HQ's Emily Kitchin joins The Novelry

Emily Kitchin, currently editorial director at HarperCollins division HQ, is joining The Novelry as head of commercial fiction. She will work alongside Josie Humber, head of upmarket and literary Fiction, and Craig Leyenaar, head of science fiction and fantasy, reporting to editorial director Lizzy Goudsmit Kay.

Kitchin has worked on a broad range of commercial fiction from authors such as Ashley Poston, Shirley Ballas and Sheila McClure, Josie Lloyd, Helen Monks Takhar and Fiona Lucas while at HQ and, in her previous role as senior commissioning editor at Hodder & Stoughton, published authors such as Holly Bourne, Oli White and Amy Engel.

She said: “I’ve loved my time at HQ and feel so lucky and proud to have worked with so many incredible authors during my six years there. I will miss them hugely, along with my equally incredible colleagues. However I’m thrilled to be joining The Novelry, which I’ve admired from afar as a dynamic company that’s doing really exciting things, and that has created such a positive and supportive community for writers. I’m really looking forward to working closely with The Novelry’s authors and championing them through every stage of the writing process.”

Goudsmit Kay said: “I am delighted that Emily is joining our team at The Novelry in this newly created role. I am really looking forward to working with her and I know our writers will benefit hugely from her keen editorial eye and her expertise in commercial fiction. We can’t wait to have her on the team and know she will prove instrumental as we continue to support so many of our writers towards securing agent representation and publishing deals.”