McWalters made commissioning editor in raft of promotions at Penguin Life and Penguin Business

Amy McWalters has been promoted to commissioning editor in a raft of promotions across the editorial team at Penguin Life and Penguin Business.  

McWalters joined the team in 2020 as an editor and has covered part of Emily Robertson’s maternity leave over the past 12 months as acting commissioning editor. Over the past year she has led on the publication of Megan Rossi’s Eat More, Live Well and stepped in to edit and co-ordinate design on Rangan Chatterjee’s Happy Mind, Happy Life. 

She has been building her own list of new authors, including the recently announced What am I Missing? by psychotherapist and podcast host Emma Reed Turrell. In her new role McWalters will continue to lead on Penguin Life’s illustrated titles with Robertson and grow its publishing in self-help, food, alternative therapies and mind, body and spirit. 

Publisher Martina O’Sullivan said: “Amy is a talented, thoughtful commissioning editor who is rapidly assembling a fantastic list of authors for Penguin Life. She is always brimming with new ideas so I’m really looking forward to seeing her grow her own list.” 

McWalters added: “I feel very lucky to have worked with such incredible authors over the last year and I am really grateful to Martina for the recognition of those books, as well as the others I have commissioned so far. I am excited to keep building my own list of talented authors and to publish them alongside the fantastic team at Penguin Life.” 

Celia Buzuk has been promoted to editor for Penguin Business. She has managed the Penguin Business Experts Series, commissioning four books for it, including Mental Health at Work by James Routledge. She has also performed key edits on You Coach You by Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper, and The Key Man by Simon Clark and Will Louch. 

She will report into Jamie Birkett, commissioning editor for Penguin Life and Penguin Business, and will continue to edit a range of titles across the Business list, along with a select number of Life titles each year. She will also be acquiring her own titles in economics, current affairs and behavioural psychology. 

Susannah Bennett has been promoted to assistant editor for Penguin Life. She co-edited Release the Beast by Bimini Bon Boulash with Tom Killingbeck for Viking and led on the publication of Children of the Anthropocene last month. She has taken over sole responsibility for the Penguin Life Experts series and helped edit Preparing for the Perimenopause and Menopause by Louise Newson. In her new role she will continue to support O’Sullivan and Robertson while starting to develop more of her own ideas. 

In addition to these promotions, Robertson will be returning from maternity leave in a phased way from 2nd August, working two days a week, before returning in September. 

O’Sullivan said: “Amy, Celia and Susannah are all really talented editors so it’s wonderful to see each one of them progress. We’ve missed Emily enormously over the past year so it’s great to be able to welcome her back to a full and thriving team.”