About the Editor

Yashaswi Kesanakurthy (yash-us-we kay-sah-nah-koor-thi) (she/her) is the Children’s Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MA program in Children’s Literature and Toronto Metropolitan University’s publishing program. Her publishing career began as Publishing Assistant at Tundra Books. She then joined HarperCollins Canada as Associate Editor where she developed a vibrant list including The Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edigyan and Amélie Dubois, The Hockey Skates by Karl Subban and Maggie Zeng, Mortified by Kristy Jackson and Rhael McGregor, Misadventures in Ghosthunting by Melissa Yue, and the forthcoming Something’s Up with Arlo by Matteo L. Cerilli.

Yash is currently accepting chapter books, middle grade novels, and young adult novels. Overall, she is looking for engaging commercial fiction. In terms of genre, Yash is primarily interested in fantasy, science fiction, mystery, horror, adventure, and romance across ages, in addition to humorous contemporary fiction for young ones. She is also on the lookout for contemporary fiction with a speculative twist for any age, YA books that could be spiritual successors of the Fear Street series, works that speaks to current day politics through the vehicle of SF/F, and nonfiction for reluctant readers from writers with compelling platforms. Her focus, as always, is on Canadian voices, especially marginalized ones.