Bloomsbury scoops Flattery's 'urgent' stories in six-figure pre-empt

Bloomsbury has acquired a collection of short stories and a debut novel from Irish writer Nicole Flattery in a six-figure pre-empt.

The company’s publishing director Alexis Kirschbaum and fiction director Liese Mayer bought world English rights to Show Them a Good Time and Nothing Special from Tracy Bohan at the Wylie Agency. Rights were acquired in a six-figure sum in a pre-empt.

Short story collection, Show Them a Good Time, will be published in Ireland by the Stinging Fly in February 2019 and by Bloomsbury in March 2019. It explores types – men and women, their assigned roles and meanings – in modern society, as well as work.

The novel, Nothing Special, will follow two 18-year-old girls in New York who transcribe tapes at Andy Warhol’s Factory. Slated for publication in 2021, it will explore voyeurism, language, addiction, naivety and the divide between our public and private selves.

Flattery scooped the White Review Short Story Prize last year and she has also been published in the Stinging Fly, the Dublin Review, the Irish Times and Winter Papers as well as being featured on BBC Radio 4.

Kirschbaum said: “Nicole Flattery is an author I’ve followed for some time now. Her short stories are urgent, disorientating, and full of a kind of humour that opens up emotions and experiences normally at odds with anything funny. She is a thrilling talent, and Bloomsbury is proud to be launching what we believe will be a long and impressive literary career.”

In August it was revealed that fellow White Review Short Story Prize winner Julia Armfield's short story collection and debut novel had gone to Picador at auction. Armfield won the 2018 award in May.

Short story sales have seen a boom in sales, rising by almost 50% in value, to reach their highest level in seven years, The Bookseller reported in Januay.