Penguin Random House Canada to launch new imprint Strange Light

TORONTO, April 4, 2018 /CNW/ - Penguin Random House Canada announces the launch of a new imprint, Strange Light, that will publish cutting-edge voices exploring evolving literary forms.  

Growing out of our online magazine Hazlitt, Strange Light will build on what Hazlitt has done exceptionally well: publishing unpredictable, experimental, diverse, and emerging authors telling stories only they could tell.

Strange Light Editorial Director Jordan Ginsberg said: "With Hazlitt, we've been able to build the sort of magazine we wanted to read and thought was missing—one centred around the stories we tell ourselves and to each other, about how we live and get by together. Strange Light has grown out of wanting to see these authors and their work given the greatest platform possible, even and especially when they're challenging and hard to categorize, with all the beauty and horror and shock and delight that comes with the thrill of discovering something brand new."  

Launching in Spring 2019, Strange Light will be a carefully curated list, home to books that are personal, provocative, and driven by voices and perspectives that are often overlooked. The imprint's full inaugural list will be announced soon, but for now, a bit about its first two titles:

Stanford Stegner Fellow Sara Peters' I BECOME A DELIGHT TO MY ENEMIES is a dark and cutting work of experimental fiction. Coursed through with bright flashes of humour, crystalline imagery, and razor-sharp detail, it uses many different voices and forms to tell the stories of the women who live in an uncanny town, uncovering their experiences of shame, fear, cruelty, and transcendence.

Two-time National Magazine Award finalist Anshuman Iddamsetty's as-yet-untitled non-fiction debut will be a blazing pursuit of a future for the fat body. Blending cultural criticism with unsparing memoir, Iddamsetty speaks to furries and feeders, fat activists and sex workers, asking himself what, if anything, can truly repair a culture that ruthlessly deploys the spectre of his body to mask systemic injustice.

Both deals were arranged by agent Martha Webb at CookeMcDermid.

Penguin Random House Canada president and publisher Kristin Cochrane said: "After five years of successful online publishing, it's a great pleasure to see Hazlitt expand its reach. We're all excited to see where Strange Light takes us as it pushes the boundaries of our publishing."

SOURCE Penguin Random House Canada Limited

Erin Kelly at [email protected] or 416-928-2403. Web: www.strangelight.com | Instagram: @strangelightbooks | Twitter: @strangelight_ | Facebook: @stangelightbooks