People 8/26

Sarah Goldstein has been promoted to assistant editor.

Kelli Marshall joins as literary agent. She previously worked in TV & film development.

The company is expanding the Bolden imprint to a wider range of literary fiction and nonfiction, beginning with THE HAROLD BRODKEY READER and VACANCY, by Zachary Lazar. The line will continue to seek out and publish fiction and nonfiction by Black American writers, but will now acquire other works as well.

Publisher Doug Seibold writes, “My experience as a small press publisher is that bigger houses are sometimes daunted by more distinct and singular voices and literary stylists, which creates opportunity for presses like Agate…. I am also definitely interested in new work by terrific mid-career writers, Commonwealth writers, and also work in translation.”

New York Magazine’s Book Gossip newsletter reports on the success of FRUIT FLY, Josh Silver’s adult debut, which was published by Crooked Lane in hardcover and paperback simultaneously on August 4 and is already sold out at some booksellers including McNally Jackson and Green Light in Brooklyn. According to Circana Bookscan, the book has sold approximately 6,600 copies across both print editions in two weeks.

The book was recently optioned by A24, a deal that has been in the works since its UK release in April, and featured in a viral video with book influencer Jack Edwards and Anne Hathaway.

A former Crooked Lane employee who worked on the novel “shared that most literary agents who have done business with Crooked Lane are aware that low print runs at the publisher are not a new concern, but one that Fruit Fly has painfully brought to bear.” The publisher has gone back to press multiple times.