Forthcoming Fall 2026: THIS VITAL ABSENCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Strange Object acquires Sophia Veltfort’s This Vital Absence

DALLAS, TX — Deep Vellum imprint A Strange Object has acquired North American English rights to This Vital Absence by Sophia Veltfort, from Julie Flanagan at Creative Arts Agency. Pitched as akin to Strangers on a Train and Walking on the Ceiling in its psychological intensity, This Vital Absence follows one woman’s obsessive search for her biological father and her complicated relationship with the shadowy father figure who emerges. In propulsive prose, Veltfort probes questions of inheritance and intimacy, the allure of obsession, and misunderstandings that shape our lives.

“This Vital Absence is a walloping fun and daring read,” says Jill Meyers, editor of A Strange Object. “It draws you in immediately. It’s spiky, subversive, and full of surprises.” 

Sophia Veltfort grew up in New York City with her two moms, three cats, and four avocado plants. Her fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Writer’s Digest online (first place, Annual Writing Competition), the Santa Monica Review, Narrative online (30 Below Contest finalist), the Chicago Tribune online (Nelson Algren finalist), Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction has appeared in Harvard Review and been selected as a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays. After graduating from Yale, she studied on a Marshall Scholarship at Oxford and the University of East Anglia, then completed a Joint MFA / PhD at Cornell. She currently teaches creative writing at Yale.

This Vital Absence is slated to be published in November 2026.

A Strange Object is an imprint dedicated to publishing surprising, heartbreaking fiction alongside thoughtful works of nonfiction. Co-founded by editor Jill Meyers, A Strange Object champions books that haunt and inspire—big works that engulf, that take risks, that buck form, that build warm dwellings in dark places.

Deep Vellum is a nonprofit publishing house and literary arts organization with the mission to bring the world into conversation through literature. Founded in 2013 in Dallas, TX, Deep Vellum has expanded to encompass five distinct publishing imprints and is now the largest publisher of translated literature in the United States.

For press inquiries, contact Nadine Santoro: nadine@deepvellum.org.
For rights inquiries, contact Sarah McEachern: sm@deepvellum.org.