Retha Powers is VP, executive editor at Holt, acquiring fiction and nonfiction. She is passionate about books by authors—especially people of color and LGBTQIA—who write inventively about the intersections of race, identity, gender, history, and current events. She is particularly interested in working with writers who challenge the status quo, build community, and create compulsively readable works that connect readers from varying backgrounds and experiences. Her acquisitions include Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s award-winning debut, My Monticello; José Olivarez’s Promises of Gold, which was longlisted for a National Book Award for Poetry; The Talk, an award-winning graphic memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist […]