{"id":6548,"date":"2026-05-04T15:56:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=6548"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:26:46","slug":"announcement-wakefield-press-acquires-nicole-lenoir-jourdans-debut-ya-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2026\/05\/announcement-wakefield-press-acquires-nicole-lenoir-jourdans-debut-ya-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"ANNOUNCEMENT: Wakefield Press acquires Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan’s debut YA novel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wakefield Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of Australian and New Zealand rights to Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan\u2019s debut YA novel, Saltblood<\/em>, via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary. Publication of Saltblood<\/em> is expected in March 2027.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Find out more about this exciting debut below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In a coastal town split by postcode and privilege, sixteen-year-old Sheri Bung, checkout chick, westie, and outsider to the local surf elite, stumbles into the line-up carrying nothing but grief, a tuna treat, and a need to belong.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When her mother dies suddenly, Sheri uncovers a legacy of loss, a stillborn brother, and a buried passion for surfing that sends her hurtling toward the waves, and the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navigating class lines, tangled loyalties, and the brutal beauty of the ocean, Sheri trains for a local comp, not to win, but to carve her place \u2013 fierce, flawed, and finally free \u2013 in a world that never expected her to stand up, let alone ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of YA Maddy Sexton says, \u2018Sheri is everything I love in a character \u2013 she\u2019s compulsively readable, deeply human, and hiding a heart of gold under her spiky demeanour. Nicole\u2019s immersive writing style and uncanny knack for capturing the teen voice will have readers riding Sheri\u2019s wave all the way back to shore.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saltblood<\/em> creates an unfiltered intimacy with Sheri using a fluid style that rejects polish and convention, mirroring the ocean and the messy urgency of adolescence. Think Puberty Blues<\/em> meets Looking for Alibrandi<\/em> reimagined for a contemporary audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lenoir-Jourdan says, \u2018Puberty Blues got under my salt-crusted skin early and made itself comfortable. I briefly picked up a board as a teenager, then found surfing again at the age of thirty-nine. Addiction (as in surf addiction) followed, along with daily surfs and a pressing need to avoid the Spit Bridge traffic.\u00a0Thus, I moved my office from a Hyde Park view \u2013 \u2018westie\u2019, according to the warped cartography of Northern Beaches’ locals \u2013 to Manly on the insular peninsula.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018That surf rebirth became the seed of Saltblood<\/em>, a YA novel that explores the complexification of the female surf protagonist. Sheri has escaped the Chiko Roll queue, that deep-fried holding pen of Australian surf mythology, and paddled into the break, where belonging is hard-won, and seldom granted without a little blood in the water.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan<\/strong> is a PhD student under the supervision of Felicity Castagna and Rachel Morley at Western Sydney University. She is a casual academic at Macquarie and Western Sydney Universities and writes freelance for a number of publications. She has also studied at UTS under Andrew Pippos whom she credits for \u2018finding her voice\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author photograph by Jessica Hronos<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wakefield Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of Australian and New Zealand rights to Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan\u2019s debut YA novel, Saltblood, via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary. Publication of Saltblood is expected in March 2027. Find out more about this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Wakefield Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of ANZ rights to SALTBLOOD by Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan, via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Wakefield Press acquires Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan's debut YA novel","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[953,952,759],"tags":[780,955,954,987,890],"class_list":["post-6548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acquisitions","category-announcement","category-young-adult","tag-loveozya","tag-acquisitions","tag-debut-author","tag-debut-novel","tag-ya-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-1HC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6552,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548\/revisions\/6552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}