Rowan Brighton Brown‘s WHITE TRASH WITCHCRAFT, a queer Appalachian horror in which a recent graduate spurns all her inheritance—the penchant for pills, the blood-soaked family farm, and the ancient magic—until infectious iron rusts through the community and she must choose which monsters to slay and which to become, to Alexandra Aceves at Holiday House, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2027, by Alexander Slater while at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.
NYT-bestselling author of THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA TJ Klune‘s MURMURATION, INTO THIS RIVER I DROWN, HOW TO BE A NORMAL PERSON, and THE IMMEMORIAL YEAR; and four untitled queer novels, to Ali Fisher at Tor, in separate major deals, each for seven figures, in separate four-book deals, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency (world English).
Author of WAKE UP, NAT & DARCY and YOURS FOR THE SEASON Kate Cochrane‘s PULLING THE GOALIE, book three in the Puck Struck series, a sapphic hockey romance in which a championship-winning goalie agrees to train a Hollywood actress for her breakout role in a sports biopic, hoping it will help her overcome a fear of returning to the ice after a nasty injury—until sparks start flying, complicating things even further, to Leyla Erkan at Harlequin, for publication in winter 2027, by Paige Terlip at Starling Literary + Media (world English).
Ari Baran‘s UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT, part of the Penalty Box hockey romance series, in which a tightly wound, picture-perfect all-star is forced to babysit a bad boy waiver pickup, on a team decimated by injury, where it’s unclear what could be more devastating—losing the season, or losing their hearts, to Leyla Erkan at Carina Press, in a two-book deal, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency (world English).
Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Award-winning author Bill Konigsberg‘s CAGE FREE, the author’s first novel for adults, a gay coming-of-middle-age story, pitched as THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU reimagined by David Sedaris and set in a wacky Florida hotel, to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Blackstone Publishing, for publication in spring 2027, by Michael Bourret at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret (NA).
Lin Darrow‘s Flicker City Phantoms series, pitched as a queer and cozy combination of the plucky mystery-solving of Pushing Daisies, the death-defying romance of Hadestown, and the technological world-building of THE MINISTRY OF TIME, in which an underemployed ghost at a boarding house for the holographically resurrected dead must team up with her eccentric spectral housemates to stop a mysterious headless kidnapper, to Chelsea Villareal at Podium Publishing, in a two-book deal, by Lucienne Diver at The Knight Agency (world English).
Author of MY SHARE OF THE BODY Devon Capizzi‘s RUGGERS, following a women’s college rugby team in New England through the eyes of a single player who is facing a crossroads as a battered shoulder threatens to keep her out for the season and pushes her to begin searching for a life off the field; a portrait of a brutal sport that explores queer friendship, desire, social identity, community, and athleticism, to Pilar Garcia-Brown at Dutton, at auction, by Ayla Zuraw-Friedland at Frances Goldin Literary Agency (world).
Hurston/Wright fellow and Syracuse MFA graduate Erica Frederick‘s FIGHT IN THE NIGHT, a queer coming-of-age novel set during one endless, storm-filled summer that follows a teenage girl—the only daughter of Haitian immigrants—and her five older brothers as they barrel through the Florida suburbs, where she must learn to grow bigger in a world that insists on her smallness, to Emily Polson at Scribner, at auction, by Iwalani Kim at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates (NA).
M.K. England writing as Autumn K. England’s FIELD GUIDE FOR THE FORMERLY VILLAINOUS, a cozy fantasy in which a non-binary former minion to the realm’s recently defeated Big Bad searches for a fresh start in a Stardew Valley-esque farming community, to Mary Altman at Poisoned Pen Press, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2026, by Eric Smith while at P.S. Literary Agency (world).
Lambda Literary Award and Goodreads Choice finalist and author of OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA and PRIVATE RITES Julia Armfield‘s UP TO THE LIGHT, set in the beautiful but deadly world of alpine mountaineering, following two climbers in the aftermath of an expedition in the Italian Alps that went horribly wrong, who believe something more sinister than bad conditions and bad weather may have been involved, pitched as INTO THIN AIR meets THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by way of Brokeback Mountain, to Caroline Bleeke at Flatiron Books, in a significant deal, by Olivia Maidment at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency.
