In its first major move since being acquired by KKR, Simon & Schuster announced that longtime Little, Brown editor-in-chief Judy Clain will join S&S as senior VP and publisher of Summit Books, with a mandate to revive and refocus the imprint.
Publisher Judy Clain preempted world English rights to Rob Franklin’s debut novel Great Black Hope, in a deal brokered by Trident Media Group’s Ellen Levine and Audrey Crooks.
Judy Clain joined Summit Books in January of 2024. She was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, and immigrated to New York City in 1979. She started her career in the rights department at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She spent a decade in the movie business as an agent at Triad Artists, selling film rights of books, and then as a production executive at Sony/Mandalay Entertainment. She joined Little, Brown and Company in 1998 and was named Editor-in-Chief in 2011. In addition to managing the editorial team, some of the books Judy edited at Little, Brown include I Am Malala by Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, Homeland Elegies by Pulitzer Prize–winning Ayad Akhtar, Going There by Katie Couric, Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, Chaos by Tom O’Neill, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin, and Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron. She also edited many bestselling novels, including Room by Emma Donoghue, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elizabeth Robinson, and The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand. Other writers she has published include Edna O’Brien, Andrew Sean Greer, Chigozie Obioma, Cherie Jones, Sarah Dunn, Jody Shields, Jake Tapper, Kevin Powers, Sarah Crossan, Kwame Alexander, and Sally Mann. Judy’s forthcoming titles for Summit Books are former PEN America President Peter Godwin’s memoir Exit Wounds, a new novel by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and author Ayad Akhtar, and filmmaker Mo Ogrodnik’s debut novel Gulf.
Laura Perciasepe joined Summit Books in March 2024 from Riverhead Books, where she edited a wide range of award-winning, bestselling, and critically acclaimed writers from around the world. Her authors have included Katie Kitamura, Bryan Washington, Álvaro Enrigue, Garrard Conley, R. O. Kwon, Akwaeke Emezi, Aja Gabel, Etgar Keret, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, National Book Award winner Samanta Schweblin, and National Book Award winner Yu Miri. Laura is currently editing Rob Franklin’s debut novel Great Black Hope for Summit Books.
Josefine Kals joined Summit Books in February 2024. Josie started her career in 2009 at Penguin Random House’s Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and over her fifteen years at KDPG she represented and worked on the book publicity campaigns for novelists, poets, and nonfiction authors alike, including Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kaveh Akbar, Judy Blume, President Bill Clinton, Esi Edugyan, Art Garfunkel, James Gleick, Yaa Gyasi, Margo Jefferson, Daniel Kehlmann, Jhumpa Lahiri, Robin Coste Lewis, Deborah Lipstadt, Javier Marías, Toni Morrison, Maggie O’Farrell, Sharon Olds, Michael Ondaatje, Orhan Pamuk, Tracy K. Smith, Art Spiegelman, Kevin Young, and Charles Yu.
Kevwe joined Summit Books in February 2024. She graduated from New York University with an honors degree in Africana studies and two minors in French and psychology. Her publishing aspirations are influenced by her family of talented storytellers and an admiration of writing as a craft. She’ll read anything with rich voice, great command of language, and a whole lot of mess. Kevwe is especially drawn to books by, for, and about people who live in the margins—particularly queer people of color. She is thus excited to be part of Summit Books’s beginning and contribute to platforming authors and stories that add depth to our collective understanding of the world. Aside from books, Kevwe also enjoys archival work, fashion, and torturing herself by watching awful reality TV shows. She assists Judy Clain.
