WordServe News February 2026

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” — Ernest Hemingway.

Our highlights below include new releases, contracts signed, notable reviews and PR events, new authors to the agency and other news of note by clients and agents.

Releases

Congratulations to Kevin Nye and Herald Press for the February 17th release of Hope for the Mission: Getting It Right in the Call to End Homelessness.

To end homelessness, we don’t have to choose between faith and facts. For over a century, the primary Christian ministry model for the unhoused in North America has been gospel rescue missions that offer shelter and food but prioritize evangelism over proven solutions. This approach often perpetuates homelessness rather than ending it.

In this inspiring and clarifying book, Kevin Nye highlights faith-based models that align with best practices, showing how churches and ministries can truly help end homelessness. Alongside critical evaluation of what groups have tended to get wrong, Nye shares hopeful stories about what’s going right. These exemplar organizations and churches illustrate how groups of all sizes can embody effective, evidence-based practices.

Hope for the Mission offers values to emulate and methods to embody as we follow Jesus toward solidarity with the unhoused. This book invites us to imagine a world where everyone has a home and equips us for the real mission before us: loving our unhoused neighbors in ways that lead to fullness and flourishing.

Congratulations to Courtney Ellis and IV Press for the February 17th release of Weathering Change: Seeking Peace Amid Life’s Tough Transitions.

If one thing is constant, it’s change.

You may know it’s coming, or it may be unexpected. It may be a change you anticipate with joy, like a new job, a wedding, or the birth of a baby. Or it may be a shift you fear or even grieve: moving to a new city, changes that come with aging, or a lost or broken relationship. No matter what kind of transition you are facing, change is difficult. How can you find peace and hope even when everything around you is shifting sand? How can your faith help you weather change?

Pastor Courtney Ellis has walked alongside countless people facing changes big and small, welcome and dreaded. She’s found that the same two questions come up again and again: Why is change so hard? And where is God amid these changes?

Weathering Change invites you to discover how God equips us to navigate life’s inevitable changes. Ellis offers rich spiritual reflections from God’s created world and from Scripture that help you prepare for change and show you how to journey through it with curiosity, adaptability, and resilience.

In Weathering Change you’ll

-Discover how you can navigate life’s disruptive changes, big or small, with grace and courage,
-Learn deep lessons from God’s creation about preparing for and adapting to change,
-Learn how to find hope and peace amid the challenges and hurts of change, and
-Use the included discussion questions to explore how these principles can be applied to your life in meaningful ways.

Ellis brings a unique perspective, blending theology, biblical narratives, personal insights, and stories from nature to illuminate how God remains present through times of transition. God’s “Second Book” of nature provides deep and abiding lessons to sustain us during tough transitions―lessons we can learn from nesting bald eagles, metamorphosing monarch caterpillars, migrating Mobula rays, microscopic aeroplankton floating along with the breeze, and more.

Though change is often painful, it is also ripe with possibilities for newness, growth, and transformation. Get your copy of Weathering Change today and begin to face change with grace and courage, finding strength in God’s ever-present guidance.

Congratulations to Patrice Gopo and University Press of Kentucky for the February 24th release of We Deserve to Heal: Black Women on the Perils and Promises of Friendship with White Women.

Can Black women have thriving friendships with white women in a society steeped in the realities of racism? Can such friendships experience the presence of genuine mutuality?

We Deserve to Heal: Black Women on the Perils and Promises of Friendship with White Women features essays from ten intergenerational Black women who consider these questions through themes such as identity, belonging, rupture, and freedom. This powerful and perceptive anthology speaks honestly of the beauty and the struggles, the welcome and the wounds. Each piece pairs with a response from another contributor, fostering an innovative conversation throughout the entirety of the book. While patterns emerge, the stories revealed by each writer are vast and dynamic.

By centering Black women’s voices, We Deserve to Heal actively cultivates authenticity, truth-telling, liberation, and healing. This collection offers validation for Black women and other women of color and also encourages greater compassion within any reader hoping to discover more. Patrice Gopo has edited a book, rooted in relationships, that empowers those who take time with these words to challenge and expand their understanding of friendship.

Contracts

Camden Morgante signed with Brazos Press for the August 2027 release of The Sacred Work of Reparenting.

Parker Settecase signed with Post Hill Press for the August 2027 release of Dune’s Philosopher King.

New Clients

Richard Gould and Jessica Ruttenber recently signed with WordServe. Welcome,