Benjamin Lee, VP, Associate Publisher of Paperbacks

Ben Lee headshot
Different colored book spines with the Dutton books logo, the plume books logo, and the tiny rep books logo

Overview

A focused imprint with a huge audience, Dutton is part of the largest English-language publisher in the world. Dutton’s deeply discussable titles have become bestsellers, been national book club picks, and won the National Book Award. Publicity—and marketing—driven, its list of sixty books per year is half nonfiction and half fiction. Dutton’s imprints include Plume and Tiny Reparations Books.

Dutton’s roster of recent and upcoming bestselling and notable fiction authors includes Abi Daré (The Girl with the Louding Voice), Fiona Davis (The Spectacular and The Lions of Fifth Avenue), Eric Jerome Dickey (The Business of Lovers and Before We Were Wicked), Joseph Finder (House on Fire and Judgment), Hank Green (A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor and An Absolutely Remarkable Thing), Tami Hoag (The Boy), Jason Mott (Hell of a Book), Ana Reyes (The House in the Pines), Riley Sager (The Only One Left and Survive the Night), Adriana Trigiani (The Good Left Undone), and Jonathan Tropper (This Is Where I Leave You), among others.

Recent and upcoming bestselling and notable nonfiction authors include Mark Adams (Turn Right at Machu Picchu), Drew Barrymore (Rebel Homemaker), Sean Carroll (Something Deeply Hidden and The Big Picture ), Robyn Crawford (A Song for You), Martin Dugard (Taking London and Taking Paris), Scott Ellsworth (The Ground Breaking), Steven Gillon (America’s Reluctant Prince), Maria Goodavage (Soldier Dogs and Top Dog), John Green (The Anthropocene Reviewed), Andre Iguodala (The Sixth Man), Jon Karl (Tired of Winning, Betrayal, and Front Row at the Trump Show), Des Linden (Choosing to Run), Nick Offerman (Where the Deer and the Antelope Play and Paddle Your Own Canoe), Mark Owen (No Easy Day and No Hero), Joe Posnanski (Why We Love Baseball), Clinton Romesha (Red Platoon), Jeff Tweedy (World Within A Song, How to Write One Song, and Let’s Go So We Can Get Back), Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin), and Elizabeth Williamson (Sandy Hook).

Meet the Team

Ivan Held, President

Ivan Held is President of Putnam, Dutton, and Berkley and currently oversees business and publishing strategies for the imprints.

Ivan started his career as a bookseller in Washington, DC, before moving to the publicity department at Random House, where he worked with authors ranging from Norman Mailer to General Colin Powell. In the late 1990s he was named VP/Associate Publisher and Marketing Director for the Viking imprint of Penguin. Before returning to Penguin in 2005, he founded the Random House Trade Paperbacks imprint at Random House.

John Parsley, VP, Publisher

John Parsley is Vice President and Publisher of Dutton and its imprints Plume and Tiny Reparations. John was previously VP, Editor in Chief of Dutton, which he joined in 2017 after editorial roles at Little, Brown and Macmillan. He has edited many New York Times bestsellers, as well as books that have won or been finalists for prizes including the Aspen Book Awards, Books for a Better Life Award, Carnegie Medal, Edgar Award, Kirkus Prize, LA Times Book Prize, Lukas Prize, National Book Award, NBCC Award, NYT Notables, PEN Awards, Pulitzer Prize, and TIME 100.

Benjamin Lee, Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, Paperbacks & Backlist

Ben Lee joined Dutton, Putnam, and Berkley as Vice President, Associate Publisher of paperbacks in March 2015.  He oversees the paperback conversion program for all of Dutton and Putnam’s books. Prior to joining Dutton, Putnam, and Berkley, Ben was most recently VP, Associate Publisher of Atria Books at Simon & Schuster, overseeing campaigns for many New York Times bestselling authors including Brad Thor, Jennifer Weiner, Vince Flynn, Theresa Caputo, Rachael Ray and Buddy Valastro.

Prior to that at Simon, he sold the warehouse clubs and later handled Target, Readerlink, B&T, Ingram and the CBA. He started his publishing career at Random House, where he worked in sales with the warehouse clubs as well as in marketing with the Information Group.

Amanda Walker, Executive Director of Publicity

Amanda Walker joined Dutton as Publicist in 2007 and was named Director in 2014. In her Dutton career, she has created and implemented bestselling campaigns for many nonfiction and fiction authors, including Hank Green, Daniel J. Levitin, Tamer Elnoury, W. Kamau Bell, Joseph Finder, Ken Follett, Tracy Chevalier, John Hodgman, and Dan Savage. In addition to managing the publicity department and developing publicity strategies for the entire list, Amanda works directly with many Dutton authors and has orchestrated publicity campaigns for breakout bestselling books including Hank Green’s #1 bestseller An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, the Parkland High School March For Our Lives Founders’ Glimmer of Hope, Clint Romesha’s Red Platoon, Jonathan Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You, and Mark Adams’ Turn Right at Machu Picchu, landing all of the respective authors on the New York Times bestseller list for the first time in their careers. Before joining Dutton, she worked at Simon & Schuster.

Stephanie Cooper, Director of Marketing

Stephanie Cooper is Director of Marketing for Dutton, Plume, and Tiny Reparations Books. She has 15 years of experience marketing bestselling trade books, including literary and commercial fiction, conversation-starting narrative nonfiction and memoir, and pop culture and design books.

As head of marketing, she has overseen campaigns for bestselling franchise and award-winning authors, including Lisa Gardner, Jonathan Karl, NBA winner Jason Mott, Adriana Trigiani, Phoebe Robinson, Fiona Davis, Riley Sager, Trixie Mattel & Katya, Drew Barrymore, and Nick Offerman. Previously, as Marketing Director at HarperCollins Publishers, she led bestselling marketing campaigns for Barbara Kingsolver, Ann Patchett, Mitch Albom, Jacqueline Winspear, Mark Manson, Peggy Orenstein, and Roxane Gay, among many others. She is dedicated to leveraging the latest analytics and marketplace insights and trends to find the widest possible readership for each book.

Jill Schwartzman, VP & Executive Editor; Editorial Director, Plume

Jill Schwartzman joined Dutton in January 2012 with a mandate to acquire platform, publicity, and voice-driven nonfiction, with a focus on celebrity, pop culture, memoir, humor, music, biography, and narrative nonfiction. Recent and upcoming Dutton titles include Nick Offerman’s fifth New York Times bestseller Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, Des Linden’s Choosing to Run, Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack’s What’s Next, and Anna Lembke’s The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook. Other New York Times bestsellers at Dutton include Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song, Andy Greene’s The Office, Robyn Crawford’s A Song for You, Brooke Shields’s There Was a Little Girl, Drew Barrymore’s Wildflower, and Janice Kaplan’s The Gratitude Diaries.

Jill is also Editorial Director of Plume, where she published the New York Times bestseller Subpar Parks by Amber Share, Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood, as well as many other books in the pop culture, illustrated, and humor space, including Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka’s upcoming cocktail and mocktail book, Mixed.

Maya Ziv, VP, Editorial Director

Maya Ziv joined Dutton in 2015, focusing on upmarket and literary fiction and select narrative nonfiction. Recent and upcoming fiction include New York Times bestselling author Riley’s Sager’s Middle of the Night, Ana Reyes New York Times bestseller The House in the Pines, Hank Green’s #1 New York Times bestseller, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Adriana Trigiani’s New York Times bestseller, The Good Left Undone, The Sicilian Inheritance by award-winning journalist, Jo Piazza, Ella Dawson’s But How Are You, Really, and Suzanne Rindell’s Summer Fridays. Recent and upcoming nonfiction include Elinor Cleghorn’s Unwell Women, Nona Willis-Aronowitz’s Bad Sex, Joshua Leifer’s Tablets Shattered, and Bernice McFadden’s upcoming memoir, First Born Girls.

Lindsey Rose, Executive Editor

Lindsey Rose joined Dutton in January 2019 as an executive editor with a particular focus on upmarket and commercial fiction as well as thrillers, crime, and suspense.

Recent and upcoming titles include Abi Daré’s powerful voice-driven Nigeria-set debut The Girl with the Louding Voice, which was a New York Times bestseller and a #ReadWithJenna Today Show book club pick; Eileen Garvin’s heartwarming debut about second chances, unexpected friendship, and beekeeping The Music of Bees;  David Klass’s fast-paced eco-thriller Out of Time; S.K Barnett’s twisty and explosive psychological suspense novel Safe;  #1 internationally bestselling author Tara Moss’s glamorous post-WWII historical novel The War Widow; Jason Mott’s (co-edited with John Parsley) simultaneously funny and heart-wrenching novel Hell of a Book examining the toll of systemic racism and police violence on America; and Soon Wiley’s breathtaking debut novel about a Korean-American young man searching for a sense of identity while straddling both cultures.

Before coming to Dutton, Lindsey began her career at Grand Central Publishing, where she had the privilege of working with many bestselling and award-winning authors including David Baldacci, Iris Johansen, the Robert Ludlum Estate, Jeff Abbott, Sarah Blaedel, Robert Bryndza, Louise Jensen, Margaret Maron, M.C. Beaton, Marcia Muller, Eric Van Lustbader, Kyle Mills, Jamie Freveletti, and Nalo Hopkinson.

Emi Ikkanda, Executive Editor at Tiny Reparations Books

Emi Ikkanda, Executive Editor

Emi Ikkanda is an Executive Editor acquiring nonfiction and select fiction projects at Tiny Reparations Books, Dutton, and Plume at Penguin Random House. She previously worked at Seal Press at Hachette, Spiegel & Grau at Random House, and Henry Holt at Macmillan. She publishes a diverse list of award-winning, bestselling, and culturally relevant books. Over the years she has edited #1 New York Times and international bestselling authors, and edited winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Carnegie Medal, Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, and the TIME 100.

Recent highlights on her list include Catherine Joy White’s This Thread of Gold, Jess Guitierrez’s A Product of Genetics (and Day Drinking), Shayla Lawson’s How to Live Free in A Dangerous World, #1 New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo’s Mediocre, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s NBA finalist The Undocumented Americans, Carla Power’s Pulitzer finalist Home, Land, Security, Minda Harts’s Right Within, Arianna Davis’s What Would Frida Do?, international bestselling novelist Michael David Lukas’s The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Sanaë Lemoine’s New York Times Editor’s Choice The Margot Affair, NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott’s Back to Earth, and former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao’s Reset.

Pilar Garcia-Brown, Senior Editor

Pilar Garcia-Brown joined Dutton as a Senior Editor in September 2021. Previously, she worked at Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She concentrates on fiction in multiple categories, as well as the occasional narrative nonfiction. She’s interested in voice and character-driven fiction that upends expectation or plays with genre, and is especially drawn to novels that tackle urgent, contemporary social and cultural themes in an irreverent or humorous way. On the nonfiction side, she is looking for hybrid memoir and essays.

Pilar’s recent and forthcoming titles include: the instant New York Times bestseller Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour;  Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang, which will be produced for TV by Constance Wu; the National Book Award-nominated collection Holler, Child by LaToya Watkins; the New York Times Editors’ Choice Old Enough by Haley Jakobson; Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, a dual-period queer Gothic vampire novel set in Argentina; Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang, a sweeping, tender debut about gay men in rural China and the women who marry them; and Trust and Safety by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman, a smart, wickedly funny novel about a couple who move to the Hudson Valley and become entangled with a queer couple living the dream analog life.  

Nick Amphlett, Senior Editor

Nick Amphlett joined Dutton as a Senior Editor in September 2024. He acquires nonfiction, with particular interest in history, politics and current events, popular science, narrative nonfiction, biography, and sports.

Prior to Dutton, he spent ten years at William Morrow, where he edited a range of leading journalists, academics, and thought leaders, including recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, and NBA Finals MVP Award.

Cassidy Sachs, Editor

Cassidy Sachs joined Dutton in 2017 and has a list that’s all about empowerment. She is especially keen to acquire narrative disrupting nonfiction and books that flip the script in some way across the genres of journalism and history, as well as expert-led investigations written by trailblazing scholars. She is seeking book club fiction that finds perfect balance between lighthearted and heartfelt, and features strong, witchy women at its center. For Plume, she hopes to acquire platform driven memoir, lifestyle, and pop-culture with a point.  Across both lists she has acquired and edited nationally and New York Times bestselling books, has worked with award winning journalists and historians, and has published book club picks, GMA and Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books, and Goodreads Choice Awards nominees.

Cassidy’s previous and upcoming Dutton titles New York Times bestselling The World’s Worst Assistant by Conan O’Brien’s longtime assistant Sona Movsesian; Nationally bestselling Break the Cycle by trauma psychologist Dr. Mariel Buque; Lyn Slater aka the Accidental Icon’s How To Be Old; Naoise Mac Sweeney’s The West, a paradigm-shifting history told through fourteen remarkable lives; The Highest Law in the Land, shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award by Jessica Pishko. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin; Book of the Month Club pick Darling Girl by Liz Michalski; Out of Love, a debut and Barnes and Noble monthly fiction pick by Hazel Hayes; and the nationally bestselling, TikTok viral Magnolia Parks Universe series by Jessa Hastings.

Lashanda Anakwah, Editor

Lashanda Anakwah is an editor at Tiny Reparations acquiring fiction and select non-fiction titles. Before joining Tiny Reparations she worked at the Simon & Schuster flagship imprint. She is building a list that captures a wide array of human experiences, and is drawn to edgy voice driven literary, upmarket and commercial fiction , centered on complicated, unique characters. Smart, immersive prose written with craft, intention and depth of feeling is sure to capture her attention. As well as themes of geographic identity, culture, and coming of age. 

Lashanda is also looking for transformative memoirs, in addition to narrative non-fiction that answers the “why” and “how” in regards to the socio-political-economic systems we are all mired in, with a clear vision of the way forward. 

Rachael Kelly, Editor

Rachael Kelly is an Editor at Dutton acquiring commercial and upmarket/book club fiction across genres—stories that combine rapid pacing, nuanced character development, complex themes, and compelling hooks. She is building a list that prioritizes both voice and plot, and gravitates toward fiction that is romantic, escapist, suspenseful, mysterious, or psychological in nature, especially from authors with fresh perspectives and strong connections to their subject matter. Before joining the Dutton team in May 2024, Rachael worked at Grand Central Publishing, where she assisted with a number of New York Times bestselling authors, such as Colleen Hoover, David Baldacci, and Nicholas Sparks, while building her own list, including Maria Dong’s critically acclaimed Liar, Dreamer, Thief and Kehinde Fadipe’s #ReadWithJenna Today Show book club pick The Sun Sets in Singapore. Rachael is also open to select narrative nonfiction and memoir, especially works that reflect on culture, identity, singular experiences, and the lasting effects of history.

Grace Layer, Associate Editor

Grace Layer joined Dutton in January 2021, after working as an agent assistant at Empire Literary and as a freelance editor. On the nonfiction side, Grace is looking for smart narrative nonfiction by journalists or experts in their field, particularly in the areas of education, intersectional feminism, and true crime. On the fiction side, she’s interested in upmarket, voice-driven novels with genre elements that explore the complexities of friendships and family. She is seeking stories by and about BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals.

Grace has helped edit The Forever Witness by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Edward Humes, Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna, and Sinkable by Daniel Stone, among others. Her acquisitions include the revised and updated edition of The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock and Fernette Eide and the forthcoming novel A Season of Perfect Happiness by Maribeth Fischer.

David Howe, Associate Editor

David Howe joined Dutton as an Associate Editor in 2024 and acquires a wide range of nonfiction. On the prescriptive side, he looks for books that lead to healthier lives or demystify transformative concepts for a broader audience, written by authors who combine rigorous research with commercial appeal. In narrative nonfiction, he’s most interested in pop science and psychology, overlooked history, timely journalism, platform-driven memoir, and sports.

Before coming to Dutton, David was at HarperCollins and Hachette Book Group, where he worked with bestselling and award-winning authors including Tim Alberta, Douglas Brinkley, Natalie Haynes, Daniel Mendelsohn, Maria Ressa, Amity Shlaes, and Kevin Sites.

Charlotte Peters, Assistant Editor

Charlotte Peters joined Dutton in May 2022. In fiction, she is interested in commercial, genre, and literary fiction, especially anything in unique, atmospheric settings that involve, gothic, fantastical elements or dark institutions, escapist rom-coms simmering in magic (literal and figurative), and imaginative, character-driven fantasy and romantasy with a feminist bend. In nonfiction, Charlotte gravitates toward fresh, pop history and pop-culture-centered works. Upcoming titles include Your Favorite Scary Movie by Ashley Cullins and The Knox by Karen Winn.

Ella Kurki, Assistant Editor

Ella Kurki joined Dutton in February 2023, after starting her career at Penguin Michael Joseph in London. She loves voice and character-driven fiction with unique storytelling and unpredictable characters. On the nonfiction side, she’s interested in deeply researched stories that entertain, educate, and engage with contemporary issues. Ella has editorially contributed to Cherry Lou Sy’s Love Can’t Feed You, Nina St. Pierre’s Love Is a Burning Thing, and Timothy C. Winegard’s The Horse.