FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Penguin acquires first novel from East Coast filmmaker

July 23, 2007 — Nicole Winstanley, Senior Fiction Editor at Penguin Group (Canada), has acquired Canadian English-language rights to an arresting first novel by East Coast Filmmaker Shandi Mitchell. The literary debut, The Skins of Men and Wolves, was purchased by Winstanley from literary agent Suzanne Brandreth in a substantial pre-emptive bid.

The novel, set in the Prairies of the 1930’s, is the emotionally affecting story of the Mykolyshens, an unforgettable family of fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sisters and brothers, new to Canada and struggling not to be defeated by the harsh and unforgiving land. In their final year together, as they desperately till the earth and preserve food, they are soon pitted against each other, including a mother against her newborn. The story of struggle, survival, and the resiliency of the human spirit conjures easy comparisons to works by David Adams Richards and W.O. Mitchell.

Shandi Mitchell’s first film, Gasoline Puddles, was a NSI Drama Prize recipient. She went on to partner with Emotion Pictures on the films Cherries, The Hanging Garden, and Beefcake. Her script for Baba’s House, a half-hour television drama, won several awards, including a CBC Script Development Award, The Women in Film and Television’s Filmmakers Award, and the WIFT-CBC Writers Award. Baba’s House was broadcast nationally and garnered awards for Best Cinematography, Best Original Short Drama, Best Script, Best Drama, Best Canadian Short, and Best Art Direction, along with two Gemini nominations. Mitchell’s most recent short, "Tell Me," was commissioned by the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, opened at the Toronto International Film Festival and has screened at major festivals across the country.

Winstanley, who brought Joseph Boyden’s award winning novel Three Day Road to Penguin, said: “As soon as I read the first page of The Skins of Men and Wolves, I knew I was in the hands of a very gifted storyteller. Shandi has created a cast of unforgettable characters, a story with great depth, wisdom, and power, and she has balanced it all with an addictive pace. I read it in one sitting and then wanted to read it all over again when I was done.”

Literary agent Suzanne Brandreth, partner in The Cooke Agency, said “The Skins of Men and Wolves is one of those rare novels whose strength of storytelling makes it both quintessentially Canadian and utterly universal, and I was delighted by the immediate and passionate response it garnered from Nicole and her colleagues at Penguin. From Nicole’s first conversation with the author, it was absolutely clear that we had found the perfect editor, champion, and publishing home for Shandi.”

THE SKINS OF MEN AND WOLVES will be published in August 2009.