Graywolf Press, the venerable Minneapolis literary press, announced this morning that it has hired industry veteran Yuka Igarashi as executive editor, a newly created position; Jeff Shotts is also a Graywolf executive editor, working on poetry and creative nonfiction/essays. Igarashi will assume the position on April 8 and will work remotely from her home in Hawaii. She will report to publisher Fiona McCrae and editorial director Ethan Nosowsky.
Igarashi is well known in the literary publishing world: she currently serves as editor-in-chief at Soft Skull Press, and is the founder of Catapult magazine, where she served as its first editor-in-chief. She also previously worked as managing editor at Granta magazine in London.
In a prepared statement, Igarashi noted that she is “honored and very excited” to join the Graywolf team, declaring, “I’ve been reading and admiring and publishing Graywolf authors in all my roles in literary publishing. There’s really no one else like them. They’ve accomplished exceptional things over the years with an amazingly small, agile, thoughtful team and a truly independent mindset. Their books have transformed culture again and again.”
In an email, McCrae described Igarashi as “a very significant hire for Graywolf” adding that its senior editorial team has led the press “for a considerable time. We needed a fresh vision to shake us up a bit, and to help guide our talented rising editors.”
McCrae added, “Yuka has been something of a trail blazer in founding Catapult magazine, as well as in her work championing new voices there and at Granta and Soft Skull Press (we were struck by the number of Graywolf writers that she published before they were on our radar). We were looking for someone who would both complement and expand Graywolf, and that is exactly what we have found.”
Igarashi currently edits the annual Best Debut Short Stories, a collaboration between PEN America and Catapult Books; she will continue to do so.
This story has been updated for clarity.
