Gabriela Taboas Zayas, Associate Editor, Brands & Licenses

Gabriela Taboas is an Associate Editor who works on editing brands and licensed titles including Bluey, The Night Before, Holly Horror, Godzilla, Ford, and many more. She is interested in acquiring middle grade, YA novels, and graphic novels from marginalized voices, particularly stories that are horror, contemporary fantasy, and thrillers.

Read More

Casey Nugent, Senior Publishing Manager, Brands and Licenses

Casey Nugent is the Senior Publishing Manager for Brands and Licenses. In her role, she acts as the point person for the licensing team, and is the primary contact for licensors as they work with PYR. She works as the liaison between the licensor’s teams and the internal PYR teams across a number of divisions,…

Read More

Tyiana Combs, Assistant Editor

Tyiana is an assistant editor who works on picture books, leveled readers, middle grade titles and YA. She has a specific interest in character-driven narratives that focus on telling various stories of people of color, with an emphasis on Black fantasy tales, Black contemporary and romance works and historical fiction projects. Overall, she hopes to…

Read More

Elizabeth Lee, Senior Editor

Elizabeth Lee is a senior editor dedicated to showcasing and uplifting marginalized voices, particularly in stories that push storytelling boundaries and center around joy, hope, and healing. She primarily acquires contemporary and light fantasy middle grade and young adult fiction and graphic novels, as well as the select, lyrical picture book. Her titles include HOW…

Read More

Brian Clark, Senior Editor Mad Libs

Brian Clark earned his MA degree in Children’s Media/TV Writing & Gender Studies from NYU, his BA in English at the University of Miami and is a former member of the Groundlings Sunday Company Improv/Comedy Troupe. Prior to joining the Penguin Random House team in 2019 as the editor of the Mad Libs brand, Brian worked as a freelance TV writer, producer, author and editor, based in Los Angeles. Brian and the rest of the writing team received an Emmy nomination for their work on The Who Was Show on Netflix (based on the highly successful Penguin Random House book series). Brian loves Mad Libs because he loves comedy and part of speech equally! Well, almost equally!

Read More

Jenny Ly, Assistant Editor

Assistant Editor Jenny Ly joined Kokila and Nancy Paulsen Books in September 2023. She previously worked at HarperCollins, W.W. Norton, and was a former bookseller. At Harper, she assisted on books such as Wei Skates On by Olympian Nathan Chen and Lorraine Nam; the Batchelder Award-winner Just a Girl by Lia Levi, translated by Sylvia Notini; and the #1 NYT…

Read More

Tenisha Anderson-Kenkpen, Publishing Assistant

Publishing Assistant Tenisha Anderson-Kenkpen joined Kokila in October 2023. Before Kokila, Tenisha lent her expertise as a legal industry consultant at Lighthouse Global and Epiq. She worked in advertising sales for Maxim and New York Magazine. She co-founded and co-hosted the podcast Speaking of Fashion during the early era of podcasting. She also founded Qlix…

Read More

Daphne Ming Durham, Executive Editor

Daphne Durham Penguin.com Head Shot

Daphne Ming Durham joined Putnam in 2023 from MCD / Farrar, Straus & Giroux and publishes genre-blurring fiction with sharp edges, diverse perspectives, and spiky protagonists. She loves voice-driven, surprising novels that readers devour in one sitting, but come away having learned something—vivid, gripping stories that upend familiar tropes and push boundaries in crime, mystery/thriller,…

Read More

Megan Wenerstrom, Assistant Editor

Megan Wenerstrom

Megan joined Sentinel in 2022, drawn to big ideas that push boundaries and inspire new perspectives. Her authors span a diverse range of thinkers—entrepreneurs, philosophers, environmentalists, tech experts, activists, and even cowboys —bringing fresh insights to readers. Before publishing, Megan’s career began as a public school teacher, where she cultivated her talent for sparking curiosity and meaningful dialogue.

Read More