptitude for math and continue through her years at NASA, helping with the launch of Apollo 11 and overcoming all obstacles to become one of the most influential and groundbreaking women of the past century, with black and white photos throughout, to Reka Simonsen at Atheneum, for publication in fall 2019, by Jennifer Lyons at the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (world English).


November 7, 2017

Wendy Welch (THE LITTLE BOOKSTORE OF BIG STONE GAP, St. Martin’s Press) has been awarded the New River Gorge Winter Writer’s Residency for 2018. As writer-in-residence she will assist in the Residency’s goal to foster art and design that presents a view of West Virginia and its people that counters the stereotypes attributed to Appalachia. She will use the residency to work on a sequel to LITTLE BOOKSTORE.”


July 6, 2016

West Point civilian law professor Tim Bakken’s new work, THE DENIAL, linking the role of US military academies in fostering a culture of dishonesty and unaccountability to America’s inability since World War II to achieve lasting military success, sold to Bloomsbury!


June 22, 2016

Mary Emerick’s FIRE IN THE HEART, chronicling Mary’s past as a wildland firefighter, sold to Lilly Golden at Arcade.


June 9, 2016

Kerrie Hollihan’s MUMMIES EXPOSED, an illustrated, nonfiction, deep look into contemporary mummy discoveries, sold to Abrams Children’s.


May 4, 2016

Electricity and energy expert Craig Roach’s SIMPLY ELECTRIFYING, revealing through intimate profiles from Franklin through Musk the thrilling and dangerous story of electricity’s discovery, development and epoch-transforming applications, sold to BenBella Books.


April 26, 2016

Film rights to National Book Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward’s MEN WE REAPED, were optioned to Empire executive producer Lee Daniels!


April 6, 2016

Congratulations to Sonia Manzano, legendary performer of “Maria” from Sesame Street, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd Annual Daytime Emmy® Awards on Sunday, May 1, 2016!!


April 5, 2016

Congratulations Stephen O’Connor on the launch of his new novel, THOMAS JEFFERSON DREAMS OF SALLY HEMINGS!


March 7, 2016

Turkish rights to Fawaz Gerges’s ISIS: A History, sold to Efil; and Czech rights to Vysehrad.


February 25, 2016

Wall Street Journal art critic Lance Esplund’s THE ART OF LOOKING, a guide to looking at and making sense of modern and contemporary art from Picasso and Jackson Pollock, sold to Basic.


February 25, 2016

Christopher Mari’s THE BEACHHEAD, a post-apocalyptic story in which two young soldiers in love set out on a quest that will change their understanding of what it means to be human, and Christopher Mari & Jeremy Brown’s OCEAN OF STORMS, that begins with a disaster on the moon and culminates in the revelation of humanity’s origins on Earth, both sold to 47North.


February 16, 2016

Congratulations 15-year-old Aaron Philip, with co-writer Tonya Bolding, on the release today by HarperCollins of THIS KID CAN FLY!!


February 3, 2016

Martin Luther King, Sr.’s, DADDY KING reissue, a reissue of his revealing autobiography, from his childhood growing up in the Jim Crow South as the son of impoverished sharecroppers, to his struggle to earn a high school and college diploma, to the crucial role he and his family played in the Civil Rights movement, sold to Beacon Press.


January 28, 2016

Author of Miracle Boy Grows Up Ben Mattlin’s IN SICKNESS AND HEALTH, a candid exploration of intimate relationships between able-bodied people and people with disabilities and the unique issues they face at various stages in their lives, sold to Beacon Press.


January 20, 2016

Congratulations Jesmyn Ward on her selection by the American Academy of Arts for a $200,000 two-year writing grant!!


December 15, 2015

Steph Post’s LIGHTWOOD, about a son of a rural Florida crime kingpin who tries to go straight after a stint in prison, yet is compelled to confront a violent biker gang and an evil, megalomaniacal preacher, sold to Polis.


December 9, 2015

Nader Salehi’s TRADE OFF, featuring a young, Iranian-American attorney conflicted between the demands of his high-powered securities law firm and a quest to set free his mother and sister from the clutches of an Afghan warlord, sold to Heliotrope.


November 4, 2015

Harvard economist and expert on childhood education Ronald Ferguson, Ph.D., and journalist Tatsha Robertson’s MASTERS OF THE FORMULA, that presents the “formula” that parents of successful children follow to help them achieve their greatest potential, sold to BenBella Books.


October 12, 2015

Frank O’Connor’s COLLECTED STORIES, AN ONLY CHILD, MY FATHER’S SON, THE COLLAR: Stories of Irish Priests, and THE MIDNIGHT COURT, sold to Open Road.


October 11, 2015

Carmen Boullosa’s THE BOOK OF ANNA, brings to life the novel Anna Karenina writes but never finishes just before her suicide in Tolstoy’s novel, with Anna’s manuscript resurfacing in St. Petersburg twenty-five years later on the cusp of the 1905 Russian revolution, offering the novel’s final version, and its fate…, sold to Deep Vellum, in a three-book deal.


September 16, 2015

GILDED series author Christina Farley’s THE PRINCESS AND THE PAGE, about a girl whose dark fairytale comes to life after writing it with a magical Word Weaver pen, sold to Scholastic.


August 4, 2015

Eva Alexander’s UNDER A SARDINIAN SKY, depicting an impossible romance in beautiful, post-World War II Sardinia between a dashing American lieutenant and a betrothed-to-another farm girl with big dreams, sold to Kensington.


June 16, 2015

Marc Robertson’s WORKING WITH MILLENNIALS: Using Emotional Intelligence and Strategic Compassion to Motivate the Next Generation of Leaders, an approach to business leadership blending profit-generating skills with Buddhist wisdom, sold to Praeger.


June 15, 2015

Pura Belpre Award-winning Marjorie Agosin’s sequel to I LIVED ON BUTTERFLY HILL, about a Chilean girl yearning for home after she is sent to America to avoid the atrocities of the Pinochet regime, sold to Caitlyn Dlouhy Books.


June 11, 2015

Alex Jack and Sachi Kato’s THE KUSHI INSTITUTE COOKBOOK, a practical, comprehensive guide to contemporary vegan and macrobiotic cuisine as taught at the world’s premier macrobiotic cooking school, sold to BenBella Books Books.


June 2, 2015

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos’s TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE, pitched as inspired by the long friendship between two towering figures of late-nineteenth century, famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer, Sir Henry Morton Stanley, sold to Grand Central.


May 9, 2015

National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward, ed.’s THE FIRE THIS TIME: A Generation Speaks, taking James Baldwin’s personal and provocative essays on race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a point of departure, inviting the best African-American writers and thinkers of her generation to give voice to their frustrations with, and their insights into, the legacy of slavery and racism in the United States today, sold to Scribner.


April 6, 2015

Florida State University professor Nathan Stolzfus’s HITLER’S POLITICS OF COMPROMISE, examining the range of tactics employed by Hitler to engage the German people, sold to Yale University Press.


March 31, 2015

Columbia professor Leslie Sharpe’s THE QUARRY FOX AND OTHER TALES OF THE WILD CATSKILLS, a naturalist’s look into the lives of bluebirds and black bears in the iconic Catskill Mountains, sold to Overlook.


March 30, 2015

Author of DEAD MAN’S HAND Luke Murphy’s KISS & TELL, about a police officer investigating the death of her father and the high-profile murder of a UCLA playboy, sold to Imajinn.


March 29, 2015

Emmy winner Kim Powers’s DIG TWO GRAVES, about a former Olympic Decathlon champion, now a college Classics professor, who’s forced to perform modern-day versions of the Twelve Labors of Hercules to get back his kidnapped daughter, sold to Tyrus Books.


March 27, 2015

Film rights to Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter’s THAI STICK: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade, story about California surfers, hippies, and druggies who smuggled potent marijuana from Thailand to the United States during the 70’s, optioned to Kelly Slater.


March 20, 2015

Film rights to Denis Woychuk’s ATTORNEY FOR THE DAMNED: A Lawyer’s Life with the Criminally Insane, optioned to Dan Ostroff Productions.


March 19, 2015

Xavier Villarutia Prize winner Carmen Boullosa’s BEFORE, translated by Peter Bush, about childhood and innocence lost, and HEAVENS ON EARTH, translated by Shelby Vincent, three narratives from different historical eras to explore the utopian/dystopian possibilities of a world where language—spoken and written—is banned, memories are obliterated, and history is completely erased, sold to Deep Vellum.


March 9, 2015

Professor of International Relations and Emirates Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies at the London School of Economics, Fawaz Gerges’s ISIS: A Short History, an introductory primer on ISIS premier expert on jihadism and Middle East politics, examining the origins of ISIS, the drivers behind its sudden surge, and its prospects for the future, sold to Princeton University Press.


February 23, 2015

Russian rights to Oscar Hijuelos’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE MAMBO KINGS, sold to AST.


February 5, 2015

Aeon Media editor and Cambridge-trained philosopher Mark de Silva’s SQUARE WAVE, about a genealogist groping his way through a future America as factious and inscrutable as the 17th-century imperial state that defines his lineage, sold to Two Dollar Radio.


December 2, 2014

Screenwriter Joshua Scher’s HERE & THERE, depicting a teleportation experiment gone horribly wrong, sold to 47North.


November 18, 2014

Neesha Arter’s CONTROLLED, a triumphant account of redemption from a serious eating disorder at the age of 14, which was precipitated by a rape that her family at first denied had occurred, sold to Heliotrope.


November 11, 2014

Christina Farley’s BRAZEN, the third book in her GILDED series, in which a 16-year-old Korean-American girl with a black belt and a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows battles a god of darkness seeking control of both Koreas, sold again to Skyscape.


August 21, 2014

Avi Steinberg’s THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, a comic memoir about the author’s attempt, after his divorce, to look for love and professional success in the world of romance publishing, one of America’s biggest and yet most disparaged pop subcultures, sold to Nan A. Talese.


June 12, 2014

THE COLORS OF COURAGE author Margaret Creighton’s THE ELECTRIFYING FALL OF RAINBOW CITY, about the 1901 Buffalo Expo-during which President McKinley was assassinated, a 60-year-old woman survived going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and two of the Animal King’s midway acts rebelled, sold to Norton.


June 11, 2014

Former Fortune magazine writer Christopher Knowlton’s RISE AND FALL OF THE CATTLE KINGDOM, a revelatory history of the American West that shows how 19th-century beef bonanzas and range wars shaped world economy and culture, sold to Eamon Dolan Books.


June 10, 2014

Rita Cameron’s OPHELIA’S MUSE, depicting the passionate but doomed romance between the PRB painter Dante Rossetti and his model, muse, and wife, Lizzie Siddal, sold to Kensington.


March 10, 2014

Coretta Scott King Honor citation recipient Tonya Bolden’s PATHFINDERS, profiles of extraordinary African Americans, sold to Abrams.


February 11, 2014

Brandon Brown’s THE FULCRUM: Vision and Heartbreak in the Life of Max Planck, the personal story of a groundbreaking physicist, his place in the context of the history of physics, and how war-torn Germany deeply impacted his life, sold to Oxford University Press.


November 25, 2013

THE MIJA CHRONICLES blogger Lesley Tellez’s EAT MEXICO, featuring authentic recipes, photographs and stories from Mexico City’s streets, markets and fondas, sold to Kyle Books.