Overview
I edit serious narrative and investigative nonfiction; popular and academic history and social science; and books on sport, especially soccer/football (I commissioned the international bestseller Soccernomics). I have expertise on film and cultural criticism, as well as an abiding interest in South Asia. I have been honored to work with some of the giants of world literature, including Gore Vidal, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Eduardo Galeano, Patrick Chamoiseau and Alain Mabanckou. I love editing edgy, multicultural literary fiction; well-paced mystery novels with a subversive and witty edge; and I read a huge amount of horror fiction. My books have made the New York Times bestseller list over a dozen times. They have either won or been nominated for major literary prizes in the United States, Britain and France. My books have had impact on the world of politics and sport. I excel in helping writers with their storytelling. I work closely with them on their book’s overall structure and pace, the internal dynamics of each chapter, as well as ensuring that their sentences have texture and precision. I help writers find their best ideas, challenging them to reach their potential but also help them through the tougher periods of writing, especially when they are stuck or feel that they have reached a dead end. Whether they are journalists, academics or independent scholars, I make sure that they express their ideas with clarity, that their research is solid and their sourcing is rigorous and impeccable. I am an extremely patient editor with a very good sense of humor.
Services
Non-Fiction
Humanities & Social Sciences
Political Science & Current Affairs
Fiction
Literary Fiction
Mystery & Crime
Languages
English (UK)
English (US)
Work experience
Melville House
Nov, 2020 —
Sep, 2024
(almost 4 years)
I commissioned and edited several critically acclaimed works of literary fiction, crime, speculative and horror fiction, including the Jinwoo Chong's FLUX, John Sayles's JAMIE MACGILLIVRAY (NYT Editor's Choice), Jolene McIlwain's SIDLE CREEK (NPR Book of the year), Robert J. Lloyds THE BLOODLESS BOY (and its two sequels), Frederic Durbin's THE COUNTRY UNDER HEAVEN, Jamal Mayfield's SMOKE KINGS (NYT Book of the year), Jonathan Carroll's MR BREAKFAST (Amazon Book of the Year), Gregory Galloway's JUST THIEVES, Christian Kiefer's THE HEART OF IT ALL (IndieNext Bestseller), and Joshua Perry's SERAPHIM.
I also commissioned several works of nonfiction that received strong review coverage in the media, including Jeff Biggers's IN SARDINIA, Mary Jo McConahay's PLAYING GOD, Marc Millon's ITALY IN A WINEGLASS, David Neiwert's THE AGE OF INSURRECTION, Evan Rail's The Absinthe Forger, David Masciotra's EXURBIA NOW and Yanis Varoufakis's bestselling TECHNOFEUDALISM.
The New Press
Jul, 2014 —
Feb, 2020
(over 5 years)
Led the editorial team of a nonprofit, social justice book publisher that publishes 35-40 new titles in hardcover a year and is a market leader in books on criminal justice, progressive history, and education. Managed a terrific editorial team of 6-8 people, whose authors, in the last year, have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Enabled my junior editorial colleagues build a diverse list of authors, publishing in areas that have been traditionally redlined by mainstream publishers.
Books I commissioned and edited were chosen as a Best Book of the Year by New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Smithsonian, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews and nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Man Booker International Book Prize, Wright Hurston Legacy Prize, Aspen Words Literary Prize, Albertine Prize, French Heritage Society Book Prize, Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, Mountbatten Maritime Media Award and Pen America Literary Award.
Nation Books
Jul, 1999 —
Jun, 2014
(almost 15 years)
Grew Nation Books to a bestselling and critically acclaimed imprint geared toward serious narrative and investigative non-fiction in hardcover. First as an imprint with Basic Books, then with Public Affairs.
Key titles:
Songs of Blood and Sword by Fatima Bhutto (International Bestseller)
Mirrors by Eduardo Galeano (National Bestseller);
Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski (New York Times bestseller);
Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill (New York Times bestseller);
The American Way of Poverty by Sasha Abramsky (New York Times Notable Book of the Year);
All the President’s Bankers by Nomi Prins;
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi (New York Times bestseller; Winner: National Book Award 2016)
The Longest August by Dilip Hiro
Dreaming War by Gore Vidal (New York Times bestseller);
Love, Poverty and War by Christopher Hitchens;
Iraq in the Eye of the Storm by Dilip Hiro (International Bestseller);
Imaginary Weapons by Sharon Weinberger
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit
Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill (New York Times bestseller)
Soccer Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper
Portfolio
“An outstanding work … the [soccer] book of the decade.” —Sunday Business PostInverting the Pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive s... read more
Unfurling like a medieval book of days, each page of Eduardo Galeano's Children of the Days has an illuminating story that takes inspiration from that date of the calendar year, resurrecting the heroes and heroines who have fallen off the historical map, but w... read more
Some cases test a private investigator's wits, others test his courage, and still others, his character. In Salvation Boulevard, P.I. Carl Van Wagener has found a case that tests them all, and then goes on to test his soul. A professor is dead and a suspect—wh... read more
Finalist for the 2020 PEN / E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Acclaimed on its hardcover publication, a global journey that reminds us “of how magical the planet we’re about to lose really is” (Bill McKibben) With a new epilogue by the author After ne... read more
A groundbreaking narrative of how an elite group of men transformed the American economy and government, dictated foreign and domestic policy, and shaped world history.Culled from original presidential archival documents, All the Presidents' Bankers delivers a... read more
A “delicious” (Dorie Greenspan), “genial” (Kirkus Reviews), “very cool book about the intersections of food and history” (Michael Pollan)—as featured in the New York Times "The complex political, historical, religious and social factors that shaped some of [Fr... read more
A New York Times Editors’ Choice"A welcome addition to the vast literature produced by jailed writers across the centuries . . . [a] thrilling testament to the human spirit."—Ariel Dorfman, The New York Times Book Review"Wrestling with the Devil is a powerful ... read more
The “heart-stopping” (The Millions), “richly layered” (Brooklyn Rail), “haunting, beautiful” (BuzzFeed) story of an escaped slave and the killer hound that pursues him Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Patrick Chamoiseau’s Sla... read more
In Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, author of the New York Times best-seller Blackwater, takes us inside America's new covert wars. The foot soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is n... read more
The 2018 World Cup edition of the international bestseller and "the most intelligent book ever written about soccer" (San Francisco Chronicle) is updated throughout and features new chapters on the FIFA scandal, why Iceland wins, and women's soccer.Named one o... read more
Helps you meet Blackwater USA, the private army that the US government has hired to operate in international war zones and on American oil. Its contacts run from military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House; it has a military bas... read more
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Karlene A.
Sep, 2020
