Cowan joins DK to lead Life

DK has appointed Katie Cowan as publishing director at Life, following Mary-Clare Jerram’s retirement reported earlier this year.

Cowan was previously publishing director at Pavilion Books before leaving in November 2019, and was responsible for leading the commissioning strategy across all lifestyle areas, including cookery, craft, interiors, gardening, fashion, wellbeing and gift. Cowan has developed key author and brand partnerships such as Mob Kitchen, Honey & Co, Toft Alpaca, Kate Watson-Smyth/Mad About the House, Gennaro Contaldo, Anna Del Conte and Asma Kahn at Darjeeling Express.

Jerram, DK publishing director, retired at the end of April after three decades with the company, 16 of which she spent leading DK’s lifestyle publishing programme.

Rebecca Smart, managing director of Publishing, said: "I’m thrilled to welcome Katie to DK as she takes on this important role leading our talented Life team. Her proven track record and expertise in spotting new trends and producing bestsellers across lifestyle genres will be a huge benefit to us. Katie will be instrumental in growing our portfolio of talented authors and lifestyle experts and taking our list to new heights."

Cowan said: "I have always greatly admired the vision and authority of DK’s illustrated publishing and I can't wait to join Rebecca and the Life team this summer to start work on this exciting chapter in the company’s publishing future."

Cowan will report directly to Smart and joins the company on 29th June.