Press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

HarperCollinsCanada is excited to have acquired world, all-language rights to Where Do You Keep Your Feelings?, a picture book about emotional intelligence and mindfulness by Catherine Hernandez, the author of the acclaimed novels Crosshairs and Scarborough. The picture book is set for publication in winter 2022. Hernandez said of the acquisition, “When quarantine began, I hosted daily storytimes on my Facebook fan page to give tired parents respite for fifteen to thirty minutes. One day was particularly trying when the immensity of the pandemic’s impact and civil unrest was starting to take shape in our collective consciousness. I guided the kiddos in an exercise that had them pointing to where their feelings lived, coaxing them from their hiding places and allowing those feelings to safely express themselves. It was as much to comfort the kids as it was to comfort the parents. I am honoured that this humble exercise has inspired this commissioned children’s book from HarperCollinsCanada. Teaching this next generation of readers how to be in their bodies and compassionate towards themselves will be essential learning as we survive these scary times.”

Where Do You Keep Your Feelings? was inspired by Hernandez’s presentation during the virtual #KidLit4BlackLivesCanada rally, hosted by author Nadia L. Hohn and A Different Booklist Cultural Centre. The picture book was commissioned by HarperCollinsCanada and touches on themes of emotional intelligence, acceptance and mindfulness. Children’s books senior editor Suzanne Sutherland said of Where Do You Keep Your Feelings?, “In these times, it is such a welcome comfort to be in the hands of a gifted and empathetic storyteller. With her latest picture book, Where Do You Keep Your Feelings?, Catherine Hernandez brings her irresistible energy and compassion to young readers in an imaginative way that will help them better understand their world and themselves.”

CATHERINE HERNANDEZ is a proud queer woman of colour, a radical mother, a theatre practitioner, an award-winning author and the outgoing artistic director of b current performing arts. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian heritage, and she is married into the Navajo Nation. Her novel Scarborough, which is soon to be a motion picture, won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award for the unpublished manuscript; was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Edmund White Award and the Trillium Book Award; and was longlisted for Canada Reads. She has also written the plays Singkil and Kilt Pins, as well as the children’s books M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book and I Promise. Crosshairs is her most recent novel. She lives in Toronto.

Hernandez is represented by the Transatlantic Agency. The book deal was brokered by Marilyn Biderman, senior literary agent at Transatlantic Agency.

About HarperCollins Publishers:

Known worldwide for the quality of its list, HarperCollinsCanada is the proud home of many bestselling authors, including Kenneth Oppel, Dennis Lee, Brian Francis, Louisa Onomé, Esi Edugyan, Emma Donoghue, Heather O’Neill, Lawrence Hill, Kamal Al-Solaylee, Mark Sakamoto, Ayelet Tsabari, Emily St. John Mandel, Tracey Lindberg, Tara Westover, Hilary Mantel, Rachel Cusk, Anthony Horowitz, Uzma Jalaluddin, Kim Fu, Carrianne Leung, Ellen Keith, Jael Richardson, Helen Humphreys and Thomas King, among many more found at harpercollins.ca.

HarperCollins Publishers is the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 17 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 16 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and the Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.