Frances Coady is a veteran British publisher. who started Vintage paperbacks in the UK before moving to New York as the publisher of Picador where she is now a literary agent at th
Aragi
agency.

Early life

Born in London, Frances Coady has degrees from the University of Sussex and the University of Essex.

Career

Coady began her publishing career in 1982 in London at Faber & Faber where she published ''Self Help'' by Lorrie Moore,

The Final Passage ''The Final Passage'' is Caryl Phillips's debut novel. First published in 1985, it is about the Caribbean diaspora exemplified in the lives of a young family from a small island of the British West Indies who decide to join the 1950s exodus to ...

and

The European Tribe ''The European Tribe'' is the first book of essays by Caryl Phillips, published in 1987 (in the UK by Faber and Faber and in the US by Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Characterised by Andrea Lee in ''The New York Times'' as "part travelogue, part c ...

by Caryl Philips, and Edward Said’s The World, the Text, and the Critic and After the Last Sky. In 1987 she became editorial director of

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

and was featured in ''The Powers That Will Be - We choose the People Who Will Run Britain In the Nineties'' in ''the Sunday Times Magazine''. In 1989 she became the founding publisher of Vintage paperbacks“whose stunning success launched a thousand embarrassing moments in editorial conferences throughout Britain” according to ''The Independent''. She continued to edit and publish authors including Edward W Said( Culture & Imperialism); Salman Rushdie( The Moor’s Last Sigh) and John Pilger( A Secret Country). In 1993 Coady became the publisher of the newly created literary division of Random House UK, and “one of the most powerful women in British publishing". She left Random House to relaunch

Granta Books ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

as a fully independent publishing house publishing in 1997. In 2000 Coady moved to New York to become the publisher of Picador USA an imprint of the Macmillan Group which she turned into a paperback house with bestsellers and award winning authors including Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Per Petterson’s

Out Stealing Horses ''Out Stealing Horses'' ( no, Ut og stjæle hester) is a 2003 Norwegian novel by Per Petterson. It was translated into English in 2005 by Anne Born, published in the UK that year, and in the US in 2007. Among other awards it won the 2007 Dublin I ...

, Edmund De Waal’s

The Hare with Amber Eyes ''The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance'' (2010) is a family memoir by British ceramicist Edmund de Waal.

and Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose Novels. She also published Frances Coady Books within

Henry Holt Henry Holt may refer to: *Henry Holt (North Dakota politician) (1887–1944), lieutenant governor *Henry Holt (publisher) (1840–1926), American publisher and author **Henry Holt and Company, Holt's publishing company *Henry E. Holt (born 1929), ...

and

Farrar Straus & Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

including– Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine; Richard Powers' Generosity and; Andrew Sean Greer’s

The Confessions of Max Tivoli ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

. Vintage originals included Deborah Eisenberg's The Collected Stories and Esi Edugyan’s

Half Blood Blues ''Half-Blood Blues'' (styled without the hyphen in the UK edition) is a fiction novel by Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, and first published in June 2011 by Serpent’s Tail. The book's dual narrative centers around Sidney "Sid" Griffiths, a journe ...

. In September 2012 Coady was hired by Scott Rudin and Barry Diller of IAC to found a new publishing house Brightline which became Atavist Books. Atavist Books launched in 2014 with Karen Russell's '' Sleep Donation'' As a literary agent at Aragi, Coady’s authors include- Sharon Olds; Claudia Rankine; Ocean Vuong; Michael Cunningham, and Rebecca Solnit.

Personal life

She is married to the novelist Peter Carey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coady, Frances Publishers (people) from London Year of birth missing (living people) British expatriates in the United States 20th-century publishers (people) Alumni of the University of Essex Alumni of the University of Sussex 21st-century publishers (people) Women book publishers (people) 21st-century British businesspeople 20th-century British businesspeople 20th-century British businesswomen British company founders British women business executives Living people