Mitchell Albert – Editor

As Director for Fiction and Non-fiction for the acclaimed house Flipped Eye (which has published ground-breaking poetry and fiction over the past two decades), I commission novels, anthologies, plays and trade non-fiction on a wide range of subjects.

I co-direct The Momentum Publishing Company (for non-fiction and some fiction), followed by its literary imprint Paper + Ink, which publishes classic and contemporary short fiction, poetry, anthologies and novels from around the world.

In 2015, I created and commissioned for Periscope, an imprint for international literary fiction and non-fiction. It surpassed expectations in its first year, with one title (the historical novel The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami) long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and another (the memoir Long Time No See, by Hannah Lowe) selected as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

I was invited to take charge of Saqi’s imprints for one year whilst its then-Commissioning Editor recovered from a serious illness. I managed The Westbourne Press (for non-fiction) as well as Telegram (for literary fiction), which I had helped establish in 2005. I brought outstanding projects to completion, steered the editorial board and acquired new titles, including the US and UK best-seller Zealot, by Reza Aslan, and London Overground: A Day's Walk Around the Ginger Line, by Iain Sinclair.

This prominent organisation became the National Centre for Writing in 2018. As its first-ever Programme Director, I led a team of project managers and delivered an ambitious array of activities, including the first British Council Showcase for literature professionals from over a dozen countries; the literary component of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival; and the annual ‘Worlds’ symposium, hosting forty renowned authors including JM Coetzee, Teju Cole, Michael Ondaatje and Jeanette Winterson. I also led my first editing workshop (for The British Centre for Literary Translation), on which later workshops were modelled for, amongst others, The Royal Literary Fund.

I joined this preeminent writers’ association and freedom-of-expression charity as the first dedicated editor of its literary magazine, relaunching it and overseeing all aspects of publication. I worked closely with PEN International’s executive board and stakeholders, and commissioned texts by emerging and illustrious writers from dozens of countries (such as Nawal El Saadawi, James Kelman, Alberto Manguel, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and many others) in three languages. In 2009, I became responsible for editorial policy across all internal and external communications; worked on the rebranding of the organisation and the development of its new website; and directed press and communications at the 76th PEN Congress in Tokyo. I also helped coordinate the ‘Free the Word!’ literature festival.