Waidner moves to Hamish Hamilton with follow-up to Goldsmith Prize-winning Sterling Karat Gold

Hamish Hamilton has snared the follow up to Isabel Waidner’s Goldsmiths Prize-winning Sterling Karat Gold (Peninsula Press). 

Simon Prosser, publisher, acquired British and Commonwealth rights to Corey Fah Does Social Mobility from Tracy Bohan at the Wylie Agency, to publish in July 2023. US rights have been acquired by Graywolf, to publish in 2024. 

The book tells the story of Corey Fah, a writer on the cusp of a windfall courtesy of the Social Evils prize committee, for whom the actual gong – and with it the prize money – remains tantalisingly out of reach. Neon beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with partner Drew and surprise eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular detour through their childhood in the Forest – via an unlikely stint on reality TV. Navigating those twin horrors, through wormholes and time loops, Corey learns – the hard way – the difference between a prize and a gift.

The publisher said: “This is a novel about coming into one’s own, the labour of love, the tendency of history to repeat itself, and the pitfalls of social mobility. It’s about watching TV with your lover.” 

Prosser said: “Both radiant and revolutionary, Isabel Waidner’s fiction gleefully takes a hammer to false binaries, boundaries and borders, turning walls into bridges and words into wings. Fierce, fluid and funny, they free us to imagine another way of being. I feel both excited and lucky to be publishing them at Hamish Hamilton.” 

Waidner, who won the Goldsmiths Prize last year, added: “I’m profoundly honoured to publish with Hamish Hamilton and to work with Simon and the team. I couldn’t imagine a publisher with a more progressive vision, and who shares my ambition to make a difference.”