Dialogue lands two novels and a short story collection by Lewis in six-figure pre-empt

Dialogue Books has acquired two “sharp, seductive” novels and a short story collection from award-winning writer Ashani Lewis in a six-figure pre-empt.

Senior editor Amy Mae Baxter pre-empted rights to Winter Animals by Lewis within hours of receiving the manuscript. Baxter acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in a three-book deal from Matthew Marland at Rogers, Coleridge and White.

Winter Animals will be published in hardback, e-book and audio in February 2024, and the as-yet untitled book of short stories will follow later in the year.

Winter Animals’ synopsis reads: “In one of America’s Happiest Cities, Elen is trapped under the shadow of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains. Elen is alone and unmoored. Her husband has left her. Her belongings are in the boot of her car. Her days are filled mostly with silence and drinking. When she meets four English teenagers in a decaying bar, she is enamoured.

“The teenagers are wealthy squatters, drifting between ski resorts and breaking into empty AirBnBs. When they bring Elen into their fold – and their messy, entangled romantic relationships – she initially remains on the outskirts, invisibly separated by their privilege. Simmering beneath the well-oiled machine of the group’s socialist bliss, she senses a violent secret that fuels the four’s never-ending disappearing act. Vibrant and cultish, they force Elen to ruminate on the irresistible pull of bright young things.  She is forced to ask, what is it that they want from her? Why do they want her to stay? But why would Elen leave when she has nowhere else to go?"

Baxter said: “It is a privilege to be Ashani’s publisher. I’ve loved her writing for years and was blown away by the strength and allure of her debut novel."

Lewis is a consulate editor for Joyland Magazine, and her writing has won the Tower Poetry Prize and the Alpine Fellowship Writing Competition, as well as being featured in Harper’s Bazaar and Joyland. She was a winner of the London Writers Awards 2021 in their literary fiction category. She has previously written for Bad Form.