Reaktion’s Watkins to join Footnote Press as editorial director

Dave Watkins, commissioning editor at Reaktion Books, is moving to Footnote Press from the end of March. 

Announced last year in partnership with Bonnier Books UK, the mission-oriented publisher of politically engaged and socially aware fiction and non-fiction will launch this spring. 

Watkins joins after four years at Reaktion, where he commissioned non-fiction titles such as Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music by J R Moore (2021), Wanderers: A History of Women Walking (2020) by Kerri Andrews and The Story of Polari: Britain’s Secret Gay Language (2019). He also formerly commissioned for Faber & Faber’s social list, where his authors included Billy Bragg and Peggy Seeger. 

In his new role Watkins will report to Footnote Press m.d. Vidisha Biswas, who said: "Dave brings with him a breadth of publishing expertise, fantastic taste and a strong commitment to Footnote’s mission to promote social justice and drive narrative change. We are delighted to have him join our growing team, and can’t wait to see which new directions he will help take the list in."

Watkins added: "I am beyond thrilled to be joining Footnote. In my career, I have been fortunate to work with many exceptional authors and colleagues, across a range of publishing, and I could not be more pleased to contribute the skills I have acquired to such an exciting, forward-thinking and necessary new venture. Watch this space."

The "pioneering" new press will begin by publishing 10 to 15 books a year of "stimulating and politically-engaged fiction and non-fiction, including history, current affairs, philosophy, memoir, situational reportage, environment and more". 

Bonnier said the publisher was committed to spotlighting "previously excluded ways of thinking, being and organising through its ambitious publishing programme".