Julia Cheiffetz is an American publisher, writer, and editor who currently lives in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.
Cheiffetz launched One Signal Publishers, an imprint of Atria Books, a division of
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...
. She has published
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
,
Stanley Fish
Stanley Eugene Fish (born April 19, 1938) is an American literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He is currently the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo ...
,
Greg Graffin
Gregory Walter Graffin (born November 6, 1964) is an American singer and evolutionary biologist. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist and only constant member of punk rock band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He embarked on a ...
Cass Sunstein
Cass Robert Sunstein (born September 21, 1954) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, law and behavioral economics. He is also ''The New York Times'' best-selling autho ...
,
Jessica Valenti
Jessica Valenti (; born November 1, 1978) is an American feminist writer. She was the co-founder of the blog Feministing, which she wrote for from 2004 to 2011. Valenti is the author of five books: ''Full Frontal Feminism'' (2007), ''He's a Stud ...
, and Sam Wasson, whose breakout bestseller ''Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.'' was widely acclaimed.
Early life
Julia was born on September 18, 1978, in
Williamsville, New York
Williamsville is a village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 5,423 at the 2020 census. The village is named after Jonas Williams, an early settler. It is part of the Buffalo– Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistic ...
. She received her bachelor's degree from
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Col ...
in 2000.
Career
After graduating from Barnard, Cheiffetz taught English in
Yokohama, Japan
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of ...
, as part of the
JET Programme
The , or , is a Japanese government initiative that brings college (university) graduates—mostly native speakers of English—to Japan as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) and Sports Education Advisors (SEAs) in Japanese kindergartens, element ...
. In 2002 she started her publishing career as an Editorial Assistant at
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...
.
Cheiffetz spent the first six years of her publishing career at Random House where she published the controversial anthology ''This Is Not Chick Lit'' and the debut works of many writers including Karen Abbott and Ed Park.
In 2008 Cheiffetz acquired ''Devil in the Grove'' by Gilbert King which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and was called "a richly detailed chronicle of racial injustice" by the Pulitzer committee. The film adaptation is currently in development.
From 2011 to 2014 Cheiffetz was the Editorial Director of
Amazon Publishing
Amazon Publishing (simply APub) is Amazon's book publishing unit launched in 2009. It is composed of 15 imprints including AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, and TOPPLE Books.
Amazon publishes e-books via ...
. At Amazon, Cheiffetz led the New York City-based adult trade publishing team under
Larry Kirshbaum
Laurence "Larry" Kirshbaum is the former chief of publishing for Amazon Publishing.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family in Chicago in 1944 and raised in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.Deepak Chopra, Timothy Ferriss, and
Penny Marshall
Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as ...
. Cheiffetz resigned from Amazon in July 2013, and shortly after her departure other editors left the company. She later wrote about her experience in a post on Medium that went viral and helped lead to changes in Amazon's parental leave policies.
In 2014 Cheiffetz was hired as Executive Editor at
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...
, where she commissioned and edited the ''New York Times'' best-selling book ''Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg'' by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik. In August 2016 Cheiffetz commissioned a memoir by ''NBC'' correspondent Katy Tur on her time covering
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...
's campaign. On October 1, 2017, ''Unbelievable'' debuted at #2 on ''The New York Times'' best-seller list underneath
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...
's memoir '' What Happened''.
In 2019 Cheiffetz founded One Signal Publishers, an imprint of Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. She has stated she likes to publish books that are “nutritional candy.”
Personal life
Cheiffetz currently resides in Brooklyn with her daughter and their dog.
She is on the Board of Directors of the Lower East Side Girls Club.Lower East Side Girl's Club /ref>
Bibliography
Selected bibliography as editor
* ''This Is Not Chick Lit'' by Elizabeth Merrick (2006)
* ''The Trouble with Poetry'' by
Billy Collins
William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York (retired, 2016). Collins ...
(2007)
* ''The Essential Feminist Reader'' by
Estelle Freedman
Estelle Freedman (born 1947) is an American historian. She is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History at Stanford University She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College in 1969 and her Master of Arts (1972) and PhD (19 ...
(2007)
* ''Personal Days'' by
Ed Park
Ed Park (born 1970 in Buffalo, New York) is an American journalist and novelist. He was the executive editor of Penguin Press.
Career
Park was a founding editor of the magazine ''The Believer'' in 2003, and has been an editor at the Poetry Founda ...
(2008)
* ''Sin in the Second City'' by Karen Abbott (2008)
* ''How to Write a Sentence'' by
Stanley Fish
Stanley Eugene Fish (born April 19, 1938) is an American literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He is currently the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo ...
(2011)
* ''Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.'' by Sam Wasson (2011)
* ''Anarchy Evolution'' by
Greg Graffin
Gregory Walter Graffin (born November 6, 1964) is an American singer and evolutionary biologist. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist and only constant member of punk rock band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He embarked on a ...
and
Steve Olson
Steve Olson is an American writer who specializes in science, mathematics, and public policy. He is the author of several nonfiction trade books: ''Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins'', which was nominated for the Nationa ...
(2011)
* ''Till I End My Song'' by
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
(2011)
* ''
Devil in the Grove
''Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America'' is a 2012 non-fiction book by the American author Gilbert King. It is a history of the attorney Thurgood Marshall's defense of four young black men in ...
Abby Wambach
Mary Abigail Wambach (born June 2, 1980) is an American retired soccer player, coach, and member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. A six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, Wambach was a regular on the U.S. women's na ...
(2016)
* ''Sex Object'' by
Jessica Valenti
Jessica Valenti (; born November 1, 1978) is an American feminist writer. She was the co-founder of the blog Feministing, which she wrote for from 2004 to 2011. Valenti is the author of five books: ''Full Frontal Feminism'' (2007), ''He's a Stud ...
(2017)
* ''It's Okay to Laugh'' by Nora McInerny Permort (2017)
* ''Stealing Fire'' by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal (2017)
* ''Unbelievable'' by Katy Tur (2017)
* ''The Woman Who Smashed Codes'' by Jason Fagone (2017)
* ''Can It Happen Here?'' by Cass R. Sunstein (2018)
* ''Rabbit'' by Patricia Williams and Jeannine Amber (2018)
* ''The Gambler'' by William Rempel (2018)
* ''Dear America'' by Jose Antonio Vargas (2019)
* ''Hoax'' by
Brian Stelter
Brian Patrick Stelter (born September 3, 1985) is an American journalist best known as the former chief media correspondent for CNN and host of the CNN program '' Reliable Sources'', roles he held from 2013 to 2022. Stelter is also a former medi ...
(2020)
* ''Keep Moving'' by
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...