Well before HarperCollins announced HarperFlamingo in the U.S., Donald
Rawley, award-winning poet and contributing editor at Buzz, was acquainted
with the imprint at the U.K. HarperCollins. There, editor Philip Gwyn Jones
had signed Rawley for a story collection. But just as things were looking up
for him internationally, the company decided not to publish the book in the
States, and his novel, shopped on both sides of the Atlantic, had no takers.
Enter New York agent Noah Lukeman, who’d spotted one of the
author’s short stories in a small magazine, Press. Lukeman offered
to represent the rejected novel, The Night Bird Cantata. Soon he had
attracted four bidders, choosing to place it with Jennifer Hershey at Avon,
for June ’98 publication. Rawley’s HarperFlamingo collection was then
bought as well by Avon, and, through Lukeman’s English subagent Octavia
Wiseman at Abner Stein, The Night Bird Cantata was picked up for the
U.K., by HarperFlamingo.
New stories have been bought by Harper’s and Story. First
serial rights in the novel have gone to American Short Fiction. An
essay has been accepted by Los Angeles Times Magazine, to run Oct. 7,
and earlier this month Lukeman sold a collection of his essays, Letters
from Hollywood, to Diane Stockwell at Warner Books. Now, producer Jodie
Price of Gilleo & Price has optioned one of the collected stories for a
feature film.
Anything else? Yes, the little story that started it all in Press has
just won a Pushcart Prize.