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| Fiona McCrae | |
Graywolf Press director and publisher Fiona McCrae plans to retire, effective June 2022, after 27 years in the position. She joined the company in 1994, only the second publisher to lead the press after its founding by Scott Walker in 1974. Previously she had been an editor at Faber & Faber in London and then Boston.
A committee led by Cathy Polasky, chair of the Graywolf board of directors, will lead the search for a successor. "We celebrate Fiona's 27 years of dedication to the organization and recognize the enormous future potential of Graywolf," Polasky said. "Fiona herself has often told us that change is opportunity, so we look forward to ensuring that new leadership builds on the strength that she has helped to create while forging new paths for Graywolf."
McCrae observed: "It's an emotional moment to think about stepping away from this beloved press that has allowed me to flourish over so many years. It's been a marvelous adventure and I am so grateful to all the incredible individuals I have had the pleasure of working with, from the exceptional staff and board to all our cherished and talented writers. Their words have changed and enriched me in countless ways. I have loved it all: discovering new writers, seeing new covers come together, traveling to meet national and international colleagues, the successes--large and small, the readings, the conferences and book fairs. Such riches--I have been so lucky. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters the press is in robust shape, ready for a fresh vision to guide it to its new chapter."
During her tenure at Graywolf, McCrae and the team of editors she put together have published writers who have been recognized with a wide range of awards and nominations, including the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Booker International Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award and International Dublin Literary Award.
Those writers include Elizabeth Alexander, Eula Biss, Jamel Brinkley, Anna Burns, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Natalie Diaz, Percival Everett, Jakob Guanzon, Leslie Jamison, Layli Long Soldier, Carmen Maria Machado, Maggie Nelson, Dorthe Nors, Max Porter, Claudia Rankine, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Vijay Seshadri, Danez Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Mary Szybist and Kevin Young.
McCrae expanded the reach of the press by forging partnerships with other organizations, including the College of St. Benedict, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences, the Library of Congress, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, Cave Canem, A Public Space and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which has distributed Graywolf's titles since 2002. She oversaw the creation of Graywolf's National Council, the Citizen Literary Fellowship, and the Art of series of short books on the craft of writing, as well as the launch of prizes like the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the African Fiction Prize.
She is currently vice-chair of the National Book Foundation board, serves on the boards of the Anderson Center and the literary journal Fence, and is an adviser for Orion magazine. She was awarded the CLMP Golden Colophon for leadership in 2014, and received the Poets & Writers Editor's Award with Graywolf Press executive editor Jeff Shotts in 2017.