Alessandra Bastagli (she/her) VP Publisher

Alessandra Bastagli has worked in publishing for over two decades, both as a book editor and as an online features editor, at independent publishers including W.W. Norton & Co. and Nation Books (now Bold Type) as well as big five imprints Free Press and Dey Street. Some of the journalists she has worked with over the years include Vanessa Bee, Michelle Goldberg, Alia Malek, Dave Philipps, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Nomi Prins, Jeremy Scahill, and Gary Younge. She has also published academics, activists and public commentators including Juan Cole, William Deresiewicz, Ibram X. Kendi, Darnell Moore, John Nichols, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Nomi Prins, and Mychal Denzel Smith. Most recently, as Editorial Director at Astra House, Alessandra published Italian-Cuban antifascist novelist Alba de Céspedes’ FORBIDDEN NOTEBOOK, abolitionist and lawyer Derecka Purnell’s BECOMING ABOLITIONISTS, prof. Kohei Saito’s international bestseller SLOW DOWN, and Economist book of the year Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah’s THE SEX LIVES OF AFRICAN WOMEN. She is also fluent in Italian and German and is the published translator, from German, of Jurek Becker, and from Italian, of Primo Levi.