--- title: The 16 Spring 2027 Books Left Uncertain by Catapult's Closure, Title by Title description: Catapult Book Group ended operations on 30th October. The full list of 16 new spring 2027 titles, what an asset sale means and what readers can do. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-03T10:00:55.013Z updated: 2026-11-03T10:00:55.041Z canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/catapult-closure-spring-2027-books image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-5009160.webp categories: Reading Lists, Fiction content_type: Guide region: United States publication: Rich Books about: - type: Organization name: Catapult Book Group description: Independent publishing group whose imprints were Catapult, Counterpoint Press, Soft Skull Press and Hawthorne Books. It ended operations on 30th October 2026 ahead of an asset sale. url: https://books.catapult.co industry: Book publishing --- Catapult Book Group, the independent publisher behind the Catapult, Counterpoint Press, Soft Skull Press and Hawthorne Books imprints, stopped operating on 30th October. Its owner is selling the company's assets to a buyer who has not been named, and the sale may take several more weeks to complete. Sixteen new books on the group's spring 2027 list, due between January and April, now wait on a decision that nobody outside the deal can see. The group's own spring 2027 catalog, published in August, lists every one of them. The full list is below, month by month, with the dates the publisher gave before the closure. ## How the closure happened in nine days On 21st October, the Catapult union confirmed to Publishers Lunch that owner and chief executive Elizabeth Koch was selling the company, with operations winding down on 30th October. The sale covers the company's assets only, and the union said staff were told that continued employment with the buyer was not an option. The staff had voted to join UAW Local 2110 in June. On the final day of operations, the company and the union agreed severance terms: every union member gets at least ten weeks of severance, and employees with more than a year at the company get at least twelve, with health insurance premiums paid through the end of the year. Catapult was founded in 2015 by Koch and Andy Hunter, who now runs Bookshop.org. It merged with Counterpoint and Soft Skull in 2016 and bought Hawthorne Books, founded in Portland, Oregon in 2001, in November 2025, eleven months before the closure. Its authors have won an International Booker Prize, an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and a National Book Critics Circle Award. ## What an asset sale means for books already under contract In an asset sale, the buyer normally takes the imprint names, the backlist and the existing author contracts. Publisher Brooke Warner, who shared an office with Counterpoint founder Jack Shoemaker in the 2000s, set out the buyer's choices on her Substack: keep the imprints running, fold them into its own divisions, move the strongest backlist titles into its own imprints, or keep the names and publish nothing under them. Warner also read a 2020 Counterpoint contract and found no clause that let the author end the agreement. If those terms are typical across the group, authors cannot take their books elsewhere simply because they dislike the buyer. For the spring 2027 titles, the buyer can decide whether to publish each book under its existing contract. Publishers Weekly reported on 30th October that the spring titles were still open for preorder on the imprints' websites. That tells readers the listings are live. It does not tell them the dates will hold. ## The 16 new books on the spring 2027 list ### January 2027 **5th January.** The Ones Who Loved You by Maureen O'Leary (Counterpoint), a debut novel about a young woman made to heal the sick by touch as a child. **12th January.** The River Drowns the Able Swimmer by Xujun Eberlein (Catapult), a memoir of three generations of Chinese women. **19th January.** Island of the Bird-Folk by Kiyoko Murata, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Counterpoint), the Tanizaki Prize-winning novel about the last two residents of an island near Japan's border. **26th January.** A Handful of Arrows by María Gainza, translated by Thomas Bunstead (Catapult), essays that follow works of art from a stolen Cézanne to a painting said to be cursed. ### Due in January - [The Ones Who Loved You](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640097940) by Maureen O'Leary - [The River Drowns the Able Swimmer](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646223374) by Xujun Eberlein - [Island of the Bird-Folk](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640097407) by Kiyoko Murata - [A Handful of Arrows](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646222940) by María Gainza ### February 2027 **2nd February.** Birds of War by Natashia Deón (Counterpoint), a novel that puts a young Black woman on a Normandy beach on D-Day. **16th February.** Untranslatable by Lara Vergnaud (Catapult), a memoir by the translator whose English version of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's Pure Men is a [finalist for this month's National Book Award](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/national-book-award-2026-translated-literature). **23rd February.** The Vanishing Act by Eoin Connolly (Catapult), a debut tragicomedy about a copywriter with a talking cat who decides to disappear. ### Due in February - [Birds of War](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640098190) by Natashia Deón - [Untranslatable](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646223794) by Lara Vergnaud - [The Vanishing Act](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646223633) by Eoin Connolly ### March 2027 **2nd March.** The Love an Abalone Feels for the Sea by Genki Ferguson (Counterpoint), about a boy in a Japanese fishing village who works with a free diver to find out why his sister drowned. **9th March.** All of Us Wildflowers by Tria Wen (Counterpoint), a memoir built from her late mother's journals. Wen wrote on her Substack, the day after she heard the news, that she does not yet know how the closure will affect her book. **16th March.** The Kettle by Elwood Reid (Counterpoint), his first novel in more than a decade, a Western about two brothers riding west after the gang that burned their family's farm. **23rd March.** Sensual World by Lauren Friedlander (Catapult), a campus gothic set in an avant-garde acting school. **30th March.** Tongue by Kathryn Crowcroft (Catapult), a cultural history of the human tongue that turns into a memoir. ### Due in March - [The Love an Abalone Feels for the Sea](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640098237) by Genki Ferguson - [All of Us Wildflowers](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640098268) by Tria Wen - [The Kettle](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640098213) by Elwood Reid - [Sensual World](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646223527) by Lauren Friedlander - [Tongue](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646224029) by Kathryn Crowcroft ### April 2027 **6th April.** A Saltwater Requiem by Danny Ramadan (Counterpoint), about a Syrian family that books passage on the Titanic, drawn from the ship's real passenger manifest. **13th April.** Replace Me by Amber Husain (Catapult), an essay on the fear of being replaced at work, in love and in politics. **20th April.** Mobile Creatures by Deborah Reed, the only Hawthorne Books title on the list, about a widow starting again in Berlin. **27th April.** Rose by Oksana Vasyakina, translated by Elina Alter (Catapult), the last book in her autofiction trilogy. ### Due in April - [A Saltwater Requiem](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640098350) by Danny Ramadan - [Replace Me](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646224050) by Amber Husain - [Mobile Creatures](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9798993660240) by Deborah Reed - [Rose](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781646223817) by Oksana Vasyakina ## Fourteen paperbacks were also on the schedule The same catalog lists fourteen paperback editions of earlier hardcovers for spring 2027. They include Partially Devoured, Daniel Kraus's book about Night of the Living Dead, due on 9th March. Kraus won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with [Angel Down](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/angel-down-pulitzer-2026). ### Book: Partially Devoured *How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World* By Daniel Kraus Daniel Kraus's blend of research and memoir about the horror film Night of the Living Dead and its place in American history and culture. Paperback edition. [Waterstones](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/9781640098411) Books already in print are a separate matter from the spring list. The group's books are distributed by Penguin Random House, and none of the reporting so far says that any backlist title is being withdrawn. ## What to do if you preordered one of these books Keep your order confirmation and watch for messages from the shop that took your order, because the retailer, not the publisher, will tell you if a date moves or an order is cancelled. Follow the author directly: the first reliable news about any single title is likely to come from the author or their agent. If you want a book to reach shelves, ask your local bookshop or library to keep it on order. The next real update will be the buyer's name. Until then, the sixteen books above are a list of what was planned. *Sources: Publishers Lunch (21st and 30th October), Shelf Awareness (23rd October), Books of Brilliance (1st November), Brooke Warner, Writerly Things (25th October), Tria Wen's Substack (22nd October), Catapult Book Group Spring 2027 catalog.*