Weidenfeld & Nicolson snaps up ‘startling’ debut short story collection by award-winning YA author Moira Fowley

The debut short story collection by award-winning YA author Moïra Fowley has gone to W&N.

Federico Andornino, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, for Eyes Guts Throat Bones from Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge & White.

A collection of short stories about queer, female bodies and the end of the world, the publisher says Eyes Guts Throat Bones “offers a new lens on the female body, on sex, death, love and what makes us who we are”.

The synopsis reads: “What will the end of the world look like? Will it be an old man slowly turned to gold, flowers raining from the sky, or a hole cut through the wire fencing that keeps the monsters out? Is it someone you love wearing your face, or a good old-fashioned interdimensional summoning? Does it sound like a howl outside the window, or does it look like coming home?

“This startling and irresistibly witty collection from the phenomenally talented Moïra Fowley is an exploration of all our darkest impulses and deepest fears.”

Andornino said: “Reading Eyes Guts Throat Bones was a visceral, mind-bending experience. Moïra’s stories are weird and wonderful and feel like a real punch in the gut.

“They explore romantic love, sexuality, motherhood, first love, adolescence and grief in an utterly original way, while focusing on the consoling power of hope amid the darkness of our times. These stories are a major achievement and I feel so lucky that I get to introduce Moïra Fowley to a whole new group of readers.”

Fowley is the author of three YA novels, including The Accident Season (Corgi Children’s), which was shortlisted for the 2015 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and The North East Teen Book Awards, nominated for the Carnegie Medal and won the inaugural School Library Association of Ireland Great Reads Award.

Her second novel, Spellbook of the Lost and Found (Corgi Children’s), was shortlisted for the 2017 Irish Book Awards and her third, All the Bad Apples (Penguin), was shortlisted for the 2019 Irish Book Awards and the Children’s Books Ireland awards 2020. She is also one of the contributors to Stripes Books’ Proud anthology (2019), compiled by Juno Dawson. Eyes Guts Throat Bones is her first book for adults.

She said: “This book began in the forest and I wasn’t sure it would ever come out of it. When Ireland went into lockdown in March 2020, I was writing the first draft of a YA novel, but between homeschooling my two children and navigating the end of the world, it just wasn’t working. So one morning I walked into the forest with a notebook and the first story of this collection came bleeding out.

“I surprised myself, writing about all the ways a world can end. About bodies and horror, home and hunger. I didn’t know where all of these horrible love stories would end up, but I couldn’t stop writing. I’m thrilled that Eyes Guts Throat Bones has found a home with W&N. Federico saw immediately where these stories were going, and I could not have found a better editor for my first adult book. I am so excited to see this collection find its way out of the forest and into the world.”