Meet Little, Brown

Meet Little, Brown

Bruce Nichols

Senior Vice President and Publisher; Little, Brown and Company

I joined Little, Brown in 2020, after thirty years of preparation at Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I am thrilled to be joining such a distinguished team within the Hachette Book Group. As an editor, I have worked with leading journalists, historians, and experts, including James Risen, Adam Hochschild, Mark Bittman, and Francis Collins, among many others. As Publisher, I now oversee the acquisition and publication of approximately 200 titles per year and am responsible for all aspects of publishing activities for Little, Brown and its imprints, including Mulholland; Little, Brown Spark; Voracious; Back Bay Books; and James Patterson’s Jimmy books for young readers.


Ned Rust

Vice President and Publisher, James Patterson

As Vice President, Publisher for James Patterson, I lead the team that supports the bestselling author in the world. I have been with Little, Brown since 2004. I was new to publishing at the time—I had taken some side-trips into music journalism, teaching, maritime law, biochemistry, and political consulting—and am still grateful for being in and around books, and readers, every single day.


Judy Clain

Vice President, Editor-in-Chief

Judy arrived at Little, Brown more than twenty years ago from a career in the movie business, and since then, she’s never looked back. She has had the great privilege of editing some extraordinary books, all linked by one thing: a great voice. Some of the authors Judy has edited include Emma Donoghue, Maria Semple, Ayad Akhtar, Sarah Dunn, Chigozie Obioma, Lucy Tan, Elin Hilderbrand, and Edna O’Brien. Non-fiction titles Judy has edited include I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia, and Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring. Forthcoming titles on Judy’s list are The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones, Katie Couric’s memoir, new novels from Joshua Ferris, Elizabeth Brundage, and Sarah Crossan, and a memoir by Kenyan human rights activist Nice Leng’ete.


Tracy Behar

Vice President, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief

I joined Little, Brown in 2005 after working at Atria Books, Broadway Books, and HarperCollins. I oversee publishing across the Little, Brown Spark list, and as an editor, I acquire within the categories of health, psychology/self-help, science, parenting, and reference. My books usually have a prescriptive element but they might also be narrative. Among the authors I’ve had the pleasure of working with are Mark Hyman, David Perlmutter, Andrew Weil, Amy Cuddy, Walter Mischel, Nicholas Christakis, Scott Jurek, Joel Fuhrman, William Sears, Sue Johnson, John Ratey, Arianna Huffington, Roy Peter Clark, Donald and Lillian Stokes, The Dalai Lama, Josh Axe, Nicholas Christakis, David Christian, Roy Peter Clark, Amy Cuddy, Jared Diamond, Joel Fuhrman, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Arianna Huffington, Mark Hyman, Sue Johnson, Scott Jurek, Daniel Kahneman, Marie Kondo, Walter Mischel, Amy Myers, David Perlmutter, John Ratey, William Sears, Donald and Lillian Stokes, Cass Sunstein, Harriet Washington, and Andrew Weil.


Michael Szczerban

VP, Editorial Director of Voracious

I run Little, Brown’s imprint Voracious, where I publish books driven by appetite, passion, and curiosity across a range of interests and formats, from food and culture to storytelling, science, current events, and beyond. Most of those books have a visual component, and all of them are designed to make readers pick them up and immediately engage with them. I love working with authors to connect readers to their passions—whether that means politics, Instant Pots, or pop music. Happily, those collaborations have resulted in many acclaimed bestsellers, including Pete Souza’s Obama: An Intimate Portrait and Shade, Samin Nosrat and Wendy MacNaughton’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and Sarah Knight’s No F*cks Given Guides, which have sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide. Other recent and upcoming authors include Accidentally Wes Anderson, Ansel Adams, Ayesha Curry, Epicurious, Vivian Howard, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, Brad Leone, Riot Games, Julia Rothman, and Marcus Samuelsson.

I got my start as a reader of poetry manuscripts at Carnegie Mellon University Press while studying computer science, and joined Little, Brown in 2014 after working for Simon & Schuster and the Regan Arts imprint of Phaidon. I was a 2017 Publishers Weekly Star Watch honoree and the 2012 recipient of the Lawrence Peel Ashmead Editorial Award, and I have written about the book business for Poets & Writers. I pronounce my last name “Zur-ban” and you can follow me on Instagram @foreverbeard


Joshua Kendall

Executive Editor, VP, Editorial Director

I am an executive editor, as well as the editorial director of Mulholland Books, where I’ve edited novels like The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst’s S., Lauren Beukes’s internationally bestselling The Shining Girls, as well national bestsellers like the debut Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and crime fiction legends like Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Charlie Huston, and Jim Thompson. At Little, Brown, I published the acclaimed literary novel Neverhome, as well as New York Times bestselling authors Michael Koryta and Dan Simmons. Prior to Little, Brown, I worked at Viking/Penguin and Picador, where I worked with authors and titles as diverse as Tana French, Stewart O’Nan, Ron Carlson, and Jasper Fforde. I have also edited a variety of nonfiction projects, such as The Boys In the Boat, Moby-Duck, and Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning.


Talia Krohn

VP, Editorial Director

I joined Little Brown Spark in 2022 after sixteen years at Penguin Random House. I acquire primarily idea- and research-driven books in business and economics and in the behavioral and social sciences. I am particularly drawn to expert voices with unique insights that help us better understand ourselves, each other, and the ways in which we live and work. Books that I am proud to have published include: Zero to One, Brave, Not Perfect, Essentialism, The Lonely Century, Humor, Seriously, Acting with Power, It’s About Damn Time, Makers and Takers, Insight, The Happiness Advantage, The Power of Broke, and The Start-up of You. While I did not technically attend Stanford University, I have worked with many authors who did..


Alex Littlefield

Executive Editor

I joined Little, Brown in 2022 to expand our list of serious nonfiction, primarily in the categories of history, biography, politics, and current affairs. I also have a soft spot for investigative journalism, narrative non-fiction, science, and true crime. Above all else, I love books with an edge and with a mission; I look for well-crafted stories braided with bold arguments and big ideas, and for authors with fresh perspectives and deep expertise in their subject areas. I am proud to have published New York Times bestselling authors such as Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovitch, Peter Strzok, Neal Katyal, Avi Loeb, and Randall Munroe as well as luminaries such as Graham Allison, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Jennifer Doudna. I also have had the pleasure of working with Adam Hochschild, James Risen, Wesley Lowery, Eric Lichtblau, Jacqueline Jones, and Jonathan Greenblatt. Before Little Brown, I spent sixteen years in the editorial departments of Mariner Books (formerly Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Basic Books, and Grove/Atlantic.


Asya Muchnick

VP, Executive Editor

As part of the Little, Brown for more than twenty years, I acquire literary fiction, upmarket crime, and narrative nonfiction, including history, biography, and cultural history. I am particularly drawn to propulsive, page-turning stories, well told. Among the authors I have been lucky enough to work with are Naomi Alderman, Jo Ann Beard, Michael Connelly, Lacy Crawford, Rebecca Donner, Mary Gabriel, Malcolm Gladwell, Nancy Goldstone, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Richard Lange, Daniel Mason, Stephenie Meyer, Daniel O’Malley, Alice Sebold, and David Sedaris.


Tracy Sherrod

VP, Executive Editor

I joined Little, Brown in May 2022 with more than three decades of experience in publishing. Most recently, I served as the VP and Editorial Director of Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Throughout my career I have worked with many authors, including social critic bell hooks; Man-Booker Prize winner, Paul Beatty; NAACP Image Award winners, Dick Gregory and NASA’s Katherine Johnson; as well as the Zora Neale Hurston Trust and Shirley Chisholm’s estate. I have enthusiastically published bestselling authors Tupac Shakur, Zane, Cicely Tyson, Steve Harvey, Jacqueline Woodson, Michael Twitty, A.J. Verdelle, Jenifer Lewis, and attorney Ben Crump. I am interested in curating a list of literary fiction and serious narrative nonfiction by diverse voices that promote peace, love, and unity to elevate the human experience.


Ben George

Executive Editor

I joined Little, Brown in 2013 after stints as an editor at Viking/Penguin; the literary journal Ecotone, where I worked with Annie Proulx, Jonathan Lethem, and Denis Johnson, among many others; and Lookout Books, which I co-founded and where I published Edith Pearlman’s Binocular Vision, a National Book Award finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award winner. I acquire literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, as well as biography and memoir, history, social sciences, and true crime. 

At Little, Brown I have acquired and edited national bestsellers by authors including Rick Bass, Rutger Bregman, Nathan Harris, Adam Haslett, Leslie Jamison, Edith Pearlman, and Luis Alberto Urrea. Books I’ve published have been winners of or nominees for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the Story Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the PEN/E. O. Wilson Award, among others. I love discovering new writers, and debuts have included the Oprah’s Book Club selection The Sweetness of Water, by Nathan Harris; the Carnegie Medal winner The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, by Tom Lin; the #1 Indie Next selection The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, by Nathaniel Ian Miller; and Jaroslav Kalfař’s Spaceman of Bohemia, from which the forthcoming Netflix film starring Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan is adapted.


Jean Garnett

Senior Editor

I am an Editor at Little, Brown acquiring literary nonfiction and literary fiction. I joined Little, Brown in 2014 after working as an assistant at a literary agency and a high school English teacher. I am passionate about exceptional writing, smart and strikingly original voices, and books that offer new insights and perspectives. My list includes Jenny Slate’s Little Weirds (a New York Times bestseller), Souvankham Thammavongsa’s How to Pronounce Knife, Malcolm Harris’ Kids These Days, Samantha Allen’s Real Queer America (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist), and Meaghan O’Connell’s And Now We Have Everything.


Vivian Lee

Senior Editor

I am a Senior Editor at Little, Brown acquiring literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. I am excited to read books that ask big questions (or complicate those questions); authors who write in the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability. I am passionate about narratives that challenge our way of thinking both in the world and on the page. Prior to joining in 2021, I was an editor at Little A, where I published bestselling and award-winning authors including Matthew Salesses’ Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear (PEN/Faulkner finalist), Naima Coster’s Halsey Street (Kirkus finalist), and Viet Dinh’s After Disasters (PEN/Faulkner finalist), as well as with Jim Atlas on the ICONS series. In 2018, I was a PW Rising Star Honoree.


Marisa Vigilante

Senior Editor

I’m a senior editor who started with Little, Brown Spark in its founding year, 2018. I’ve been a book editor for more than a decade and currently acquire a range of health, diet, wellness, self-help, and lifestyle books. I look for innovative, iconoclastic nonfiction that helps people improve their lives, both prescriptive and narrative. I previously worked at Rodale Books and Penguin Random House, acquiring primarily for the Avery and Gotham imprints, and in the editorial departments of Random House Publishing Group. I’ve worked with several New York Times bestselling authors like Dave Asprey, Dr. Bill Davis, Lewis Howes, Jillian Michaels, and Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, as well as celebrities like fashion designer Zac Posen, musician Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, and superstar fitness trainer Tracy Anderson. Prior to entering the publishing world, I obtained a master’s degree in public health with a focus on health policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.


Pronoy Sarkar

Senior Editor

I acquire bold, ambitious, and conversation shifting projects across a range of areas, including history, biography, politics and current affairs, high concept/big think, popular science, business and economics, investigative and narrative journalism, cultural criticism, social psychology, and argument-driven projects concerned with feminism, race, sexuality, and the intersections thereof. I am also interested in cultural taste-makers, critics, and influencers with fresh perspectives and points of view. Since joining Little, Brown, I’ve published the New York Times bestselling, Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell, San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg, and have acquired forthcoming books by bestselling historian Rick Perlstein, Washington Post op-ed columnist Dana Milbank, Pulitzer finalist and Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli, Congressman Jim Clyburn, and bestselling management professor at MIT, Andrew McAfee, among many others. Previously I was an editor at St. Martin’s Press, where I published 2030 by Mauro F. Guillen, a Wall Street Journal bestseller and Financial Times Best of the Year pick, The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit by John V. Petrocelli, Aftershocks by Colin Kahl and Thomas Wright, Profit and Punishment by 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Messenger, among others. Some other authors I’ve worked with include Olivia Laing, Andre Aciman, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, economist Linda Yueh, diplomat Phillip Gordon, Eric Posner, Michael D’Antonio, Barry Lynn, Edmund Richardson, playwright Andre Gregory, and the Wu-Tang Clan. Prior to St. Martin’s, I worked at Picador US and Simon & Schuster.


Helen O’Hare

Senior Editor

I joined Mulholland Books in February 2020, where I acquire twisty thrillers, atmospheric mysteries, and character-driven suspense. I love working with distinctive voices, beautiful writing, and stories that make me forget my to-do list. Recent publications include Adrian McKinty’s New York Times bestseller The Island, Kellye Garrett’s Edgar-nominated Like a Sister, Allen Eskens’ The Stolen Hours, and Elizabeth Hand’s Hokuloa Road, as well as novels by Denise Mina, Lauren Beukes, Kathleen Kent, Heather Chavez, and astronaut Chris Hadfield. I also edit book club and upmarket fiction for Little, Brown and Company, including Paula Lichtarowicz’s The Snow Hare, Susanna Hoffs’ This Bird Has Flown, and Melissa Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring. Before joining Little, Brown I held positions at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking/Penguin, Other Press, and at the Boulder Book Store and the Tattered Cover Book Stores.


Denise Roy, Editorial Director

Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, Senior Editor

Denise Roy (previously of Dutton and Simon & Schuster), and Shannon Jamieson Vazquez (previously of Berkley and Bantam Dell) are the James Patterson adult editorial team, specializing in thrillers and true crime. They work on the #1 New York Times bestselling Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, and Women’s Murder Club series, as well as Patterson’s stand alone thrillers and his new and developing nonfiction line, notably All-American Murder, Filthy Rich, The House of Kennedy, The Last Days of John Lennon and Walk in My Combat Boots.