Introducing the mentors for the SYP UK team, who are running both the Into and Launch streams. Into is dedicated to helping those looking to secure their first permanent role in publishing; Launch is directed towards individuals seeking to freelance, start their own company, or progress in the publishing industry in a different way than in the traditional in-house options. Please note the Launch stream is open to anyone living in England, Scotland, and Wales.
The SYP UK Into stream is open to anyone living in the following areas: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, West Midlands.
If you are based in the areas listed above, you could be paired with one of the mentors listed below.
Let us introduce you to our mentors taking part in the 2023 SYP UK Mentorship Scheme…
Please note applications to the 2023 Mentorship Scheme are now closed. We will get in touch about successful applications at the beginning of July 2023.
SYP UK Into Stream
Yassine Belkacemi is Editorial Director at the imprints John Murray & Baskerville, which are part of the John Murray Press division at Hachette UK. Originally from Glasgow, he was previously Publicity Director at John Murray Press before moving into editorial full-time earlier this year.
Kristel Buckley is an Editor and Publicity Associate who is passionate about bringing stories into the world from voices who may have not been heard before. She has worked in publishing for four years in a multitude of different roles, but currently works in Publicity and Media for Lantana Publishing. She could also talk your ear off about women’s representation in literature.
Alice Caprio grew up in Italy before moving to the UK, where she completed a BA in English and Related Literature at the University of York, followed by an MA in Publishing at London College of Communications, UAL. She joined Felicity Bryan Associates in 2023 from London Literary Scouting, where she specialised in children’s, YA, and SFF and worked closely with publishers and media companies around the world. She is now actively building a list that spans middle grade and YA fiction across all genres, commercial adult fiction, and romance and fantasy for all ages. She loves fiction that is smart, commercial and bold, with a clear international appeal.
Jamie Cowen has worked in publishing for 20 years. The first 10 years were spent in various roles within HarperCollins and the Hachette Group, and more recently he has been a literary agent with the Ampersand Agency where he was appointed Managing Director in 2021. Jamie represents an intentionally diverse list of writers, mostly of fiction with some narrative non-fiction, including award winning authors such as Tariq Ashkanani, T L Huchu and Gwyneth Jones, as well as bestsellers including Michael Wood and M K Hill. He is looking forward to mentorship via the SYP and hopes to help de-mystify the occasionally opaque world of publishing.
Beth Cox is an Inclusion and Equality Consultant who specialises in working with publishing teams to help them understand the basic principles of inclusion so that they can embed inclusion in everything they do. Her focus is very much on practical action and this is where her hands on experience, over nearly 20 years, of making every book she works on incidentally inclusive comes into play. Beth was on the steering group for the Scope In the Picture Project, is a co-founder of Inclusive Minds, has spoken at events nationally and internationally and trained students, teachers and publishers in inclusion.
Oli Holden-Rea is the Editorial Director for Narrative Non-Fiction at Welbeck, an imprint of Headline/Hachette. He began his career publishing literary fiction and non-fiction at Bloomsbury, before moving to Bonnier and then to Welbeck. In his career, he’s published or helped publish books by Melanie C (Sporty Spice), Ben Macintyre, Margaret Atwood, Otto English, Khaled Hosseini, Madeline Miller and The Big Issue.
Helen Hughes is the Senior Production Controller at Picador, the literary imprint of Pan Macmillan. She graduated from UCL’s MA in Publishing programme in 2015 and has worked in Production in both adult trade and children’s publishing for Faber & Faber and Hachette Children’s Group. She is passionate about the materiality of books, and has worked on titles from the likes of Onjali Q. Raúf, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Cormac McCarthy, Douglas Stuart and Leigh Bardugo.
Srishti Kadu is currently a Procurement Controller in the Books Publishing Services team at Taylor & Francis, working closely with printers and production teams to ensure their books are available globally. She moved to the UK from Mumbai, India to study English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. She ran the University’s ‘Flash Literary Journal’ which at the time was an online-only journal, but Srishti successfully pitched for funding, bringing the publication into print for the first time. After graduating she worked at Carnegie Publishing as a Book Design and Publishing Assistant and in 2019 was a winner of the Print Futures Award, run by the Printing Charity. She has also won the London Book Fair’s (LBF) Trailblazer Award in 2022. She is currently a Lancaster University Careers mentor and has written articles about book production, getting into publishing, and working in the industry for BookBrunch, the Publishing Training Centre and the Printing Charity. She also spoke at the London Book Fair 2023 on a panel discussing the cost of living crisis, inflation and its impact on the publishing industry.
Aimee Kitson has worked in the marketing industry for thirteen years now, beginning her career in partnerships at marketing agencies working with brands such as Accor hotels, the Tate Modern and Penguin books. In 2016 wanting a change and to go in-house, Aimee moved into the publishing industry and has been working in the marketing team at Little, Brown since. Aimee is Senior Marketing Manager at Little, Brown, and works across a variety of genres however specialises in non-fiction, fantasy and sci fi.
Isabel López Ruiz is a Rights Manager at Bloomsbury Publishing, covering their Academic and Professional imprints and selling into some of their biggest markets worldwide. She previously worked at Oxford University Press for six years, also within rights. She has sold translation rights for high-profile authors such as Slavoj Žižek, Timothy Snyder, and Mary Beard.
Helena Markou is Senior Lecturer and Subject Coordinator for the MA Publishing (via distance learning) at Oxford Brookes University. Her research interests include bookselling, publishing, product development, consumerism, book history, book culture, creative industries, digital publishing, digital book history, and digital humanities. Her professional career spans publishing, bookselling, and digital consultancy. As Publishing Innovation Manager at Blackwell’s, Helena completed a Knowledge Transfer Partnership developing and launching the UK’s first custom textbook service to incorporate chapters from multiple copyright holders. Prior to this, Helena worked in International Sales at Taylor & Francis and was Head of New Business at Perini Networks.
Cat Mitchell is a Senior Lecturer in Publishing and the Programme Leader for the Creative Writing and Publishing BA at the University of Derby. She previously worked in the publishing industry, including four years at Penguin Random House in various publicity and marketing roles. She is currently researching disability in publishing, and in 2021 published the Access Denied report, which investigated barriers for disabled job seekers and employees in the industry.
Kate Padiachy is the Managing Editor at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy, where she assesses manuscripts that come in and directs them through the editorial process. After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in American History and Literature, she worked in a bookshop before starting as an intern at Cornerstones. She initially focussed on the ELEVATE programme, which pairs low-income and/or underrepresented writers with specialist editors, before becoming editorial assistant and then managing editor. Outside of work she can often be found with her nose in a book, and her favourite writers include Elizabeth Strout, Sandra Cisneros, Deborah Levy, and Frank O’Hara.
April Peake is a Commissioning Editor at Penguin Random House, working in the audio division. She previously acquired print books for several major publishers including Bloomsbury and Oxford University Press. April chaired SYP UK in 2022 and SYP Oxford in 2020, and now volunteers on BookMachine’s Team Unplugged. She was shortlisted for the London Book Fair’s Trailblazer Awards in 2021.
Nicki Powell completed an Open University degree in English Literature and Language before starting at Bolinda audio 5 years ago where she’s now the Senior Rights & Content Executive. Working across their Children’s, YA and Adult SFF lists and creating audio editions of books such as The Imagination Chamber by Philp Pullman, When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle and Tyger by S F Said. She was named one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars in 2021.
Polly Silk has over a decade of experience in international rights sales and children’s and educational publishing, most recently working as Acting Head of Rights at Oxford University Press’s Education division. She is now a Senior Lecturer in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University, where she teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In 2023 she was the recipient of the Brookes Union Outstanding Teaching for Employability Award. She is also Chair of Oxford Publishing Society (OPuS), which organises events and networking opportunities for the publishing community in and around Oxford.
After university Sarah Wallis-Newman spent 4 years at Blackwell’s on Charing Cross Road. After moving to Somerset, she joined the small team at Chicken House selling rights and leading export sales. 8 years later she is proud to have worked with authors such as Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Maz Evans and Lucy Strange and helped to sell them around the world. She now works with Bounce Sales and Marketing as a Sales Manager selling children’s books into accounts across the Midlands. In her own time, she has mentored young LGBTQ+ writers.
Valentina Zanca graduated in Literature and Philosophy from Padova University in Italy and took an MA in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University. Her first publishing job in the UK was in the foreign rights department at A P Watt Literary Agents, where she assisted the Foreign Rights Director in the sale of translation rights in several countries and was also in charge of overseeing international PR for their clients. She then worked as Publicity Officer at the academic publisher IB Tauris, and after a year moved to Profile Books, where she is now Senior Publicity Manager and has also been Acting Publicity Director twice in the last four years. At Profile, Valentina has handled publicity for a wide range of high-profile writers, including Mary Beard, Kate Mosse, Michael Rosen, Francis Fukuyama, Elif Shafak, Ruby Tandoh, and Shoshana Zubof.
SYP UK Launch Stream
Charles Catton is the Editorial Director of Amber Books Ltd, an independent London-based publisher of illustrated non-fiction books that appeal to a broad international audience.
Cat Crossley runs her own award-winning feminist stationery & gift publishing business, Clavis & Claustra, in Yorkshire. Prior to that, she worked in mainstream publishing for nine years (OUP, followed by HarperCollins) in Production and ultimately Operations Management. While at HarperCollins, Cat set up the now award-winning diversity & inclusion forum, HC All In. In 2015 she left to strike out on her own and has successfully navigated her business through such challenges as Brexit, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. Having a mentor was instrumental in Cat’s decision and confidence to make that move, and she hopes to support someone else in a similar position through this mentoring programme.
Stuart Debar is the Founder and Creative Director of SRL Publishing, a climate positive publisher putting the environment before profit with a passion for storytelling.
Kat McKenna has worked in the publishing industry for fifteen years, specialising in marketing and communications, working with and establishing children’s and YA authors and illustrators. As a freelance marketing and brand consultant, Kat specialises in creating and growing author and book brands, working on celebrity and influencer titles and delivering innovative and strategic marketing campaigns for her clients. An early innovator of digital and social media in the industry, digital strategy and consultancy is also a key focus – particularly focusing on TikTok and word of mouth marketing/fandom culture. Kat has worked across a number of major talents including Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Ben Miller, Dougie Poynter, Gemma Cairney, Chris O’Dowd, Maz Evans, Natasha Devon, Chris Riddell, Tomi Adeyemi, Rainbow Rowell, Frances Hardinge, Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet and Judy Blume. Kat has built and developed the success of many major brands including Supertato, the Treehouse series, Aliens Love Underpants, Dork Diaries and Adventures on Trains.