Russell promoted to senior commissioning editor at Jonathan Cape

Alex Russell has been promoted from senior editor to senior commissioning editor at Jonathan Cape. He will acquire fiction and select non-fiction in addition to leading the imprint’s paperback publishing.

Since joining Vintage from Faber in 2016, he has led the paperback publication of books including Ian McEwan’s Lessons, Anthony Horowitz’s Richard & Judy Book Club pick With a Mind to Kill, Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize winner The Overstory, Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona, Tim Spector’s Spoon-Fed and Afua Hirsch’s Brit(ish).

His acquisitions include a new novel by Monique Roffey, and the paperback rights to Roffey’s Costa Book of the Year The Mermaid of Black Conch; Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan’s anthology 100 Queer Poems; and Amelia Abraham’s We Can Do Better Than This, with contributions by Owen Jones, Shon Faye and Wolfgang Tillmans, among others.

Russell has also worked closely with Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché on their debut science fiction thriller Prophet and with Irvine Welsh on his CRIME trilogy.

Russell said: “Every day I marvel at the brilliance of Cape’s writers and the exhilarating, mind-expanding books that they share with us. It is a continual delight, too, to watch the creative powers of the Cape and Vintage teams at work as we bring our ambitions to life. It is a privilege to be stepping into this role, and I am incredibly excited about the new journeys with new writers that are to come.”

Hannah Westland, publishing director at Jonathan Cape, said: “Alex is a brilliant colleague with exceptional editorial instincts – he has great taste and approaches every book with original and creative publishing ideas, underpinned with a real commercial understanding of the market. I know he’ll bring outstanding new writers to our list – we look forward to welcoming them.”