Gillian Redfearn is the Hugo Award-nominated Deputy Publisher of Gollancz, the UK’s oldest Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint.

Within five months of joining the Gollancz team as editorial assistant she had commissioned the bestselling First Law trilogy from Joe Abercrombie, swiftly followed by acquiring the UK rights to Patrick Rothfuss’ novels. When she became Editorial Director for the imprint in 2014 she was selected as a Bookseller Rising Star, and two years later Gollancz was shortlisted for best imprint in the Bookseller Awards.

Throughout her career Redfearn has worked across the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres, with bestselling and award winning authors including Joe Abercrombie, Aliette de Bodard, Joe Hill, Charlaine Harris, Joanne Harris, Sarah Pinborough, Brandon Sanderson, Alastair Reynolds and Chris Wooding, among many others.

 

Marcus Gipps was an influential sales manager with Blackwells flagship store – the British Book Awards winning Charing Cross branch – where he masterminded bookselling for Latitude Festival and the Jewish Book Week, among others, and was a print-on-demand pioneer. He joined Gollancz as an editor in 2011, commissioned his first two authors within three months, snapped up Saladin Ahmed’s award-winning debut novel, and embarked on some innovative publishing. This included a first in publishing history: acquiring the publishing rights (to the computer game Elite) through kickstarter; and a personal project, republishing Quentin Blake’s much-loved and then out of print Uncle stories.

Marcus was identified as a 2012 Bookseller Rising star, and began to divide his time between working on classic SFF – including the complete update and republication of Michael Moorcock’s body of work – and publishing original novels. He stepped up to become Editorial Director of the SFF Gateway, the worlds largest digital SFF collection, in 2017, and again to become Publishing Director of Gollancz in 2020. He counts Andrzej Sapkowski (whose work is the basis of Netflix’s The Witcher series), Joe Hill (whose work is the basis of Netflix’s Locke and Key series), Stephen Baxter, Stephen Donaldson and M. John Harrison among his authors. You can learn more by following @marcusgipps on twitter.

 

Rachel Winterbottom joined the Gollancz team in 2016 as a Senior Editor and was promoted to Senior Commissioning Editor in recognition of her work and her talent for bringing bestselling authors to Gollancz. She enjoys developing innovative concepts in partnership with Gollancz authors, and with an eye for commercial projects with a dark twist, her publishing spans the full range of YA, science fiction, horror and fantasy. She counts bestsellers V. V. James, Leigh Bardugo, Hank Green, Elizabeth May & Laura Lam, Nalini Singh and the forthcoming Jonny Sims among her authors.

In her spare time, Rachel writes as Rachel Winters, author of Would Like to Meet, a romantic comedy which is optioned for film. She is currently working on her second novel. You can learn more by following @frostycheeks on twitter.

 

Brendan Durkin became a part of the Gollancz team in 2018, with the essential role of managing and administering the publishing process for a hundred and fifty Gollancz books a year, in addition to working with high profile authors across the Orion list. His work has been invaluable to authors including Ian Rankin, Joanne Harris, Michelle Paver, Ben Aaronovitch and Hank Green and his publishing expertise spans both black and white and full colour publishing, with a variety of beautiful and award-nominated projects based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

Promoted to Editor in 2020, Brendan had doubled his stable of authors by the end of the year with some smart acquisitions for the Gollancz list. His authors include Mary Gentle, Lynsay Sands, Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson, Mike Shackle, Louise Carey and J.T. Greathouse, with more acquisitions to come. Alongside his editorial work, he has been a key part of the Gollancz BAME prize, and the award winning Gollancz Festival. You can learn more by following @BrendanDurkin on twitter.

 

Claire Ormsby-Potter became an integral part of the Gollancz and SF Gateway team in 2020, from a background of university administration and academia. A graduate of UCL’s industry-leading Publishing MA, she won the inaugural Stevenson Award for Publishing Studies in 2017 before joining the industry.

Claire is now responsible for SF Gateway administration from the point of acquisition to publication, masterminding the metadata, social media and ongoing strategic work for a digital library of more than three thousand titles. Alongside this, she is an active and creative part of the Gollancz team, BAME award, and Gollancz Festivals. You can learn more by following @okyeahbut on Twitter.

 

Paul Stark has been with Orion and Gollancz for nearly 14 years. He manages Orion’s audio publishing and recent highlights include Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London, Joe Abercrombie’s First Law, and new recordings of classics by Urusla le Guin, Anne McCaffrey and Gene Wolfe.

 

Paul Hussey is the Senior Production Controller in charge of getting all the lovely Gollancz books made and has been doing so since 2007 when he took on the list. He’s pretty much part of the furniture at Orion having worked here for 21+ years (and counting) and spends most of his free time reading (SFF of course), writing and playing board games. His current projects are teaching his two autistic children to play Scythe and Warhammer 40,000 and learning the rules for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition.