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Gayatri Patnaik, Associate Director and Editorial Director: Gayatri, previously an editor at both Palgrave Macmillan and Routledge, has been at Beacon Press over fifteen years and has published authors including Imani Perry, Cornel West, Kate Bornstein, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and Jeanne Theoharis. She acquires in US History, with a focus on African American History and race/ethnicity/immigration, and began Beacon’s award-winning “ReVisioning American History” series. Gayatri occasionally signs memoir, began Beacon’s LGBTQ series, “Queer Action/Queer Ideas,” (edited with Michael Bronski) and developed books in “The King Legacy,” with Joanna Green, in a series about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her acquisitions include:
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis, winner of the 2014 NAACP Image Award
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (part of the “ReVisioning American History” series) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, recipient of the 2015 American Book Award
- Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry. Winner of the 2019 Pen/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography; winner of the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction; Winner of the 2018 Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction.
Read the Publishers Weekly profile on Gayatri by Judith Rosen. Read her staff profile on our blog series “Beacon Behind the Books.” Follow her on Twitter at @gpatnaik1.
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Amy Caldwell, Associate Editorial Director: Amy has been at Beacon Press since 1995. She acquires in religion, with special emphases on interfaith issues; the relation between politics, culture, and religion; and how Americans live out their religious beliefs. She also acquires in science and society, as well as narrative nonfiction/memoir. Titles include:
- Interfaith Leadership, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America, and Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel
- Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story by Angela Saini
- The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boy’s Club by Eileen Pollack
- How To Be a Muslim: An American Story by Haroon Moghul
- Do It Anyway by Courtney Martin
- The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America by Ann Neumann
- The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan by Rafia Zakaria
- The Art of Misdiagnosis: Surviving My Mother’s Suicide by Gayle Brandeis
- Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists by Courtney Martin
- Fallout, The New Wild, When the Rivers Run Dry and other titles by esteemed environmental journalist Fred Pearce
- Saving Talk Therapy and Back to Normal: Why Ordinary Childhood Behavior Is Mistaken for ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder by Enrico Gnaulati
Read her staff profile on our blog series “Beacon Behind the Books.” |
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Joanna Green, Senior Editor: Joanna Green joined Beacon in 2005 and previously worked for New Moon Magazine. She acquires narrative nonfiction with an emphasis on social justice in the areas of economic justice, labor and business, law and society, disability, sports, and activism. She also develops YA editions of books in the “ReVisioning American History” series. Titles include:
- Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City by Steve Early
- Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the Revival of the Labor Movement by Jonathan Rosenblum
- Powered by Girl: A Field Guide for Supporting Youth Activists by Lyn Mikel Brown
- Ethical Chic: The Inside Story of the Companies We Think We Love by Fran Hawthorne
- Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America by Sheryll Cashin
- Life as Jamie Knows It: An Exceptional Child Grows Up by Michael Bérubé
- A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen
- Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights by Lennard Davis
- Course Correction: A Story of Rowing and Resilience in the Wake of Title IX by Ginny Gilder
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Catherine Tung, Associate Editor: Catherine joined Beacon Press in late 2019 after 7 years at Vintage Books, where she acquired in memoir, fiction, and nonfiction titles on politics, disability, cultural studies, and mental health. At Beacon, she is actively developing a list focused on urban studies, sexuality, Asian American writing, music, art, food, and health. Outside the office, she enjoys musicmaking, community building, knitting, gardening, and friendly debates over bourbon. |
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Rachael Marks, Editor: Rachael Marks joined Beacon Press in 2010 and acquires in education, with a special interest in educational equality and democracy; cultural environments of urban, suburban, and rural educational settings; issues of difference, diversity, social justice, and alliance building. Titles include:
- For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education by Christopher Emdin
- These Schools Belong to You and Me: Why We Can’t Afford to Abandon Our Public Schools by Deborah Meier and Emily Gasoi
- Her Body, Our Laws: On the Frontlines of the Abortion War from El Salvador to Oklahoma by Michelle Oberman
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Read her staff profile on our blog series “Beacon Behind the Books.” |
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Melissa Nasson, Esq., Contracts Director, Director of Beacon Press Audio: Melissa Nasson joined Beacon Press in 2013 after finishing her law degree at Boston University and interning at the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth literary agency, The Perseus Books Group, and Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts. She handles contract negotiation for Beacon, as well as project managing all audiobook publication under the Beacon Press Audio imprint. She lives with her husband Amory and their tortoise Norton in Brighton, MA.
Read her staff profile on our blog series “Beacon Behind the Books.” |
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Maya Fernandez, Associate Editor: Maya Fernandez joined Beacon Press in 2016. Originally from Medford, MA, she earned a Bachelor of Arts from American University in Washington, DC, where she studied Literature, Creative Writing, and Sociology. She acquires narrative non-fiction specifically focused on marginalized experiences, feminism, the Black diaspora, queer studies, media, popular culture, and the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. Titles include:
- How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide by Crystal M. Fleming
- Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance by Ntozake Shange
- Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother by G’Ra Asim
Read her staff profile on our blog series “Beacon Behind the Books.” |
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Nicole-Anne Keyton, Editorial Assistant: Nicole joined Beacon’s editorial team in December 2019, where she assists Associate Editorial Director Amy Caldwell. Nicole is currently an MFA candidate for Creative Writing in fiction at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and is the acting editor-in-chief for the literary journal Breakwater Review. She received her BA in Cinema at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Outside of Beacon, she devotes her time to social activism that centers the marginalized education of race, class, and capitalist infrastructure; reading fiction and nonfiction that confronts identity, sur/realism, and sociopolitical conflict; watching movies with her university Kanopy subscription; and spending time with her rescue dog, Sassypants. |
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Alison Rodriguez, Editorial Assistant: Alison joined Beacon Press in January 2020 after graduating from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and a focus in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Prior to joining Beacon, Alison interned at Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster UK. |