Fourth Estate promotes Franklin and Killingbeck

Fourth Estate has promoted both former assistant editor Lettice Franklin and former publishing executive Tom Killingbeck to the positions of assistant commissioning editors.

Franklin, who will report to Fourth Estate publishing director Nicholas Pearson, will acquire fiction and non-fiction that is "exciting and ambitious, immensely enjoyable and brilliantly written". As assistant editor at Fourth Estate, she has taken responsibility for a variety of authors from Katherine Heiny, Claire Lowdon and Judith Claire Mitchell to Charles Bukowski and Lena Dunham. In recent months, she has bought The Twelve-Mile Straight, an epic American novel on race and heredity by Eleanor Henderson; Late Bloomer, a memoir by Iranian-American film director Desiree Akhavan; and Women, a novella about love and obsession by Chloe Caldwell.

Franklin said: "I have absolutely loved working at Fourth Estate over the past few years and am very much looking forward to bringing new voices to its exceptional list."

Killingbeck, who will report to Fourth Estate publishing director Helen Garnons-Williams, will acquire non-fiction exclusively, looking for new voices in memoir, music, popular culture, film/TV tie-in, humour and gift. As publishing executive at Fourth Estate and William Collins he worked with writers such as Bruce Robinson and Andrew Marr, and worked on rebranding the imprint, producing the video series RE4DINGS. His recent acquisitions include Postcard From The Past by Tom Jackson, based on the cult Twitter phenomenon; and Inner City Pressure by Dan Hancox, a pioneering history of grime.

Killingbeck said: "After two inspiring and illuminating years juggling editorial and marketing work as publishing executive across both imprints, I’m hugely excited to focus my energies on commissioning forward-thinking and beautifully designed nonfiction for Fourth Estate. It’s a privilege to be invited to contribute to this incredibly influential and catholic list."

David Roth-Ey, executive publisher of Fourth Estate and William Collins, said: "Lettice and Tom will further strengthen our commissioning team, bringing a renewed focus to 4th Estate’s long held mission to discover new literary voices, experimental writers, and as-yet-untold stories in both fiction and non-fiction."