Corsair signs two-book deal with Kate Zambreno

Corsair has landed The Light Room in a two-book deal from essayist and critic Kate Zambreno.

Sarah Castleton, deputy publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Tom Dussell at PRH US. Castleton also signed UK and Commonwealth rights for Heroines, a backlist title, directly from the author. The Light Room will be published in July 2024.

A combination of memoir, criticism and literary gossip, The Light Room "offers a vision of how to live in ways that move away from disenchantment and toward light and possibility". The book is a "candid chronicle" of life as a mother of two young daughters in what the publisher describes as "Zambreno’s… most profound and affecting work yet". 

Heroines was first published in the US over 10 years ago. Corsair will publish with a new introduction from Jamie Hood.

Castleton said: "I have long valued Kate Zambreno’s work – spry, challenging, truthful, compassionate and scintillatingly alive to the culture. Annie Ernaux has said that Kate has invented a new art form, an ’absolute present’, and Kristen Stewart has recently spoken about her love for Heroines, how valuable Kate’s work is to her. She is long overdue a UK publication, I truly count her as one of our most vital contemporary writers and thinkers, and I can’t wait for new readers of all generations to discover her.’"

Zambreno added: "I am happy to be working with Sarah Castleton at Corsair to bring both The Light Room and Heroines to the UK. As someone who was once worked as a bookseller at Foyles on Charing Cross, I am so happy for my books to be available to the UK reader."