WCA Deal Report for September 24, 2021

By September 24, 2021Deals
  • Tara Walker at Tundra Books has acquired on exclusive submission the next two picture books by Linda Bailey (MARY WHO WROTE FRANKENSTEIN). ARTHUR WHO WROTE SHERLOCK is a picture book bio of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to be illustrated by Isabelle Follath and published in fall 2022.  THE GREAT DINOSAUR SLEEPOVER, with Joe Bluhm illustrating for publication in summer 2023, is about how a boy’s birthday party is saved by the unexpected arrival of prehistoric guests, with comic results. Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists represented Bailey on the world rights deal, with Follath represented by Amy Kitcherside at Pickled Ink and Bluhm repped by Ashley Valentine at Pippin Properties.
  • Doug Pepper, Publisher of Signal/McClelland & Stewart, has acquired world rights to John Ibbitson’s THE DUEL: DIEFENBAKER, PEARSON AND THE MAKING OF MODERN CANADA, a life-and-times narrative that tells the story of two men, children of the Victorian era, who led Canada into the atomic age as prime ministers, fighting each other relentlessly but together shaping the Canada we live in today. Publication will be in Fall 2023, by J. The deal was arranged by John Pearce of Westwood Creative Artists.
  • Diana Bentley and John Titley have entered into a shopping agreement for Kate Lines’s CRIME SEEN, the author’s memoir about her career from a highway patrol officer to Quantico-trained criminal profiler and Chief Superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police. Bentley and Titley are represented by Larissa Giroux of Oscars Abrams Zimel & Associates. The deal was arranged by Michael Levine at Westwood Creative Artists.
  • Portland Opera has licensed the stage rights to WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT, with a libretto by the author Rachel Rose. The opera is composed by Leslie Uyeda, and is a love story between two women – one married to a man, mother to a young child, and the other a stranger, living a life of exile – who meet in an imaginary country where being queer is punishable by death. Rose is represented by Hilary McMahon and the deal was arranged by Michael Levine at Westwood Creative Artists.
  • Jennifer Chang and Feodor Chin have entered into a shopping agreement for Jack Wang’s WE TWO ALONE, a masterful collection of stories that dramatizes the Chinese diaspora around the world over the past century. Chang is represented by WME and Redrock Entertainment Development, Chin is represented by Established Artists, and both are represented by entertainment attorney Bob L. Johnson. The deal was arranged by Michael Levine at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Jackie Kaiser.
  • Timothy Findley’s PILGRIM to Koridor Yayinlari (Turkey), by Atilla Izgi Turgut at Akcali Copyright Agency, on behalf of Meg Wheeler at Westwood Creative Artists for Bruce Westwood.
  • Jack Hodgins’s BROKEN GROUND to Gyldendal (Denmark), by Monique Oosterhof at MO Literary Services, on behalf of Meg Wheeler at Westwood Creative Artists for John Pearce. This deal is for digital rights only.