Park leaves Little A for Penguin Press

The founder of Amazon US’s literary imprint Little A, has left the company to join Penguin Press.

Ed Park, a novelist and co-founder of literary magazine the Village Voice, was hired by Amazon in 2011 and a senior books editor in its New York Publishing office.

He then edited his own literary imprint, Little A, which publishes around 12 books a year and a short-story collection he published under that imprint by Shawn Vestal, recently won the Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction.

However, after three years with the e-tail giant, Park has left to join Penguin Press as executive editor.
Speaking to the New York Times about his experience running Amazon’s literary imprint, he said the battle between Amazon and publishers made his job difficult, but it was not the main reason for his departure.

 “There were times when I felt like what I was doing was a bit of an outlier,” Park said. “To Amazon Publishing’s credit, any book I felt strongly about, they let me pursue, and that kind of autonomy was rare in that climate.”

He added that he would “not miss” the “obstacles” of having to persuade publishers and agents to work with a company they mistrusted.

An Amazon spokeswoman, Katie Finch, said Little A would be run by its newly hired editorial director, Tara Parsons, and that Carmen Johnson, the editor of Amazon’s literary journal, Day One, will take over his position.

“I’m really grateful to these authors for taking a chance with me,”  Park said. “It was not always easy, but I always felt like I was still a part of this literary community.”