Bonnier Books UK appoints Avon's Chimirri as Embla Books editorial director

Bonnier Books UK has appointed Cara Chimirri as editorial director of its digital-first imprint Embla Books.

Chimirri joins from Avon, HarperCollins, where as senior commissioning editor she published J. M. Hall’s debut cosy crime novel A Spoonful of Murder, as well as books by authors such as Phillipa Ashley, Lorna Cook, Fiona Gibson and Pam Weaver.

Prior to that Chimirri worked as commissioning editor at Bookouture, where she published authors such as Liz Lawler, Ali Mercer and Siobhan Curham. She starts her new role on 8th November, reporting to Jane Snelgrove, publishing director at Bonnier Books UK.

Emilie Marneur, director of audience and business development at Bonnier Books UK, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Cara to the team. We know she will have a big impact on the next phase of Embla’s growth and help us build on our authors’ success to date.”

Snelgrove said Chimirri “brings a wonderful mix of dynamism, commercial nous and editorial savoir faire”, adding: “I can’t wait to see the impact of her excellent and insightful publishing, and wonderful author care.”

Chimirri commented: “I am beyond thrilled to be joining the team at Embla as editorial director. I have been a huge admirer of Embla’s publishing since they launched and have been blown away by what the team have achieved in such a short space of time. I am so excited to be joining them during this exciting period of growth and to work on creating more page-turning bestsellers at Embla.”

Launched last summer, Embla Books has published 15 books to date. By the end of 2022 the imprint will have published 25 books across a broad range of commercial genre fiction – including crime and thriller debut novelists Sarah Yarwood-Lovett, Dandy Smith and Becca Day, as well as established authors such as Caroline Mitchell, Lucy Coleman and Fiona Ford.