Rhiannon Smith to strengthen Fleet's commissioning team

Little, Brown commissioning editor Rhiannon Smith has secured a new role on the Fleet editorial team commissioning both fiction and non-fiction. She will continue to also commission non-fiction for Sphere, alongside projects for Little, Brown's digital-first list Blackfriars. 

Smith first joined Little, Brown in 2010 as an editorial assistant, progressing to assistant editor in 2014 and to the role of commissioning editor in 2015 working exclusively across Sphere and Blackfriars' non-fiction lists. She says she is now looking forward to finding "exceptional new voices and talent" for the Fleet's list, its brief to publish 10-12 books a year across fiction and non-fiction.

M.d. of Little, Brown Charlie King called Smith "a perfect fit" for Fleet, Little, Brown's new imprint launched in 2016, while publisher Ursula Doyle said she had always been impressed by Smith's taste and high standards, in particular her publishing of Hollie McNish’s Nobody Told Me she said was "inspiring". "Her editorial eye will bring a new dimension to the list," said Doyle.

Fleet's titles from its first year include Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl, winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle award for autobiography and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award, with a TV adaptation to be written and directed by Oscar-winning writer and director Barry Jenkins.