Fleet signs 'searing' collection from McNish

Fleet has scooped a "searing" new collection of poetry and prose from Ted Hughes Award-winner Hollie McNish.

Announced on National Poetry Day today (3rd October) Slug . . . and other things I’ve been told to hate will be released in February 2021. Senior commissioning editor Rhiannon Smith acquired world English rights from Becky Thomas at Johnson and Alcock.

The synopsis states: “From Finnish mermaids and soppy otters to Kellogg’s anti-masturbation pants and our cultural queasiness around the sound of the word ‘vulva’, Slug is a book which holds a mirror up to the world, past and present, through Hollie’s driving, funny, beautiful poetry and prose. Slug is about the human condition: of birth and death and how we manage the tangle in-between.” 

McNish, whose collection Nobody Told Me (Blackfriars) won the Ted Hughes Award in 2017, said: “It is such a privilege to work with Little, Brown again, especially Rhiannon and Clara. I loved everything the team did with Nobody Told Me and I’m both nervous and very, very excited to release this new collection with them too.”

Smith added: “Slug is an accomplished, searing, brilliant collection. But what else could I expect? Hollie is a truly exceptional author and I’m simply delighted to be publishing her again. Nobody Told Me was a book that all the teams at Little, Brown championed, one we were hugely proud of, we’re all so excited for another fantastic publication with Hollie in 2021.”