Alexa Pastor Senior Editor Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Alexa Pastor enthusiastically began her career at Simon & Schuster in August of 2014. Since that time, she has edited rewarding stories across all age ranges, including National Book Award Longlist selection Forget Me Not; Target’s YA Book of the Year winner Their Vicious Games; bestsellers Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice, She Gets the Girl, All This Time, If I See You Again Tomorrow, and Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh; and #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart. She is fortunate to work with a host of incredible authors and illustrators including Ben Clanton, Rachael Lippincott, Alyson Derrick, Robbie Couch, Caroline Kusin Pritchard, Selina Alko, Marisa Kanter, Nikki Grimes, Naomi Klein, and Joelle Wellington. Prior to landing her dream job, Alexa graduated summa cum laude from Villanova University (Go ‘Cats!) and completed her master’s degree in children’s and young adult publishing at Rosemont College.

She is acquiring picture books, middle grade, and YA that have strong commercial hooks, led by a standout voice, and a unique approach to storytelling either in structure or trope. She is most drawn to stories with a surprising twist (thrillers welcome, but twisty picture books too!), nonfiction that elevates marginalized events and voices, and contemporary love stories in all their forms including swoony romance (both rom-coms and rom-drams welcome!), friendship makeups rather than breakups, and celebrating family love in every shape and form it takes. When not reading and editing, Alexa is voraciously consuming bad reality TV or Nancy Myers movies, listening to true crime podcasts, or exercising the eternal optimism that comes with being a Mets and Giants fan. You can follow her on Twitter @Alexa_Pastor926.