Unpublished Kurt Vonnegut collection coming in November

Publishers Weekly is reporting that Delacorte Press is going to publish Look at the Birdie, a collection of 14 brand new Kurt Vonnegut stories, in November. Donald C. Farber, Vonnegut's agent and co-executor of his estate, managed the deal for world rights.

Look at the Birdie will include original Vonnegut illustrations and a foreword by Sidney Offit, who was a longtime friend of Vonnegut and is currently the curator of the George Polk Awards in Journalism. Bantam Dell Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Nita Taublib and Editor Kerri Buckley put the collection together. Taublib said, "Considered independently, these are 14 exceptionally intricate short pieces by an author whose voice we miss immensely. Taken together, they give the reader a clear sense of Kurt Vonnegut's development into one of the most beloved and original American writers of all time."

In addition to the new book, Delacorte will reissue 15 of Vonnegut's backlist titles in new packages featuring artwork by Vonnegut. Reissues expected before Look at the Birdie include Galápagos, Mother Night, The Sirens of Titan, and Slaughterhouse Five. Delacorte also expects to bring out another collection of Vonnegut's unpublished writings, as well as a book of letters sent to and from the author over the course of his life. And in more Vonnegut news, Delacorte has purchased a follow-up memoir by Vonnegut's son, pediatrician Mark Vonnegut, who wrote The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity in 1975.

Vonnegut died in April 2007; see this obituary.