We’ve known for quite awhile that singer-songwriter (and husband to Dawn Landes) Josh Ritter has been finishing his first novel, but now—just 10 days after his new album was announced—the word is out that he’s found a publisher for said novel, now known to be titled Bright’s Passage.
EW’s Shelf Life reports (via Paste) that Ritter’s debut work of fiction will be published by Random House imprint The Dial Press in the summer of 2011. And as it turns out, the unveiling of both Ritter’s new album and novel details wasn’t a coincidence. Here’s what he told EW’s Leah Greenblatt:
It was while I was writing song for my new record, So Runs the World Away that the story came into my head for Bright’s Passage. Several of the songs on So Runs the World Away are fairly complicated narrative songs, so my first instinct was to try and make Henry Bright’s story into a song. As I thought about it, though, I realized this was my chance to try my hand at a novel.
For more on Ritter’s songwriting versus novel-writing process, plus his favorite authors head thataway. Also, you can still grab a free download of his new single “Change of Time” here.