HarperCollins Children’s Books has acquired world rights to YA verse novel Not Black Enough by Hayden Green in a two-book deal after an enthusiastic four-way auction.
Drawn from the author’s life, the debut explores “Aboriginal identity, race, masculinity and survival” and “asks who gets to belong, and who gets to decide”, said the publisher.
Green is “a proud Aboriginal man from the Darug and Gundungurra Mobs [who] has worked extensively in community, mentoring and advocacy roles supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people navigating education, employment and wellbeing systems”. His writing is grounded in lived experience, “particularly around identity, cultural visibility, burnout, and survival within institutions not designed for Aboriginal people”.