Phoenix pre-empts Naomi Wood’s first short story collection

Phoenix has acquired This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, the debut short story collection from award-winning author Naomi Wood.

Publisher Francesca Main pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. Wood is the author of three novels including Mrs Hemingway and The Hiding Game, which were published by Main when she was at Picador. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things will be published as a Phoenix hardback in July 2024.

In the nine stories that make up the collection, a woman has an unexpected outburst in group therapy at a large corporation, with devastating consequences; a couple finds some long-overdue time to rekindle their relationship and make an ill-advised sex tape; a pregnant film director plots her revenge on the actress who betrayed her; and an ex-wife causes problems at her former husband’s wedding.

The publisher says: “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things illuminates the lives of malicious, subversive and untamed women. Exploring failed sisterhood, dubious parenting and the dark side of modern love, these powerful and funny stories offer a takedown on how society wants women to behave and show what happens when they refuse.”

Naomi Wood’s stories have been shortlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize, the London Magazine Short Story Prize and the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize, and published in the Washington Square Review, Joyland, S Magazine and Stylist. She teaches creative writing at the University of East Anglia.

Main said: “These provocative, razor-sharp and riotously entertaining stories explore what happens when women stop playing nice and succumb to their bad energy. They also confirm that Naomi Wood is one of the most talented writers of her generation. I’m thrilled to welcome her to Phoenix.”

Wood said: “I couldn’t be happier to be working for the third time with my editor Francesca Main, and now joining Phoenix. I want these stories to shock and delight in equal measure, and I know Francesca and Orion will be the perfect place to make this happen.”