You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
HQ has bought Graffiti Girls and another novel by Elissa Soave, winner of the inaugural Primadonna Prize.
Clare Gordon, editorial director, acquired world all-language rights from Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. The first book, Graffiti Girls, will be published on 7th November 2024.
The book is described as a "sharp, empowering novel about a group of women who refuse to go quietly when society tells them they’re no longer valuable beyond the age of 40".
“Amy, Carole, Lenore and Susan have been friends since school but now they’re in their 40s, life seems to be selling them short. Encouraged by arch feminist and natural leader Amy, they embark on a graffiti campaign in their home town of Hamilton, scrawling anti-patriarchy slogans on the walls of local buildings.
Soave won the inaugural Primadonna Prize in 2019 for unpublished writers, and HQ published her debut, Ginger and Me, in 2022. She was also a Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect finalist 2019 and has been published in New Writing Scotland and the Glasgow Review of Books among others, as well as having two short plays performed.
The author, who is based in South Lanarkshire, said: ‘I am delighted to be publishing my second novel with HQ, working with my editor Clare Gordon and the rest of the talented team. I can’t wait to introduce readers to the Graffiti Girls – Amy, Carole, Susan and Lenore – women who I hope will engage and entertain readers, and perhaps even inspire them to challenge the status quo.”
Gordon said: ‘Graffiti Girls is such a brilliant novel, by measures hilarious, infuriating and outright inspiring.
"At a time when the voices of women – older women, working-class women, queer women – are sidelined when it comes to the issues that make a difference to our lives it couldn’t be a more important message. On a personal level, as a Scot, it means a huge amount to be working with Elissa and helping to bring a real shining talent to the modern canon of great Scottish literature.’
Summerhayes said: “Elissa’s journey from Primadonna Prize winner to published novelist has been a thrill to watch. It is wonderful that the team at HQ are invested in her fiction long-term as she continues to get better and better.”