VERVE Editorial Director Jenna Gordon has acquired UK & Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Alice Rogers’ atmospheric debut Virtue from Kiya Evans at Paper Literary. Described as ‘True Grit by way of Sarah Waters’, Virtue is set in the dying days of the Wild West and transforms beloved Western tropes in a distinctly queer voice. VERVE will publish the novel as a Paperback Original and eBook in May 2027.
A powerful exploration of gender, found family and identity, Virtue introduces the inimitable character of Clementine Hollow, who is forced to escape her family ranch after the violent murder of her brother. Disguised as a boy in her dead brother’s clothes, Clem sets out on the open plains, taking with her the money his killers are chasing. For the first time in her life she’s alone in the world, until she meets seasoned cowboy Connie Glass. Connie takes Clem under his wing and teaches her the skills she needs to survive, travelling through the mining towns of New Mexico and eventually ending up in a small haven called Virtue.
There, as Connie settles back into old habits, Clem finally finds a sense of belonging – and maybe even a chance at love. But she soon discovers what Connie already knows well: the past isn’t so easy to leave behind and where cowboys go, trouble always follows.
Alice Rogers is a Welsh writer currently living in Scotland. In 2020 she graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a First Class degree in Creative Writing. In her free time, she enjoys collecting antiques, watching Seinfeld and walking loops of botanical gardens.
Rogers says, ‘My debut is a love letter to Westerns – to their settings, their stakes, their tropes, their characters – but subverted, made distinctly queer. From the beginning, Jenna and the team at VERVE have understood exactly what I wanted to do with the genre, and I couldn’t be happier or more excited for Virtue to have found its home with them.’
Gordon adds, ‘Rogers brings a distinct voice to the Western genre, in a story that is preoccupied by what it takes to be a cowboy and the circumstances that might draw a person into that way of life. Virtue heralds the arrival of a remarkable new voice in fiction and sits assuredly alongside novels such as Tipping the Velvet and How Much of These Hills is Gold.’