Serpent’s Tail scoops a 'masterpiece of empathy and memory' by American writer Beard

Serpent’s Tail has scooped Cheri, a "masterpiece of empathy and memory" by American writer Jo Ann Beard. 

Publisher Hannah Westland acquired UK & Commonwealth volume rights, excluding Canada, in two books by Beard, Cheri and The Collected Works, from Nancy Weise at Little, Brown US. The books, which will be published on 17th August 2023, are Westland’s "parting gift" to Profile before she moves to Jonathan Cape.

Cheri is described by the publisher as a "heart-breaking but glorious novella which celebrates all the moments of beauty and pain that make an individual life, right up until its very last moments". It tells the story of a woman who has been living with cancer for many years.

The synopsis said: "Now, she is dying. As she navigates the final weeks of her life, and takes charge of the manner of her death, she is flooded with memories, vivid fragments from childhood, adolescence, marriage and motherhood.

"These bring her back to the present with a renewed appreciation for the brilliance of life around her: the redemptive love of long friendships, the beauty of the natural world, and the miraculous radiance of her daughters."

Meanwhile, The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard brings together pieces from Beard’s first collection, The Boys of My Youth (Black Bay Books/ W&N/ Little, Brown & Co) and Festival Days (Little, Brown US) which was published two decades later. According to the publisher, the collection "showcases the writer’s impressive breadth, quiet brilliance, and timeless prose".

Westland said: "It is rare to stumble on a writer whose work feels truly life-changing, rarer still when they are barely known in the UK. Jo Ann Beard has been writing for over 30 years and in the US is recognised as one of the finest and most influential writers of her generation.

"Her fans include Mary Gaitskill, Geoff Dyer, Mark Haddon, Jonathan Franzen, Cheryl Strayed, Sigrid Nunez and Elizabeth McCracken, to name a few, but because her work, which blends memoir, essay and fiction, is not easy to categorise, she has barely been published here in the UK.

"We are changing that this summer, with the publication of two books – her novella Cheri, a heart-wrenching and yet uplifting story of the final weeks of a woman’s life, and with a comprehensive volume of her life’s works. Every single piece of Jo Ann Beard’s writing, whether fact, fiction or the intangible space between, is a complex tapestry; a masterclass in writing from memory. We cannot wait to share these extraordinary books with readers."

Beard has received a Whiting Foundation Award, and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2022, she received an American Academy of Arts & Letters 2022 Award in Literature.