Julianna spent four years at the Simon & Schuster imprint before joining Avid Reader Press in 2018. She enjoys a wide range of books, but seeks to acquire works of journalism, biography, women’s history, and upmarket and literary fiction that investigate dynamics between people, places, and cultural/political moments. In recent years she has edited the New York Times bestsellers Watergate: A New History and The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff, Speak by Tunde Oyeneyin, and Big Friendship by Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, as well as When Women Lead by CNBC anchor Julia Boorstin, Butts: A Backstory by writer and Radiolab contributor Heather Radke, and Leonora in the Morning Light by Pushcart Prize nominee Michaela Carter. Her forthcoming narrative nonfiction projects include explorations of the 1968 Miss America protests, the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in America, the debate surrounding the closing of Rikers Island, and the decades-long fight to reunite families in the wake of the Argentinian Dirty War. A native New Yorker and part-time Vermonter, she graduated with honors from Colby College, where she studied English and history.
Before co-founding Avid Reader Press in 2018, Jofie Ferrari-Adler spent eight years at the Simon & Schuster imprint. Previously he worked at Grove Atlantic, Viking Penguin, and the independent publisher Four Walls Eight Windows, and before that as a bookseller. He acquires both fiction and narrative nonfiction, with an emphasis on politics, current affairs, American history, and a range of narrative journalism. In recent years he has edited the #1 New York Times bestsellers Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck, Principles by Ray Dalio, The Heart of Everything That Is by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, The TB12 Method by Tom Brady, and Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. Other authors with whom he’s worked include: Jack Antonoff, Michael Bamberger, Gregory Boyle, Ray Bradbury, Marie Brenner, Ed Caesar, Ian Caldwell, Tom Coyne, James Dodson, Michaeleen Doucleff, Bob Dylan, Craig Fehrman, Emily Gould, Garrett M. Graff, Bruce Handy, Boris Kachka, Farhad Manjoo, Karl Marlantes, New York magazine, T. J. Newman, Susan Orlean, Pearl Jam, Poets & Writers magazine, Joe Posnanski, Peter Sagal, Martin Cruz Smith, Tommy Tomlinson, Lynn Vincent, Sara Vladic, Chris Wallace, and Don Winslow. Raised in a small town south of Pittsburgh, Jofie is also a contributing editor to Poets & Writers magazine, and he served for a decade on the AAP’s International Freedom to Publish Committee.
Before co-founding Avid Reader Press in 2018, Ben Loehnen worked at the Simon & Schuster imprint for eight years, most recently as executive editor. He worked previously at HarperCollins and Random House. He edits books across a range of subjects, including business, economics, psychology, science, religion, fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. The authors with whom he has worked include: Andy Borowitz, Frank Bruni, James Lee Burke, Steve Case, Robert Cialdini, Ross Douthat, Jesse Eisinger, Charles Fishman, Justin Fox, Jacob Hacker, Morten Hansen, Oona Hathaway, Chip and Dan Heath, Virginia Heffernan, Adam Higginbotham, A.J. Jacobs, Ezra Klein, Sarah Lewis, Alec MacGillis, Paul Pierson, Gerald Posner, Richard Rhodes, Michael Riedel, Jim Rogers, Christopher Ryan, Scott Shapiro, Dan Slater, Benn Steil, Andrew Sullivan, Gillian Tett, and Stephen Tobolowsky. A native of Montana and an avid birdwatcher, he is a graduate of Harvard College.
Prior to joining Avid Reader in 2022, Margo spent eight years at Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and two years as a scout at Bettina Schrewe Literary Scouting. She acquires literary and upmarket fiction along with select memoir and narrative nonfiction. She’s always on the lookout for bold voices, fresh and wild concepts, and books that question the status quo in ways both big and small. At Doubleday she edited the instant New York Times bestseller and Today Show Book Club Pick Qian Julie Wang’s Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, both Ingrid Rojas Contreras’ The Man Who Could Move Clouds (a National Book Award Finalist) and Fruit of the Drunken Tree (a national bestseller, a B&N Discover Pick, and an ALA Top Ten Novel of the Year), Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister the Serial Killer (Amazon Debut of the Month, winner of the Los Angeles Times Mystery/Thriller Prize, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize), Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch (an Esquire and Vulture Best Book of 2021, Amazon Debut of the Month, longlisted for the PEN Faulkner Debut Novel Prize, and soon to be a film starring Amy Adams), and Sophie Mackintosh’s The Water Cure (a Los Angeles Times bestseller and longlisted for the Booker Prize). Other authors she has acquired and edited include Ariel Lawhon, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Julianne Pachico, Paul Mendez, Polly Rosenwaike, Rebecca Watson, Stephanie Scott, and Timothy Schaffert.
Julianna spent four years at the Simon & Schuster imprint before joining Avid Reader Press in 2018. She enjoys a wide range of books, but seeks to acquire works of journalism, biography, women’s history, and upmarket and literary fiction that investigate dynamics between people, places, and cultural/political moments. In recent years she has edited the New York Times bestsellers Watergate: A New History and The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff, Speak by Tunde Oyeneyin, and Big Friendship by Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, as well as When Women Lead by CNBC anchor Julia Boorstin, Butts: A Backstory by writer and Radiolab contributor Heather Radke, and Leonora in the Morning Light by Pushcart Prize nominee Michaela Carter. Her forthcoming narrative nonfiction projects include explorations of the 1968 Miss America protests, the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in America, the debate surrounding the closing of Rikers Island, and the decades-long fight to reunite families in the wake of the Argentinian Dirty War. A native New Yorker and part-time Vermonter, she graduated with honors from Colby College, where she studied English and history.
Meredith worked at the Touchstone imprint of Simon & Schuster for nine years. She oversees all publishing office and the sales and marketing of all Avid Reader Press titles, and acts as liaison between the imprint and the Simon & Schuster sales, corporate marketing, managing editorial, production, and supply chain departments. She also manages inventory, reprints, and marketing initiatives for the Touchstone backlist publishing program. Prior to joining Avid Reader Press, she worked as Touchstone’s Associate Publisher and Associate Director of Marketing, managing integrated and digital marketing campaigns for authors including Reese Witherspoon, Peter Ames Carlin, Allie Brosh, Cecile Richards, Denise Kiernan, and Vaddey Ratner. Before coming to Simon & Schuster, Meredith worked on marketing art and photography titles at the Crown Publishing Group, sales and marketing at the Overlook Press, and editorial acquisitions at Random House Audio & Large Print. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she graduated from Middlebury College, where she studied English and art history.
Alison Forner has been an art director at Simon & Schuster since 2015. Previously she worked as an art director at Penguin Random House and a designer at Ecco/HarperCollins. Over the course of her career, Alison has had the privilege of designing jackets for such notable authors as Jimmy Breslin, Elizabeth Gilbert, A.M. Homes, Peter Matthiessen, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Pullman, and Sarah Waters. Her work has been recognized by AIGA in their 50 Books/50 Covers Show, the New York Book Show, and in PRINT’s Regional Design Annual. She was selected for inclusion in The Best of Cover Design published by Rockport in 2011. Her work was also featured in Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover, published by Penguin Random House in 2016. A graduate of Barnard College, Alison was a professional dancer, a poet, and a print production manager before moving on to a career in graphic design.
Prior to joining Avid Reader Press, Caroline spent over three years on the Marketing & Events Team at Books & Books in Miami, FL. where she assisted with hundreds of author events a year, managed their social media, contributed to their daily newsletter, and worked with organizations like Miami Book Fair, Design Miami/, SOBEWFF, and more. At Avid Reader Press, she assists the team in executing marketing campaigns and social media strategy. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and raised in Managua, Nicaragua, and Miami, FL, Caroline loves travel, hiking, and art. She studied English and Latin American Studies at The College of William & Mary.
Paul O’Halloran oversees international and domestic subsidiary rights licensing for Avid Reader Press, the Gallery Publishing Group, and the Scribner Publishing Group, after having worked in a number of subsidiary rights positions since joining Simon & Schuster in 1995. Prior to joining Simon & Schuster, he was rights director for The Free Press and the Putnam Berkley Group and has worked for Warner Books, Houghton Mifflin, and Gale Research.
Jessica Chin manages and oversees the copyediting for Avid Reader Press and is also currently with the Simon & Schuster imprint. In recent years, she oversaw the production editing of #1 New York Times bestseller Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump, which sold 950,000 copies on its first-day sales and broke Simon & Schuster’s company record for first-day sales of print books, ebooks, and audiobooks combined, and Lisa Jewell’s first #1 New York Times bestseller, Then She Was Gone. Her other New York Times bestsellers include Countdown 1945, What It Takes, Big Friendship, White Ivy, and The Family Upstairs. She has worked with notable authors, including Ray Dalio, Craig Fehrman, Patricia Engel, Shania Twain, Kevin Costner, Rachel Brathen, Dominique Ansel, Patricia Heaton, Susie Yang, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and Wm. Paul Young. Jessica successfully managed the Howard imprint for many years. Prior to joining Simon & Schuster, she was at HarperCollins. She is a true New Yorker and was raised in Nolita, New York City.
Alicia Brancato joined Avid Reader Press in 2021. She started her career at Simon & Schuster as a bound galley assistant in 2009, as a recent graduate from Mount Saint Mary College. Over the years, she’s worked her way across all imprints from Scribner, to Gallery, Atria, and S&S Canada before joining the Avid team. She handles all aspects of book production, working with departments like Managing Editorial/Copyediting/Design, to the printers that print and bind the physical book.
Katherine Hernández joined Avid Reader Press in November 2021 and assists the publicity team in their campaigns and management. Prior to joining Avid, Katherine assisted the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program and interned at Poets & Writers and New York Review Books. Katherine holds a B.A in Journalism / Creative Writing and Spanish from CUNY Baruch College where her podcast CULTURE: A Podcast of Whys was awarded best in Cultural Reporting. Born and raised in the Bronx, she only trusts corner stores with cats.
Clay joined the Simon & Schuster art department in 2021. Previously, she spent three years working as a designer at Celadon Books, an imprint of Macmillan. While she was there, she had the pleasure of working on covers for incredible authors such as Jane Goodall, Alex Michaelides, Steve Martin, Roz Chast and many more. In her current role at Simon & Schuster, she works closely with Alison Forner to design book covers and jackets for Avid Reader Press and the S&S imprint. Clay grew up in North Carolina and graduated with a BFA in graphic design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She currently lives in Brooklyn and in her free time loves to paint, travel, and make ceramics.
Allison Green began her career at Simon & Schuster in September 2018 as the Managing Editorial Assistant for the Gallery Books imprint. Prior to that, she earned a BA in English with a Spanish minor from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and attended the Columbia Publishing Course. Allison joined Avid Reader Press in May 2022 and oversees the entire production process from manuscript to finished book.
Katya Buresh joined Avid Reader Press in July 2022 and assists the marketing team and the publishing office with the execution of campaigns, outreach, and administration. Prior to joining Avid, she worked as a publicist for the Santa Fe Writers Project and completed internships with Mason Jar Press, Folio Literary Management, and Writers House. She has published book reviews and author interviews with such publications as BOMB, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Publishers Weekly, and is delighted by every opportunity she gets to promote brilliant new (and old) books. Born and raised in Maryland, she studied music and English at Towson University, and loves hiking, gardening, and art.
Dave joined Avid Reader Press in 2022, having spent sixteen years at the prestigious literary public relations firm of Hilsinger Mendelson, and Rogers & Cowan before that. His passion lies in orchestrating meaningful publicity campaigns for titles that serve a larger propose, uncover truths, and tell great stories. Jeff Benedict’s The Dynasty, Garrett Graff’s Watergate, and Joe Posnanski’s The Baseball 100 are among the recent Avid Reader titles that he’s guided toward the New York Times bestseller list. Other personal highlights include working with Sir Harold Evans, Evan Osnos, Tina Brown, Monty Burke, George Packer, Brian Grazer, Jerry Bruckheimer, Erin Brockovich, Ethan Russell, Vicky Ward, Senator Bob Graham, Senator Kristen Gillibrand, Congressman Tim Ryan, Jorge Posada, and Reggie Jackson, among others. A self-proclaimed media junkie, Dave lives for the rush of seeing his authors on screen and in print. He sees book publishing and the associated media campaigns as an opportunity to truly change minds. A born and raised New Yorker and die-hard Yankee fan, Dave’s greatest thrill remains making his two daughters laugh.
