S&S UK snaps up Woozeer's debut

Simon & Schuster have pre-empted Not Quite White, the debut by writer and musician Laila Woozeer.

Editorial director at S&S UK Fritha Saunders acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Becky Thomas at Johnson & Alcock with publication slated for autumn 2019.

Part autobiography, part critical commentary, Not Quite White "contains a wealth of cultural touchpoints that the reader will immediately identify with, hilarious stories from Laila’s life growing up in Wales in the 1990s, as well as references to academic texts and race theory”. It blends serious subject matter with the author’s natural warmth and humour, the publisher said. The writer and musician is now based in London.

Billed as "one of the first books of its kind” it unpacks the unique experience of growing up multiracial in the UK, and examines multiracial identity through the prism of Laila Woozeer’s life, S&S UK said. "‘Mixed’ is the fastest growing ethnic group in the UK and US and yet those who identify as mixed heritage often feel outside of the conversation about race – particularly when one or both parents is also mixed, resulting in an experience that goes beyond the traditional parameters of ‘dual heritage’,” the publisher said.