Helen Francis made commissioning editor at HoZ's Apollo

Head of Zeus has appointed literary scout and former commissioning editor at Arcadia, Helen Francis, to the role of commissioning editor of its literary imprint Apollo.

Before her role at Arcadia, Francis has also edited fiction at Vintage and Faber. She will be commissioning around 12 titles a year in partnership with publishing director Neil Belton.

Belton said: "I've known Helen for many years, and have always admired her consistently excellent taste and her openness to very different kinds of good writing. We have a great opportunity in the lively creative environment at Head of Zeus, and I look forward to working with her."

Apollo was launched in April 2016 with a list of forgotten twentieth century classics. From 2017, Apollo will be publishing original literary fiction, and will be seeking out new and established writers. The first of these will be Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, published in February 2017.