You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Chukwu and Owusu-Sekyere appointed editorial directors at Dialogue Books
Hachette UK’s newly formed division Dialogue Books has appointed Hannah Chukwu as literary editorial director and Joelle Owusu-Sekyere as non-fiction editorial director of its commercial imprint.
After returning from parental leave and announcing the division in July, Dialogue m.d. Sharmaine Lovegrove has set about building a new team with two imprints.
Chukwu will report to Lovegrove, who continues to publish for the list, and Owusu-Sekyere will report to the new as yet unnamed publisher of the new commercial list which launches in January 2023.
Currently an editor at Hamish Hamilton, Chukwu will join the literary imprint Dialogue Books as literary editorial director in January 2023, commissioning across literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
The award-winning series editor for Black Britain: Writing Back, Chukwu also edited Five Dials magazine and was the policy and campaigns consultant for Lit in Colour. She is a trustee at the education equality charity The Brilliant Club and a board member of Creative UK.
In 2021, she won the LBF Trailblazer Award, the Rising Star Award in Arts & Media at the Black British Business Awards and was named as an EMpower Ethnic Minority Future Leader. This year she was nominated for the Black Talent Awards 2022 and won The Printing Charity’s Rising Star Award.
She said: “I am incredibly excited about joining Dialogue Books as literary editorial director. Sharmaine and the team are true pioneers, and I wholeheartedly believe in their revolutionary vision for transforming the publishing industry. I joined publishing primarily because I wanted the opportunity to champion underrepresented voices, and Dialogue model that beautifully. This role is a dream come true. I cannot wait to see what our new team will achieve together.
“At the same time, I am so sad to be leaving Hamish Hamilton and Penguin General – I could not have asked for a more inspiring, dedicated, truly outstanding group of colleagues and authors to work with. The past few years have been amazing — I will miss them all so much, and I am so grateful to them. For everything.”
Owusu-Sekyere has been appointed non-fiction editorial director of Dialogue’s commercial imprint, joining Amy Mae Baxter, currently in the role as editor and building her fiction list in romance and love stories.
Named a Rising Star by The Bookseller in 2020, Owusu-Sekyere leaves her current role at Hodder & Stoughton imprint Coronet where she published Finding Me by Viola Davis. She has also been a regular contributor on BBC Radio 5 Live and her own writing has appeared in Nasty Women, Mind Matters: Part II and Inspirational Idols, as well as with gal-dem, the BBC, LAPP and Boundless.
She said: “As sad as I am to be leaving my Hodder family, I am delighted to be joining the Dialogue team as we become the newest division of Hachette! I have long admired their track record of publishing brilliant and inspiring books and I look forward to hitting the ground running to build a bold new non-fiction list and establish the new imprint.”
Lovegrove said: “Building this team feels like I am assembling my Avengers. Both Hannah and Joelle are superstars who naturally embody the spirit of Dialogue and share our core mission of innovation, inclusion and inspiration. Their appointments will help the team to deliver on our promise to bring a wider range of narratives to readers across our society and I am so proud that the Dialogue glow up offers exciting opportunities for so many.
“Hannah is an exceptional talent, has infectious passion, consumer focus and is a conscious publisher. There are very few people who truly understand literary publishing and have a sharp focus on inclusion and Hannah has it all and more and I am humbled to be part of her journey. I can’t wait to see what she does with this new opportunity after all she has learnt from the hugely inspirational Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton who has my deep respect.
“Joelle is an indefatigable force with assured taste, broad knowledge, commercial nous and insatiable energy. I am really excited to see which narratives she will bring to Dialogue as I have loved much of what she has achieved at Coronet and Unbound and her background as a geologist and zest for life is as unique as it is impressive.”
