Harvill Secker makes deputy publishing director redundant amid shift to 'crossover commercial fiction'

A "much-loved" deputy publishing director at Harvill Secker and Vintage, Kate Harvey, has been made redundant after eight years in her role. The redundancy comes as the imprint says it aims to “increase its future commissioning focus on crossover commercial fiction.”

Liz Foley, publishing director at Harvill Secker said: “Kate is a much-loved and respected colleague and we have benefitted from her expertise, thoughtfulness and exceptional care for her authors over the eight years we have worked together. She has been an integral part of the editorial team and will be much missed by colleagues across Vintage.”

Harvey said: “Working with writers is my greatest joy, and in building a list that includes some of the most exciting and accomplished voices from the UK, Ireland, the US and beyond, I am very proud of my years at Vintage. I’m grateful to my authors and my colleagues for their trust, creativity and friendship.”

Harvill Secker confirmed there were no other redundancies at this time.

Harvey, who joined Harvill Secker and Vintage in 2016, acquired Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain-Gang All-Stars, Tommy Orange’s There There and Wandering Stars, and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch. Her authors have won or been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Booker Prize, the Irish Book of the Year and others.

Authors she brought to Harvill Secker include Booker Prize shortlistees Sunjeev Sahota and Edward St Aubyn, Elaine Feeney and Karl Geary. She also published J.M. Coetzee and Karl Ove Knausgaard.

Harvey began her career at A P Watt before moving to Macmillan and Picador, where she published Lucia Berlin, Jim Crace, Jackie Kay, Liza Klaussmann, Helen Oyeyemi, Zia Haider Rahman, Robert Seethaler and Tim Winton. 

In 2014 she co-founded The Rathbones Folio Prize, for which she remains a trustee.