IVP Academic Signs Poet, Four Theologians
Poet, priest and professor Malcolm Guite, once described by Christianity Today as a songwriter and poet for ‘bruised evangelicals,’ has signed a world-rights, three-book deal with IVP Academic’s Zachary Gordon for the tentatively titled series Classic Poetry with Malcolm Guite. The first volume, tentatively titled How to Read Poetry, is projected to release in fall 2028. The second, tentatively titled George Herbert and John Donne, is scheduled for fall 2029. The third, currently untitled volume is set fall 2030.
The first volume in the series will introduce readers to poetry through a close reading of seven classic poems. Subsequent volumes will cover such topics as early English poetry, Romanticism, and the sonnet; all will include study guides and discussion prompts. Guite, who is unagented, is chaplain at Girton College at the University of Cambridge, where he also teaches on the faculty of Divinity.
In addition, project editor Rachel Hastings of IVP Academic has contracted with four editors for a second edition of Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, one of the imprint’s foundational reference works. The unagented editors are Shane J. Wood, Madison N. Pierce, Dennis R. Edwards and Michael F. Bird, all of whom are leaders and lecturers at universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad. Originally published in 1997, the new edition is tentatively scheduled for spring 2032.
Image’s Burdette Acquires Pair of Authors
Matthew Burdette, editor at Image, an imprint of Penguin Random House Christian, has acquired world rights to The End of Sex by Abigail Favale (The Genesis of Gender). The author, a professor at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, argues that modern thinking about sex is caught between a rules-based moral code and an unsustainable consumerist sexual culture. Favale calls for recovering a sacramental view of the body and sex rooted in Catholic teaching, which offers a positive approach to sex, according to the publisher. Keely Boeving of WordServe Literary negotiated the deal; the book is scheduled for fall 2027.
Image’s Burdette also took world rights to Tsh Oxenreider's newest untitled work from Anjanette Barr at Dunham Literary, for publication in fall 2026. Oxenrider's book will address her conversion to Catholicism, alternating between the author’s experiences and her theological reflections in concerns and questions of evangelicals and Catholics, challenging the problems of evangelical Protestantism without engaging in triumphalism or chauvinism, said the publisher.
Amen Editions Signs Podcaster’s Devotional
Kate Zimmermann, executive editor at Amen Editions, an imprint of Andrews McMeel, bought world rights from Keely Boeving at WordServe Literary to Pray It Out, a devotional by Best Day Ever podcast host Katy McCown, a writer for Proverbs 31 Ministries. The 40-day interactive prayer devotional invites women to stop striving to handle everything on their own and to let God refresh and ready them for whatever comes their way. The book is scheduled for summer 2026.
Broadleaf Chooses a Unique ‘UnDevotional’
Valerie Weaver-Zercher, acquisitions editor at Broadleaf Books, bought world rights from Keely Boeving of WordServe Literary to The UnDevotional: Spiritual Practices for Those Who are Over It by pastor and podcaster Courtney Ellis (Looking Up). With wisdom from the natural world, theology, literature, Scripture, music, and the arts, Ellis offers readers 52 devotions rooted in a new paradigm for spiritual growth based on wonder, welcome, and delighting in God, according to the publisher. The book is planned for early 2027.
