Hutchinson Heinemann signs Fagan's 'extraordinary' memoir in two-book deal

Hutchinson Heinemann has signed Ootlin, a memoir by writer Jenni Fagan, in a two-book deal.

Publishing director Ailah Ahmed acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Tracy Bohan at The Wylie Agency. The memoir will be published in hardback, e-book and audio on 24th August 2023.

The publisher said: “Dubbed the ‘Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins’ by the New York Times, award-winning novelist and poet Jenni Fagan is one of the most exciting literary voices in Britain today. Her memoir, Ootlin, is about a life raised by the state. Fagan was born in an institution and spent her early life and years in care. Fostered, adopted and moved multiples times, she developed a childhood fascination with stories and why people tell them. Ootlin is about dislocation, ceaselessly moving through all kinds of placements in a broken UK system. It’s a story of what happens when the world makes you look at it from the outside in, how it is to be entirely rootless yet find the desire to transcend and create burns just as boldly as any tragedy."

Fagan has won awards from Creative Scotland, Dewar Arts, Scottish Screen and Scottish BookTrust among others, and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists after the publication of her debut novel The Panopticon (Windmill), which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize. The Sunlight Pilgrims (Windmill), her second novel, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, and saw her win Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. 

She said: “This is a book I never thought I’d ever release but we are living through extraordinary times. I want to contribute directly to the conversation regarding the othering, systematic filing, and eradication of the voices and lives of all those who are othered. It is only one offering, from my perspective, to a great many collected voices who are choosing to grow louder and more present in a world that is failing far, far, far too many people.”

Ahmed added: “Jenni Fagan has given us the most exquisite novels in Luckenbooth (Windmill), The Panopticon and The Sunlight Pilgrims. I cannot wait for everyone to read this moving, beautiful and extraordinary work. It’s her first step into non-fiction with an unforgettable memoir about growing up in care and falling in love with storytelling. It offers a reading experience that you will never forget.”