Kesia Lupo – Editor

I'm Commissioning Editor at Pushkin, where I head up the children's list, acquiring and editing mainly middle-grade and YA. Formerly Commissioning Editor at First Ink, Pan Macmillan. Please be aware that if we work together in a freelance capacity, due to conflict of interest I personally cannot consider your work for publication.

I've been working in publishing since 2013, when I started as Editorial Services Assistant at Pan Macmillan London, working on copy-edits and proofreads and specializing in the SFF-focused Tor list. I worked with authors such as Adrian Tchaikovsky, Genevieve Cogman, and Jay Kristoff.

In 2015 I was hired as Junior Editor at YA and MG fiction publisher Chicken House – over the following eight years I was promoted through Editor to Senior Editor. Titles I worked on included Costa Book Award-winning Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan and bestselling Tin by Pádraig Kenny, which reached no. 11 on the Times children's bestseller chart.

In 2023, I moved to the US and switched careers into literary agenting. I represented both adult and children’s fiction and select non-fiction for The Bindery Agency and Donald Maass Literary Agency, and sold titles in both the US and the UK to all but one of the big 5, plus other publishers. In my top deal, I closed a six-figure, 48-hour pre-empt for an adult epic fantasy trilogy, Firstborn of the Sun (Penguin Michael Joseph, October 2025). I worked closely with all my clients to develop their manuscripts for submission, continuing to use my editorial skills as an agent. I left agenting and the US and started (again!) at Macmillan UK in 2025.

Lastly, I have three YA novels out with Bloomsbury UK – fantasies We Are Blood and Thunder (2019) and We Are Bound by Stars (2020), and horror/thriller Let’s Play Murder (2023).

I hope to bring my multifaceted, 13-year experience to bear on every project - I have a commercial eye, an exceptional understanding of what publishing involves, and a passion for helping writers develop their craft.