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THIS IS BIGHow the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World(and Me)By Marisa MeltzerUS publisher: Little, Brown (North American rights)US editor: Vanessa Mobley; To publish: April 2020Material available: Final PDF availableRights sold: UK/Commonwealth (Chatto & Windus / PRH UK)The story of a cross-generational, beyond-the-grave and beyond-thescale friendship, one that led to the first breakthrough MarisaMeltzer ever had in her quest for self-improvement.Marisa Meltzer began her first diet at the age of 5. Growing up anindoors-loving child in Northern California, she learned from an early agethat weight was the one part of her life she could neither change nor evenreally understand.Fast forward nearly four decades. Marisa, a contributor to The New Yorkerand The New York Times, comes across an obituary for Jean Nidetch, theQueens, NY housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963.Weaving Jean's incredible story as weight loss maven and pathbreakingentrepreneur with her own journey through Weight Watchers, Marisachronicles the deep parallels, and enduring frustrations, in each woman'sdecades-long efforts to lose weight and keep it off. The result is funny,unexpected, and unforgettable.Marisa Meltzer is a journalist based in New York who writes the “MeTime” column for The New York Times Style section and has contributed toThe New Yorker, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and Vogue among numerousother major national publications.Praise for THIS IS BIG:"Marisa has written a book that perfectly captures our country's obsessionwith THIN and the struggle with obesity at this moment in history.” – BusyPhilipps, author of This Will Only Hurt A Little"THIS IS BIG is a brave, bold, funny, honest, riveting book that made mehave every kind of feeling in the world." – Jami Attenberg, author of AllGrown Up"A witty and meaningful look at our obsession with weight anddieting Marisa Meltzer crafts an amusing story with universal insights.''– Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us

BETSEYA MemoirBy Betsey JohnsonUS publisher: Viking / PRH (North American rights)US editor: Rick Kot; To publish: April 2020Material available: Final PDF availableA memoir by the internationally famous fashion designer and styleicon.Mention the name "Betsey Johnson" and almost every woman from theage of 15 to 75 can rapturously recall a favorite dress or outfit; whetherworn for a prom, a wedding, or just to stand out from the crowd in acolorful way. Betsey is famous for her iconic pink stores (she had 65shops across the US) and for her habit of doing cartwheels and splitsdown the runway at the close of her fashion shows. Throughout herdecades-long career, she's taken pride in producing fun but rule-breakingclothing at an accessible price point. What they might not know is that shebuilt an empire from scratch, and brought stretch clothing to the massesin the 80s and 90s.Betsey will take the reader behind the tutu and delve deeply into what ittook to go from a white picket fence childhood in Connecticut tobecoming an internationally known force in a tough, competitive business.The book will feature Betsey's candid memories of the fashion anddowntown scene in the 60s and how she started her own business fromthe ground up after designing successfully for multiple other companies.She will discuss that business's ups and downs and reinventions (includingbankruptcy), and her thoughts on body image, love, divorce, men,motherhood, and her bout with breast cancer. Richly illustrated with manyof her landmark clothes, fashion sketches, and personal photos—the bookis a perfect memento and gift for every girl (of any age) for whom Betseyis, as a recent New York Times profile noted, "a role model still."Betsey Johnson is an internationally renowned fashion designer.Praise for BETSEY:“In this celebration of female entrepreneurship, Johnson writes aboutcreating one’s own opportunities and blazing forward despite the odds captures the spirit and irreverence of Johnson’s colorful personality andclothing.” – Publishers Weekly“The stories revealed will surprise and delight.” – Vogue"This inspiring book is literally a manual for how to succeed in fashion and inlife, all the while remaining completely and utterly true to yourself." – SimonDoonan, Creative Ambassador for Barney’s New York

LAUGH LINESMy Life Helping Funny People Be FunnierBy Alan ZweibelUS publisher: Abrams (World English rights)US editor: Jamison Stoltz; To publish: April 2020Material available: Final PDF availableWith his tender, funny memoir of four decades in the business, AlanZweibel traces the history of American comedy in LAUGH LINES.Alan Zweibel started his comedy career selling jokes for seven dollarsapiece to the last of the Borscht Belt standups. Then one night, despitebombing on stage, he caught the attention of Lorne Michaels and becameone of the first writers at Saturday Night Live, where he penned classicmaterial for Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and all of the original Not ReadyFor Prime Time Players. From SNL, he went on to have a hand in a seriesof landmark shows—from It’s Garry Shandling’s Show to Curb YourEnthusiasm.Throughout the pages of LAUGH LINES, Zweibel weaves together hisown stories and interviews with his friends and contemporaries, includingRichard Lewis, Eric Idle, Bob Saget, Mike Birbiglia, Sarah Silverman, JuddApatow, Dave Barry, Carl Reiner, and more. The book also features acharming foreword from his friend of forty-five years Billy Crystal, withwhom he co-wrote and co-produced the upcoming film Here Today thatstars Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. LAUGH LINES is a warmheartedcultural memoir of American comedy.Alan Zweibel is an original Saturday Night Live writer who has wonmultiple Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards for his work intelevision. He also collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award–winning Broadway play 700 Sundays and won the Thurber Prize forAmerican Humor for his novel The Other Shulman.Praise for LAUGH LINES:“An amiable, big-lug, heart-of-gold sort of book [A] pleasant, amusing taleof a life in jokes, suitable for budding comedians and students of the form.”– Kirkus"Any comedy fan will thrill to see the contemporary art's invention throughthe eyes of consummate funny man Alan Zweibel." – Mary Karr“I interviewed Alan for my high school radio station when I was sixteen andhave been hungry for comedy and life insights from him ever since! Finally, Ihave the Zweibel bible!” – Judd Apatow

SPACE IS THE PLACEThe Lives and Times of Sun RaBy John SzwedUS publisher: Pantheon 1997, revised and updated edition DukeUniversity Press 2020 (North American rights)To publish: April 2020Material available: Final PDF availableRights sold:Italy (Minimum Fax)UK / Commonwealth (Canongate)Reissued over twenty years after its original printing, the revisedand updated edition of SPACE IS THE PLACE brings Sun Ra intothe twenty-first century.Considered by many to be a founder of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra—akaHerman Blount—was a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher,entrepreneur, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn. Herecorded over 200 albums with his Arkestra, which, dressed in Egyptospace costumes, played everything from boogie-woogie and swing tofusion and free jazz. John Szwed's SPACE IS THE PLACE is thedefinitive biography of this musical polymath, who was one of thetwentieth century's greatest avant-garde artists and intellectuals. Chartingthe whole of Sun Ra's life and career, Szwed outlines how after years inChicago as a blues and swing band pianist, Sun Ra set out in the 1950s toimpart his views about the galaxy, black people, and spiritual matters byperforming music with the Arkestra that was as vital and innovative as itwas mercurial and confounding. Szwed's readers—whether they are justdiscovering Sun Ra or are among the legion of poets, artists, intellectuals,and musicians who consider him a spiritual godfather—will find that,indeed, space is the place.John Szwed was director of the Center for Jazz Studies and is a formerprofessor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University in New York.Praise for SPACE IS THE PLACE:"Szwed has produced a rare jazz biography—one that takes full account ofthe history that shaped the music and its central personalities.” – The NewYork Times“One of the great jazz biographies.” – The Guardian“Through deft writing and detailed chronology, Szwed manages to make theseemingly unintelligible, shiny-turbaned pioneer of big-band free jazz moreaccessible to society at large.” – Publishers Weekly

THE EQUIVALENTSA Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the1960sBy Maggie DohertyUS publisher: Knopf / PRH (North American rights)US editor: LuAnn Walther; To publish: May 2020Material available: Edited MS availableThe timely, never-before-told story of five brilliant, passionatewomen who, in the early 1960s, converged at the newly foundedRadcliffe Institute for Independent Study and became friends as wellas artistic collaborators, and who went on to shape the course offeminism in ways that are still felt today.“Superb A welcome spotlight on an overdue ‘experiment.’”– KirkusIn 1960, Harvard's sister college, Radcliffe, announced the founding of anInstitute for Independent Study, a "messy experiment" in women'seducation that offered paid fellowships to those with a PhD or "theequivalent" in artistic achievement. Five of the women who receivedfellowships--poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin, painter BarbaraSwan, sculptor Mariana Pineda, and writer Tillie Olsen--quickly formeddeep bonds with one another that would inspire and sustain their mostambitious work. They called themselves "the Equivalents." Drawing fromnotebooks, letters, recordings, journals, poetry, and prose, MaggieDoherty weaves a moving narrative of friendship and ambition, art andactivism, love and heartbreak, and shows how the institute spoke to thecondition of women.Praise for THE EQUIVALENTS:Maggie Doherty is a literary scholar, historian, and critic based atHarvard, where she earned her PhD in English and where she currentlyteaches writing, literature, and history. Her writing has appeared in manypublications, including The New Republic, The New York Times, n 1, and TheNation. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.“With great psychological acumen, and ever-mindful of the nuances of class,race, and gender, Maggie Doherty brings these women vividly to life, allowingus to hear them speak, to feel their conflicts and their triumphs.” – KateBolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own“Doherty’s prose dazzles, and she skillfully integrates her copious researchinto the narrative while toggling between biographical, creative, and politicalmatters. This empathetic, wide-angled portrait will resonate with fans of theindividual artists as well as feminists and readers of women’s history.”– Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

ROCKAWAYSurfing Headlong into a New LifeBy Diane CardwellUS publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (North American rights)US editor: Deanne Urmy; To publish: June 2020Material available: Edited MS availableThe inspirational story of one woman learning to surf and creating anew life in gritty, eccentric Rockaway Beach.“Toes to the nose, knees to the chin, Diane Cardwell’s memoir aboutlearning to surf in midlife shows us how to pop up again and again,with style.” – Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway and SwellUnmoored by a failed marriage and disconnected from her high-octanelife in the city, Diane Cardwell finds herself staring at a small group ofsurfers coasting through mellow waves toward shore—and sensessomething shift. ROCKAWAY is the riveting, joyful story of onewoman’s reinvention—beginning with Cardwell taking the A Train toRockaway, a neglected spit of land dangling off New York City into theAtlantic Ocean. She finds a teacher, buys a tiny bungalow, and throws hernot-overly-athletic-self headlong into learning the inner workings andrhythms of waves and the muscle development and coordination neededto ride them.As Cardwell begins to find her balance in the water and out, superstormSandy hits, sending her into the maelstrom in search of safer ground. Inthe aftermath, the community comes together and rebuilds, rekindling itsbacchanalian spirit as a historic surfing community, one with its ownquirky codes and surf culture. And Cardwell’s surfing takes off as shefinds a true home among her fellow passionate longboarders at theRockaway Beach Surf Club, living out “the most joyful path through life.”ROCKAWAY is a stirring story of inner salvation sought through achallenging physical pursuit.Diane Cardwell is an award-winning journalist who has covered a variety ofsubjects, including alternative energy, popular culture, politics, crime, andNew York’s hospitality industry. A former reporter for the New York Times,she was among the inaugural writers of “Portraits of Grief,” the Times’signature profiles of those killed in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack andhelped found Vibe magazine. She lives, gardens, and surfs in RockawayBeach, New York.

MIRACLE COUNTRYA MemoirBy Kendra AtleeworkUS publisher: Algonquin (North American rights)US editor: Kathy Pories; To publish: June 2020Material available: Edited MS availableMIRACLE is an extraordinary mirroring of the spirit and losses of afamily, reflected in the spirit and losses of a landscape—a gorgeouslywritten, poignant narrative of a young woman discovering solace inthe natural world.Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of theEastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and indrought years measures closer to zero. Kendra’s family raised theirchildren to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires,blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children wereraised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it cameat a price. When Kendra was six, her mother was diagnosed with a rareautoimmune disease, and she died when Kendra was sixteen. Her familyfell apart, even as her father tried to keep them together. Kendra tookflight from her bereft family, escaping to the enemy city of Los Angeles,and then Minneapolis, land of all trees, no deserts, no droughts, full lakes,water everywhere you look.But after years of avoiding the pain of her hometown, she realized thatshe had to go back, that the desert was the only place she could live. LikeWild, MIRACLE COUNTRY is a story of flight and return, bounty andemptiness, and the true meaning of home.Kendra Atleework received her MFA in creative writing from theUniversity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and is the recipient of the EllenMeloy Desert Writer Award and the AWP Into Journals Project Award.Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays 2015 and The Atlantic.Praise for MIRACLE COUNTRY:“Blending family memoir and environmental history, Kendra Atleeworkconveys a fundamental truth: the places in which we live, live on—sometimespainfully—in us.” – Julie Schumacher, author of Dear CommitteeMembers and The Shakespeare Requirement“Kendra Atleework has an uncanny wisdom and a deep sense of people andtheir origins, and she writes like an angel.” – Charles Baxter, author ofThere's Something I Want You to Do“Kendra Atleework can really write. She flies with burning wings." – LuisAlberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels

BRIGHT PRECIOUS THINGA MemoirBy Gail CaldwellUS publisher: Random House (North American rights)US editor: Kate MedinaTo publish: July 2020Material available: Edited MS availableRights sold:China (Pan Press)Korea (Uknow Books)From the New York Times bestselling author of Let’s Take the LongWay Home comes a moving memoir about how the women’smovement revolutionized and saved her life, from the 1960s to the#MeToo era.In a voice as candid as it is evocative, Gail Caldwell traces a path from herwest Texas girlhood through her emergence as a young daredevil, then asa feminist—a journey that reflected seismic shifts in the culture itself.Caldwell’s travels took her to California and Mexico and dark countryroads, and the dangers she encountered were rivaled only by the personaldemons she faced. BRIGHT PRECIOUS THING is the captivatingstory of a woman’s odyssey, her search for adventure giving way tosomething more profound: the evolution of a writer and a woman, astruggle to embrace one’s life as a precious thing.Told against a contrasting backdrop of the present day, including theauthor’s friendship with a young neighborhood girl, BRIGHTPRECIOUS THING unfolds with the same heart and narrative grace ofCaldwell’s Let’s Take the Long Way Home, called “a lovely gift to readers”by The Washington Post. Bright Precious Thing is a book about finding, thenprotecting, what we cherish most.Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for The Boston Globe, where shewas a staff writer for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded thePulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism. She is the author of three previousmemoirs and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

HEAD OF THE MOSSADIn Pursuit of a Safe and Secure IsraelBy Shabtai ShavitUS publisher: University of Notre Dame Press (NA rights)US editor: Eli Bortz; To publish: August 2020Material available: Final PDF availableRights sold:Holland (Karakter)Israel (Yedioth)Poland (Publicat)Romania (Grup Media Litera)Shabtai Shavit, director of the Mossad from 1989–1996, is one of themost influential leaders to shape the recent history of Israel.Shavit combines memoir with sober reflection to reveal what happenedduring the seven years he led what is widely recognized today as one ofthe most powerful and proficient intelligence agencies in the world. Shavitprovides an inside account of his intelligence and geostrategic philosophy,the operations he directed, and anecdotes about his family, colleagues, andtime spent in, among other places, the United States as a graduate studentand at the CIA.Shavit’s tenure occurred during many crucial junctures in the history ofthe Middle East, including the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end ofthe Cold War era; the first Gulf War and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’snavigation of the state and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during theconflict; the peace agreement with Jordan, in which the Mossad played acentral role; and the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Shavitoffers a broad sweep of the integral importance of intelligence in thesehistorical settings and reflects on the role that intelligence can and shouldplay in Israel's future against Islamist terrorism and Iran’s eschatologicalvision.Shabtai Shavit served in Israeli intelligence for 32 years, where he rose tobecome the Director of Mossad from 1989-1996.Praise for HEAD OF THE MOSSAD:"HEAD OF THE MOSSAD is a gripping book drilling deep down intocentral intelligence issues. I highly recommend reading this truly specialbook.” – Eli Amir, author of Jasmine and Scapegoat"The bo

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