Allen Lane signs Ahmed's 'stirring' guide to feminist thought and action in five-way auction

Allen Lane has signed Sara Ahmed’s The Feminist Killjoy Handbook after a heated five-way auction. 

Maria Bedford, commissioning editor, acquired UK and commonwealth rights from Niki Chang at David Higham. It will publish in spring 2023. 

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook is Ahmed’s first book with a trade publisher after several successful books with Duke University Press. It is described as “an intimate and stirring guide to feminist thought and action”. The publisher stressed: “The book is not, however, a guide to being a feminist killjoy; rather, it shows how being a feminist killjoy gives us guidance on how to live in this world, and is an indispensable guide for all those interested in intersectional equality and justice.” 

Ahmed is a feminist writer and independent scholar. She works at the intersection of feminist, queer and race studies. Until the end of 2016, she was a professor of race and cultural studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, having been previously based in women’s studies at Lancaster University. She resigned from her post at Goldsmiths in protest at what she described as the university’s “failure to deal with the problem of sexual harassment”.  

Ahmed said: "I think of the feminist killjoy as a communication device, a way of listening to, and learning from, each other in our struggle to build more just worlds. It gives me killjoy joy to have the opportunity to work with Maria and her team at Penguin Press to bring The Feminist Killjoy Handbook into the world and especially into the hands of feminist killjoys!" 

Bedford added: “The Feminist Killjoy Handbook is a life-changing book: a source of fortitude and solace for all who need it. We are very lucky to have Sara Ahmed’s wisdom, precision and clarity and I know this book will become a very meaningful companion for all those who work towards equality and justice. Sara is one of our most important contemporary voices and to be able to play a role in bringing her work to even more readers across the world is a dream come true.”