About Us

was founded in 1936, when James Laughlin (1914–1997), then a twenty-two-year-old Harvard sophomore, issued the first of the New Directions anthologies. "I asked Ezra Pound for 'career advice,'" James Laughlin recalled. "He had been seeing my poems for months and had ruled them hopeless. He urged me to finish Harvard and then do 'something' useful."

James Laughlin

Barbara Epler

joined New Directions as an editorial assistant after graduating from college in 1984. She became editor in chief in 1995; named Publisher in 2008, and in 2011 became president.

Laurie Callahan

is Executive Vice President.

Declan Spring

is vice president, senior editor, and director of foreign rights. He has been working at New Directions since 1991.

Erik Rieselbach

is the Art Director and Production Manager of New Directions.

Jeffrey Yang

is Editor-at-Large at New Directions. He has been with the press since 2000.

Jacqui Barrington

(they/them) is the Business and Subvention Manager at New Directions.

Tynan Kogane

is a Senior Editor at New Directions. He was raised in Seattle and graduated from the New School.

Mieke Chew

is Executive Director of Publicity and Editor. She grew up in Australia, where she founded _Higher Arc_ magazine in 2011.

Chris Wait

Chris Wait is Director of Subrights and Permissions, and Associate Editor. He has been with New Directions since 2014.

Maya Solovej

Maya Solovej is Publicity Manager and Assistant Editor at New Directions. She grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Oliver Preston

is the Production Assistant at New Directions.

Madeleine Nephew

is the Publicity Assistant at New Directions.

Victoria Nebolsin

is Publicity Assistant at New Directions.

Stuart Beal

is an intern at New Directions.