NEW YORK, September 15—Since its founding in 2015, Saga Press at Simon & Schuster has been a leading publisher of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and speculative fiction, with a dedicated mission to curate a list of powerful and diverse authorial voices. That mission has proved wildly successful, with Saga Press proudly publishing the work of a number of highly acclaimed authors, including Chloe Gong, Charlaine Harris, Stephen Graham Jones, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Liu, Peter S. Beagle, R. A. Salvatore, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Saga Press announces today, September 15, 2023, that it is growing its team. Editorial Director Joe Monti, Senior Editor Amara Hoshijo, and Editorial Assistant Jéla Lewter are thrilled to share the following additions to the Saga Press staff:

Nivia Evans will join Saga Press as a Senior Editor, moving from Orbit Books. A 2020 Publishers Weekly Star Watch Superstar and Hugo Award-nominated editor, Evans acquisitions include New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow, Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm, H. G. Parry’s The Magician’s Daughter, Sara Hashem’s The Jasad Heir, and forthcoming Georgia Summers’ The City of Stardust. She starts on October 2nd.

Sareena Kamath has joined Saga Press as an Editor, coming most recently from Zando, where she acquired Samantha Allen’s Patricia Wants to Cuddle, New York Times bestseller Alaina Urquhart’s The Butcher and the Wren, Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s Monstrilio, and the forthcomingElaine U. Cho’s Ocean’s Godori. Previously, she was at Little, Brown and Company/Mulholland Books. She will begin on September 25th.

Caroline Tew joins Saga Press as an Editorial Assistant, coming from Franklin & Siegal Associates, where she was a Junior Scout.

Christine Calella is a lifelong fan of fantasy, folklore, and horror who studied genre writing at Columbia University’s MFA program. She has been at the flagship imprint of Simon & Schuster for 5 years, rising to the title of Senior Publicist, where she worked with such authors as Bob Woodward, Howard Stern, and Hillary Clinton. She is tremendously excited to be joining the Saga Press team.

Savannah Breckenridge joined Saga Press in June 2023. She previously worked at Abrams Books as a Marketing Associate. This is a return to Simon & Schuster for Savannah where she began her career as a Marketing Assistant, working on campaigns for Tracy Deonn and Chloe Gong.

Karintha Parker also joins Saga Press’s publicity team as an Associate Publicist. Parker comes from HarperCollins where she helped work on the recent campaigns for Barbara Kingsolver as well as Justin C. Key.

In addition to the personnel growth, Saga Press will be moving to the flagship division of Simon & Schuster, beginning with its 2024 publications. Joe Monti will be reporting to Tim O’Connell, Vice President and Editorial Director of Fiction at Simon & Schuster.

With this expanded, dedicated team in place Joe Monti plans to double the number of titles the imprint will publish by 2026. Says Monti, “Since 2015 Saga Press has been dedicated to being at the vanguard of publishing challenging, diverse, and innovative works, that won’t change, we’ll do more. With the resources of the Simon & Schuster division we have built a dynamic and creative team of editors, marketers, and publicists, who will not just grow the imprint but raise the bar of speculative fiction publishing.”

“Joe is one of the most beloved and well-known members of the SFF community and has been curating an outstanding list of bestsellers and breakouts since he first began Saga Press,” adds Tim O’Connell. “This is a trend we will continue and expand on to publish the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with an unwavering commitment to authors, (inter)stellar packaging, and a diverse and daring list that meets and expands the very core of the genres we love so much.”

Simon & Schuster contact:
Julia Prosser, julia.prosser@simonandschuster.com