HarperCollins on a shopping spree. (Deals).

Five major publishers tossed in bids for the rights to We Wear the Mask: The Life and Times of Hattie McDaniel by Dr. Jill Watts. HarperCollins ultimately prevailed. We Wear the Mask will be released under the Amistad Press imprint. As the new executive editor of HarperCollins and editorial director of Amistad Press, Dawn Davis acquired rights to Bijah and Lucy: Love Beyond Slavery in Old New England by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. James Earl Hardy, author of The Day Eazy-E Died and the B-Boy Blues series, signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins (Manie Barron penned this deal before leaving HarperCollins for the William Morris Agency). Hardy's next book, Love the One You're With, his fifth in the B-Boy Blues series, will be released on The Amistad Press imprint in June 2002. John McGregor of JMG Books was the agent. HarperCollins editor Kelli Martin acquired well-known feminist writer bell hooks's next book for the William Morrow imprint. The book entitled Soul to Soul is about blacks and self-esteem. Communion, the third volume in hooks's "Love Trilogy" is now available in stores. Martin also acquired Nikki Giovanni's collection of new and original poems for the William Morrow imprint. Giovanni has been published by Morrow for over 30 years; her poems first appeared during the 1970s.

Audra Barrett of Barrett Books sold the book club rights of Tony Lindsay's One Dead Preacher to Black Expressions Book Club. Lindsay's next book, Prayer of Prey, is scheduled for release in March 2002 by BlackWords. Striver's Row/Villard editor Melody Guy acquired Harlem, the next novel from Kuwana Haulsey, whose debut novel The Red Moon, was released by Villard in August 2001 to glowing reviews (see BIBR November-December 2001, page 56). Guy also acquired Gabrielle Pina's debut novel, Bliss, about a African-American violinist with a secret past, and Hair Rules, a hair care guide for women with ethnic/non-straight hair by Sex and the City hairstylist Anthony Dickey. Hair Rules is scheduled for a summer 2003 release.