Poet and screenwriter Esta Spalding’s SHOUT OUT FOR THE FITZGERALD-TROUTS, the much-anticipated third book in a Dahl-esque middle-grade series featuring a band of loosely related self-reliant siblings who live alone in their car on a tropical island, for publication in Summer 2019, and an untitled middle grade fiction book, to Tara Walker and Lynne Missen at Tundra Books, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World). Film and TV rights previously optioned by Argent Pictures and 3311 Productions and Semi Chellas (Mad Men, The Romanoffs, Ophelia), by Jerry Kalajian of the Intellectual Property Group on behalf of Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists.

From the author and illustrator team of Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms, Robert Paul Weston and Misa Saburi NATSUMI’S SONG OF SUMMER, a new tanka poem picture book that celebrates the special pleasures of summertime and of reunions with faraway family and friends, to Jessica Burgess at Tundra Books, for publication in Summer 2020, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World).

Acclaimed novelist Ann Y K Choi’s debut picture book, ONCE UPON AN HOUR, draws on the traditional Korean practice of timekeeping, in which the twelve animals of the zodiac are assigned to two-hour sections of the 24-hour clock, to show how we can make all the difference in the world if we work together, illustrated by Soyeon Kim, to Liz Kemp at Orca Books, for publication in Fall 2020, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World).

Award-winning author David A. Robertson’s GHOSTS, the third book in The Reckoner series, a supernatural YA mystery set in the northern community of Wounded Sky First Nation, to Catherine Gerbasi at HighWater Press (imprint of Portage & Main Press), for publication in October 2019, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World).

From the authors and illustrator of the internationally bestselling, Caldecott Medal-winning picture book Finding Winnie, Lindsay Mattick and Josh Greenhut’s WINNIE’S GREAT WAR, with art by Sophie Blackall, based on the true, remarkable wartime adventures undertaken by the extraordinary bear who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, to Suzanne Sutherland at HarperCollins Canada for publication in Fall 2018, by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists and Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management for the authors, and Nancy Gallt at Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency for the illustrator (Canada English).

A taut literary thriller by the author of The Dark Virgin, Oakland Ross’s SWIMMING WITH HORSES intertwines the stories of a solitary Canadian teenager and a blue-eyed, gun-toting South African bad girl who spends the summer of 1963 in southern Ontario horse country, to Scott Fraser at Dundurn, for publication in February 2019, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World).

From the author of the Giller Award-winning novel Late Nights on Air, Elizabeth Hay’s ALL THINGS CONSOLED: A DAUGHTER’S MEMOIR, a startling and beautiful memoir about the drama of her parents’ end, and the longer drama of being their daughter, pitched as for fans of Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant and Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, to Martha Kanya-Forstner at McClelland & Stewart for publication in September 18, 2018 by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists (Canada English). UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada to Christopher MacLehose at MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus, for publication in 2019 by Carolyn Forde on behalf of Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists.

From the acclaimed novelist of Brother, David Chariandy’s I’VE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU: A LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER is an intimate and profoundly beautiful meditation on the politics of race today, pitched as in the tradition of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, to Martha Kanya-Forstner at McClelland & Stewart for publication May 29, 2018 by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists (Canada English). World English excluding Canada to Alexa von Hirschberg at Bloomsbury UK & US for publication in April 2019 by Carolyn Forde on behalf of Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists.

Two years ago Doug Pepper at Signal/McClelland & Stewart acquired Canadian rights to co-authors of The Big Shift Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s EMPTY PLANET: The Shock of Global Population Decline from John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists. The book was researched on six continents and predicts a surprising decline in the world’s population with major consequences for individual countries and for the planet as a whole, US rights have been sold to Emma Berry at Crown/Penguin Random House by John Pearce; UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada rights have been sold to Tom Asker at Robinson/Piatkus, Constable & Robinson/Little, Brown; Chinese rights to Beijing Huazhong; Japanese rights to Bungeishunju; and Korean rights to Eulyoo,. The UK and foreign sales were made by Carolyn Forde on behalf of John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists. EMPTY PLANET will be published simultaneously in Canada, the US and the UK, in February 2019.

Lara Hinchberger of Penguin Canada has acquired, in a two book deal, Canadian English rights to internationally bestselling women’s fiction author Karma Brown’s (Come Away With Me, The Choices We Make, In This Moment) first foray into the domestic noir genre; RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE. In which a reluctant, modern housewife, Alice,  finds a cookbook buried in an old box in the basement of her new home and becomes captivated with the cookbook’s previous owner, a 1950s housewife, Nellie. Dissatisfied with her own life and losing her grip on reality one retro recipe at a time, Alice will decide—thanks to Nellie’s cookbook, the old house, and decades-long held secrets— how far she’s willing to go to get the life she wants. Penguin will publish RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE as a Viking title in February 2019. The deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists.

Editor-in-Chief of McClelland & Stewart and Doubleday Canada Martha Kanya-Forstner has acquired Canadian rights to two-time Giller Prize-winner M.G. Vassanji’s new novel, tentatively titled A DELHI OBSESSION, and a collection of short stories tentatively titled WHAT ARE YOU. A DELHI OBSESSION, brimming with emotional tension, tells the stories of Munir Khan and Mohini Singh as they begin a fraught, torrid affair despite their moral and political differences. Publication of the novel is planned for fall 2019. Bruce Westwood of Westwood Creative Artists arranged the deal.

Stacey Matson follows up her acclaimed, internationally-published Life of a Total Genius trilogy with a new standalone middle grade novel, THE CONFIDENTIAL COOPER FILE, about a boy who believes his grandfather, disappearing into Alzheimer’s, is actually the infamous – and never caught – hijacker DB Cooper, and sets out to prove it, to Anne Shone at Scholastic Canada for publication in fall 2019 (world excluding US) by Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists.

Swedish rights to Alice Kuipers bestselling YA/Adult crossover Life on the Refrigerator Door to En Bok for Alla, bring the number of territories sold to 31. The deal was arranged by Monique Oosterhof at Mo Literary Services in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Jackie Kaiser.

Simplified Chinese rights Alexandre Trudeau’s memoir Barbarian Lost: Travels in the New China have sold to China South Booky Culture Media Co. The deal was arranged by Andrew Nurnburg Associates International in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Michael A. Levine.

Korean rights to John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker’s EMPTY PLANET: THE SHOCK OF GLOBAL POPULATION DECLINE have sold to Eulyoo. The deal was arranged by Shin Won Literary Agency in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of John Pearce.

Russian rights to Sandra Gulland’s YA novel about the stepdaughter of Napolean Bonaparte, THE GAME OF HOPE, have sold to Arkadia. The deal was arranged by Synopsis Literary Agency in association with Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists om behalf of Jackie Kaiser.

Simplified Chinese rights to Jay Ingram’s The Science of Why 2 (the follow up to his bestselling The Science of Why) have sold to Beijing Green Beans Book Company. The deal was arranged by Andrew Nurnberg Associates International in association with Carolyn Forde Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Jackie Kaiser.

World English audio rights to Governor General Award for Literary Fiction winner Joel Thomas Hynes’ We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night have been acquired by Audible. The deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists.

Award-winning author of Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages, Mark Abley’s WATCH YOUR TONGUE: WHAT OUR EVERYDAY PHRASES LITERALLY FIGURATIVELY MEAN, exploring the phrases, idioms, and clichés of our everyday language with remarkable wit and wisdom, to Brendan May at Simon & Schuster Canada, for publication in August 2018, by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists (North America).

Richard Wagamese’s Medicine Walk, a profound and haunting story of a young Ojibway man’s first, and last, journey with his estranged, dying father, to Edgarland Films Inc., by John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists with Chris Casuccio.

Simon & Schuster Canada VP, Editorial Director Nita Pronovost has acquired Canadian rights to the next two books by BC author Roz Nay whose first book OUR LITTLE SECRET was praised by Ruth Ware, Mary Kubica, Chevy Stevens and Andrew Pyper. OUR LITTLE SECRET was a bestseller in Canada, an award winner in France, also sold Dutch, Polish and audio rights and will publish with St. Martin’s Press in the US in April 2018. The next two books, as yet untitled, are planned for publication in 2018 and 2019. The deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists.

Penguin Teen Canada publishing director, Lynne Missen, has acquired North American English rights to two forthcoming young adult novels from the Governor General’s Award-winning When Everything Feels Like the Movies author, Raziel Reid. The first of the two untitled books, KENS, is scheduled for September 2018, and is a modernized re-telling of the cult classic movie, Heathers, in which an unpopular gay kid, desperate to fit in, gets more than he bargained for when he reinvents himself – inside and out – and becomes an unknowing and submissive puppet in a sadistic plan. The deal was arranged by Michael Levine and Liz Culotti at Westwood Creative Artists.

Simon & Schuster Canada’s Vice President and Editorial Director Nita Pronovost has acquired North American English rights to Ruth Marshall’s debut book, a memoir entitled WALK IT OFF: The True and Hilarious Story of How I Learned to Stand, Walk, Pee, Run, and Have Sex Again After a Nightmarish Diagnosis Turned My Awesome Life Upside Down that follows the actress’ journey after she is diagnosed with a rare spinal tumor. Told with humor and searing honesty, this memoir not only entertains but inspires readers to put their best foot forward and walk off anything life throws their way. Publication is planned for January 2018. Bruce Westwood and Meg Wheeler of Westwood Creative Artists arranged the deal.

Deborah Willis at Freehand Books has acquired Canadian English rights to Michelle Kaeser’s literary novel TOWER OF BABYLON. Publication is planned for Fall 2019 and the deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists Ltd.

Alana Wilcox of Coach House has acquired World rights to Lezlie Lowe’s NO PLACE TO GO: Answering the Call of Nature in the Urban Jungle, an investigation into the politics of public restrooms. Publication is planned for Fall 2018 and the deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists Ltd.

Senior Editor at Grove Atlantic Corinna Barson has acquired World rights to Toronto-based writer and photographer John Zada’s IN THE VALLEYS OF THE NOBLE BEYOND: Travels in the Great Bear Rainforest in Search of the Sasquatch – a work of narrative non-fiction that braids threads of travel/adventure with Sasquatch lore. Publication is planned for Spring 2018, and the deal was arranged by Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists Ltd.