WAKE THE WILD CREATURES: My New Novel Is Coming

Announcing What's New

I have dreamed of the moment when the novel I've been working on for so long would feel "real" to me. Being an author in the traditional publishing industry has made me skeptical, justifiably cautious, distrusting. I've been waiting for this particular book to feel "real" for quite some time. Real enough to speak about in concrete terms. Real enough to confidently announce the title and publication season. Real enough to believe it will make it to bookstore shelves. Real enough to share with people like you.

That moment may be here—or, at least, I've decided to claim it. Today, on a full moon (a blue supermoon, in fact), I'm sharing my book with all of you:

My new novel, Wake the Wild Creatures, is coming Summer 2025 from Little, Brown!

The contract may well have been signed some time ago, but the deal announcement just appeared Publishers Weekly:

Elise Howard while at Algonquin Young Readers bought, in an exclusive submission, Wake the Wild Creatures by Nova Ren Suma; Alvina Ling will edit at Little, Brown.* This contemporary, fabulist YA novel tells the story of Talia Lasker who is ripped away from her isolated all-women community in the mountains after her mother is captured and arrested. With all paths back mysteriously unreachable, Talia must uncover who betrayed her community and brave the sinister world outside to find her way home. Publication is slated for summer 2025; Michael Bourret at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret did the deal for world rights.

(*Some context about the publishing situation, and to give credit where credit is due: My long-time publisher Algonquin Young Readers is closing. The deal announcement doesn't explain, but I do want to clarify that Elise Howard and I did get to finish our editorial work together, even after she left the company and became a literary agent! I also had brief opportunities to work with two other editors at Algonquin YR. Now moving forward Little, Brown will publish the book and help it reach readers. I'm grateful—to Cheryl Klein especially, and to Krestyna Lypen, and to Stacy Lellos. Algonquin Young Readers has my forever love for giving me such a caring home for so long. I'm heartbroken at the loss of such a beautiful imprint. Now I count myself as lucky to have landed where I did.)

There! The words are out. Can I allow myself to believe I have a book about to be published? It's not so easy...

25 Truths About the Novel

Back to Wake the Wild Creatures, which by the time it comes out will be my first novel in seven years.

There is so much to tell you—about the process of writing this book... about how I lost my way and broke apart during the writing of it... about how I found my way back to myself, adapted, grew thicker skin, came out stronger.

When I signed the contract for this book deal, I was with a publisher that will soon no longer exist. I was working with an editor who is no longer an editor in this industry. I was teaching in an MFA program on a campus that has since closed. I was living in a city I no longer live in, a city I'd called home for almost twenty years. I had close friends I thought would stay in my life for a long time. I had not yet stumbled down any stairs. I thought my world was steady and there were things, people, situations I could count on. I was about to find out, as many of us have in recent years, how very untrue this was. And all the while the book I was writing walked and sometimes sputtered alongside me.

In the coming months I'll share what went into the writing of this novel and some of the tumult that caught me up on the way. I'll also share what inspired the book, how the research bloomed, and what influenced me as I crafted this story. And I'll hope to entice you into reading Wake the Wild Creatures when the time comes.

In the meantime, I'll offer these 25 truths about the novel:

1) This was a novel from a blank contract.

2) This was a novel that once had two voices and now has one.

3) This was a novel proposed to my publisher in another time, when I thought I was a certain kind of writer I may no longer be anymore, and when the industry looked very different than what it has become now.

4) This was the novel that broke me more than any other novels I've written. (How ironic to think I'd survived the worst with previous books, that I wrote posts about that experience and gave talks at conferences... oh how we look back and laugh at ourselves.)

5) After all that, this is the novel I think I love the most.

6) This is the novel I always knew would be beautiful even when it felt like other people couldn't see what it could become.

7) This is the novel that made me want to give up on publishing books entirely.

8) This is the novel that made me love writing again.

9) This is the novel that made me question if I am still a YA author, ironically while I was teaching creative writing courses on writing YA novels. This mind-numbing contradiction kept me up at night.

10) Yet this novel is YA.

11) And this novel is "YA."

12) And this novel is simply a novel for anyone who wants to read it, no matter your age.

13) I appreciate that about this novel, how it reaches in many directions and wants to be many things. I believe this novel will find you where you are.

14) This novel expresses my alienation. Yet this novel also reveals a glimmer of hope. That, to me, is very YA in the truest of ways.

15) This is the novel idea I had after the 2016 election.

16) This is the novel that saw me through the pandemic.

17) This is the novel that taught me to never get comfortable in publishing: As soon as you relax and think you're on steady ground, think again.

18) This is the novel that began in a notebook on a remote mountain on the West Coast, though it's about a place hidden in the mountains of the East Coast.

19) This novel hovered inside me for years until I had the time to devote to it.

20) This novel is not a ghost story, by the way.

21) This novel is not horror. I say that plainly because well-meaning people have made that assumption.

22) This novel doesn't want to fit into any easily identifiable genre, but I can't call it realism either.

23) Because what is "real" anyway? Is this novel real now? Does writing this post make it so?

24) This is the novel that changed me, irrevocably. The person who started this novel is not the person standing here today.

25) This novel is more than 92,000 words long. I meant every single one.

Stick with me in this newsletter and I'll share much more about this novel. Comments are open to all subscribers, if you have requests for what you'd like to see from me here.

Premium Content for Writers

The Words Around Us is first and foremost an author newsletter. My plan, barring any unforeseen circumstances, is that subscribers will get a monthly email from me on every full moon as we move toward the release of Wake the Wild Creatures. (The opening scene of the novel begins on a full moon, and so shall we.)

But there's more! I'm also adding premium content for writers!

If you're a fellow writer seeking a way to delve into craft and kick-start your creativity every month, read on...

A Writer Membership to this site is a paid premium subscription that will give you access to bonus creative content including:

1. A new writing prompt on the first of every month and opportunities to discuss and share your experience in the comments
2. Bonus posts focused on topics like writing craft, creativity, or the writing life
3. The occasional personal post in which I'll open a window into my own writing practice and share the process of writing a novel for adults for the first time in many years (as well as my other projects!)
4. Extra opportunities to enter signed book giveaways exclusive only to members
5. And perhaps best of all, a special invitation to a seasonal prompt-writing hour live in Zoom... I'll host the first prompt hour on Sunday, October 27 starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, and this generative writing opportunity is only for premium subscribers to this newsletter

The plan would be to host prompt hours every season—fall 2024, winter 2025, spring 2025, and summer 2025—and as a premium subscriber you would have an invite to each one.

If you want to be a part of this, you can upgrade your subscription on newsletter.novaren.com.

And if you are already signed up (yay, thank you, I'm delighted!), expect an introductory post in August and the first writing prompt on September 1!

Questions? Email nova@novaren.com.

Recent News

• I'm thrilled to have a new short story in the YA horror anthology The House Where Death Lives, edited by Alex Brown and published by Page Street this month. The collected stories feature various frights and take on a different room inside a haunted house that defies all sense of order and logic. My story takes place in the library of this unsettling house... except the library holds something other than books. How horrifying. Order your copy now!
• There are still spots open in my Crafting the Young Adult Novel online asynchronous class with 24PearlStreet, the online home of Fine Arts Work Center. Register now to join my upcoming cohort that starts November 11. The course is four weeks long and comes with a private Zoom conference with me!
• If you're curious about what happened with Algonquin Young Readers after what I mentioned above, this article in Publishers Weekly explains.
• Stay subscribed to this newsletter for more announcements about Wake the Wild Creatures, including a cover reveal, giveaways for signed copies, a pre-order link, and more.

Thank you once more for being here as I welcome Wake the Wild Creatures into the world.

Sign up for The Words Around Us

Official newsletter of author Nova Ren Suma

Subscribe

Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.