EXCLUSIVE: Hawthorn Books & Literary Arts, the indie publisher of memoir The Chronology of Water, has been acquired by the Catapult Book Group.
Chronology has gained attention recently due to Kristen Stewart‘s film adaptation, her debut as a director, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes last May.
Catapult is an independent publishing collective created by the founders of Electric Literature and Black Balloon Publishing. It encompasses the Catapult, Counterpoint Press, Soft Skull Press, and Hawthorne Books imprints and operates within Unlikely Collaborators, the nonprofit founded by Elizabeth R. Koch. Catapult authors have received recognition including the International Booker Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, National Book Critics Circle Award, and have been finalists for National Book Awards.
The film version of Chronology of Water, based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, is the portrait of a woman who, after an abusive childhood, escapes into competitive swimming, sexual experimentation, toxic relationships, and addiction before finding her voice through writing. Imogen Poots plays Yuknavitch, with the cast also including Jim Belushi, Thora Birch, Charlie Carrick, Susannah Flood, Kim Gordon, and Tom Sturridge.
Following its Cannes bow, the film has been sold internationally by Paris-based Les Films du Losange. The BFI will release the film in the UK and Ireland and The Forge will release it in the U.S.
As part of the deal, distribution for Hawthorne Books will move from Publishers Group West to Catapult’s distributor, Penguin Random House. Hawthorne will continue to publish new releases, with its first acquisition scheduled for fall 2026.
“We were immediately drawn to how closely Hawthorne’s sensibility mirrors our own,” Catapult Publisher Alyson Forbes said in an announcement of the deal. “Hawthorne has long published writers who probe beneath the surface of experience, work that echoes Catapult’s mission to illuminate complexity and broaden perspective. Bringing our lists together strengthens our shared commitment to stories that resonate on both an emotional and reflective level and ensures readers have more opportunities to discover writing that is insightful and meaningful.”
Hawthorne Books was founded in 2001 by Publisher and Executive Editor Rhonda Hughes. The deal brings Catapult a well-regarded backlist including titles like Poe Ballantine’s Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere; Frank Meeink and Jody M. Roy’s Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead; and Sidney Morrison’s recent novel Frederick Douglass.
Hughes will stay on with Catapult, serving as Contributing Editor for Hawthorne Books, acquiring on behalf of the imprint and reporting to group Editorial Director Dan Smetanka.
“Having Hawthorne become an imprint alongside such esteemed publishers as Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press – and having the opportunity to work with the remarkable Catapult team – is both a joy and an honor for me and for our authors,” Hughes said in a statement. “This new chapter has reaffirmed my deep appreciation for the art and spirit of publishing.”