EMI IKKANDA

An Asian American woman in her 30s, with shoulder-length black hair.

Emi Ikkanda is an Executive Editor acquiring nonfiction and select fiction projects at Tiny Reparations Books, Dutton, and Plume at Penguin Random House. She previously worked at Seal Press at Hachette, Spiegel & Grau at Random House, and Henry Holt at Macmillan. She publishes a diverse list of award-winning, bestselling, and culturally relevant books. Over the years she has edited #1 New York Times and international bestselling authors, and edited winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Carnegie Medal, Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, and the TIME 100.

Recent highlights on her list include #1 New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo’s Mediocre, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s NBA finalist The Undocumented Americans, Carla Power’s Pulitzer finalist Home, Land, Security, Minda Harts’s Right Within, Arianna Davis’s What Would Frida Do?, international bestselling novelist Michael David Lukas’s The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Sanaë Lemoine’s New York Times Editor’s Choice The Margot Affair, NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott’s Back to Earth, and former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao’s Reset.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

BIPOC, queer, disabled, and other underrepresented writers of entertaining, voice-driven nonfiction (humor, pop culture, hybrid memoir, essays), or bold culture-shifting nonfiction (journalism, history, business, big idea books, practical books).

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

Ijeoma Oluo’s Mediocre

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s The Undocumented Americans

Zach Anner's If At Birth You Don't Succeed

Specializes In

       FICTION: 

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Humor, Memoir, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Religion, Spirituality, Women's concerns, Self Help

Considers

       FICTION: 

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Dating/Relationships, Gift Books, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Humor, Medical, Memoir, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Parenting, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Religion, Science, Self Help, Spirituality, Technology, Travel, Women's concernsod & Lifestyle, Health & Fitness, Humor, Medical, Music