Canongate wins Vanessa Kisuule's 'unflinching' debut on fandom in four-way auction

Canongate has snapped up a non-fiction debut by poet and performer Vanessa Kisuule, in a four-way auction. 

Hannah Knowles acquired world all-language rights in Neverland from Becky Thomas at the Lewinsohn Literary Agency, with Helena Gonda, senior commissioning editor, overseeing the publication. Canongate will publish in hardback, e-book and audio in July 2024.

"As conversations about abuse perpetrated by public figures become louder and we reach for moral absolutes, this book examines the nuances, unafraid to examine the ugly and contradictory impulses in all of us," the synopsis says. "Neverland is a love letter to the musicians we adore and an unflinching look at the costs of hero worship."

Kisuule is a writer and performer who has won more than 10 slam titles, including The Roundhouse Slam 2014, Hammer and Tongue National Slam 2014 and the Nuoryican Poetry Slam. She has two poetry collections published by Burning Eye Books and her work was highly vommended in the Forward Poetry Prize Anthology 2019. She was also the Bristol City Poet between 2018 and 2020.

She commented: "Writing this book has been the most humbling and challenging task of my career thus far. Knowing the journey of necessary discomfort that I want to take the reader on, I have pushed myself to go into the unthinkable thoughts and unsayable things. 

"It’s been a lot of fun, too, and a privilege to be supported in this journey by an independent publisher I admire so greatly. I am so scared. I am so excited! I can’t wait for the book to be in people’s hands so we can all have a chat about it."

Gonda said: "Vanessa is a force and this book is no different, teeming as it is with rich, complex ideas. Powered by kinetic storytelling, it is Vanessa’s ability to wrestle with such important, contemporary themes and to do so in ways that ask such big, existential and timely questions that make it a fascinating and vital read."