We are delighted to announce that Oneworld’s Rock the Boat imprint has acquired the UK rights to AND THE RIVER DRAGS YOU DOWN, the YA debut from award-winning poet Jihyun Yun in a two-book deal at auction. AND THE RIVER DRAGS YOU DOWN was acquired by Rock the Boat’s Senior Commissioning Editor Katie Jennings from Catherine Cho at Paper Literary on behalf of Annie Hwang and Serene Hakim at Ayesha Pande Literary.
The book is a Gothic YA inspired by a ghost story from Korean folklore about two sisters – one who dies under mysterious circumstances, and the other who brings her back, with devastating consequences. Pitched as SHE IS A HAUNTING meets THE ASTONISHING COLOUR OF AFTER, by way of THE GIRL WHO FELL BENEATH THE SEA.
Katie Jennings said: “I’ve been searching far and wide for a voice-led, multilayered Gothic tale and I’m beyond thrilled to be publishing Jihyun Yun’s unsettling, gorgeously written and deeply moving YA debut on the Rock the Boat list. Jihyun Yun is a rare talent and her unique, poetic voice, coupled with a raw, honest approach to grief really got under my skin. This is the spookiest and saddest of books – in the best possible way. I can’t wait to bring it to the broadest readership here in the UK.”
Jihyun Yun is the author of the poetry collection SOME ARE ALWAYS HUNGRY (University of Nebraska Press, 2020). Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, AAWW
The Margins, Adroit Journal, NinthLetter, and elsewhere. A National Poetry Series finalist and Prairie Schooner Prize winner, Yun holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and has been a fellow at the Fulbright Research Program, Brooklyn Poets, Lighthouse Writers Workshop among others.
Rock the Boat will publish AND THE RIVER DRAGS YOU DOWN simultaneously with Knopf Books for Young Readers in the US in autumn 2025.
We are delighted to have represented this project in the UK, many congratulations to Jihyun!