Alcove Press is dedicated to publishing the stories and ideas that inspire, enlighten, and empower readers. From book club fiction and commercial novels to prescriptive and narrative nonfiction, our books embrace the joys, challenges, and diverse journeys that make up our human experience. Alcove Press champions the work of debut, established, and bestselling authors, providing a home for the voices and stories that bring us together and keep us talking.
See openings on our team here! For freelance designers, please submit any inquiries to william.ruoto@crookedlanebooks.com, thank you!
Editors
Senior Editor Faith Black Ross has been with Crooked Lane Books since 2016 after more than a decade in publishing. Previously she handled mysteries and historical fiction for the Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin Random House). She is particularly interested in mystery projects with strong voices, precocious protagonists, and a touch of humor—dark humor included—especially if it has a great voice and involves history, fun settings, or food and gives her a good laugh (or a good cry, but nothing too mawkish or anything with dead pets).
Authors she wishes she edited include: Lauren Willig, Alan Bradley, Liane Moriarty, Peter Mayle, and Rhys Bowen.
For Crooked Lane, she’s looking for book club fiction, traditional mysteries, and cozies of all shapes and sizes, historical and international mysteries, amateur and female sleuths, as well as thrillers, particularly those of a psychological, suspenseful, upmarket and/or historical variety.
For Alcove Press, Faith would love to receive projects perfect for fans of Paula McLain, Lauren Willig, Liane Moriarty, Graeme Simsion, Amor Towles. Especially if it involves history, fun settings, or food.
Tara Gavin has always loved books. She began her career very early—reading every book she could get her hands on. By the third grade, her after-school place to go was the library. Her favorite books were the classics, women’s fiction, and mysteries. Her collections of the Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, Cherry Ames series are still around—being read by her grand-nieces.
She has spent years at Harlequin Books, where she pursued her love of women’s fiction, working with New York Times bestsellers Diana Palmer and Lindsay McKenna, as well as many others. Moving onto Kensington Books, Tara still worked with bestselling women’s fiction authors, but also was able to pursue her love of mysteries and suspense.
She is excited to be working with Alcove Press, where the best of all worlds come together—upmarket, commercial women’s fiction. She loves complex books that entertain and go deeper under the surface of women’s lives. Her wish list contains books similar to those of Anne Tyler, Fannie Flagg, Mary Kay Andrews, Susan Wiggs and Susan Mallery.
She also acquires for Crooked Lane Books, and enjoys suspense, mystery and thrillers—especially women in jeopardy stories, and books with a family component that has secrets to uncover.
Let’s face it…she loves to read, and nothing makes her more happy than delving into a book that takes her to a complex, emotional plot.
Senior Acquisitions Editor at Large Anne Brewer brings nearly 20 years’ editorial experience to the Crooked Lane/Alcove team. She began her career at St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur, and has worked with many New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award winning authors, including Thomas Christopher Greene, Judith Flanders, G. M. Malliet, Kitty Kelley, Paula Brackston, Lynne Constantine, Leonard Goldberg, and Iona Grey. Outside of publishing, she enjoys time with her husband and three daughters; cooking with a great glass of wine; and Peloton.
In all of her acquisitions, Anne looks for a strong sense of atmosphere; she likes to be swept away to an intriguing historical period, a lush location, behind the scenes of a famous place or life—or all three! A great love story is always a plus, but she’s particularly interested in novels that explore the emotional depths of women’s relationships: friends, sisters, mothers and daughters.
For Crooked Lane, Anne is looking for female-focused mysteries and thrillers across the spectrum of light and dark, including: cozies, traditional mysteries, historical, and suspense and psychological thrillers. Favorite authors she hasn’t published include Kristen Perrin, Ashley Elston, and Lucy Foley.
For Alcove, Anne is looking for book club fiction that dramatizes modern complexities and dilemmas; historical fiction that brings to life female protagonists caught in impossible situations; and light magical realism in contemporary and historical fiction a la Rebecca Serle and Sarah Penner. Other favorite authors she hasn’t published include Jenny Jackson and Marie Benedict.
Editor Elana Gibson joined Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press in 2026. She previously acquired and edited adult and young adult genre fiction at CamCat Books. Elana has a BA in English and French from Grinnell College and is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course.
For Crooked Lane, Elana is on the lookout for mysteries and thrillers with a distinct voice, a sense of humor, or anything that veers into genre-bending territory and horror with a feminist edge.
For Alcove Press, Elana is a fan of all types of speculative fiction but is particularly looking for fantasy with intricate, immersive worldbuilding, stories with a romantic subplot.
For either imprint, spooky locations, academic settings, and complex interpersonal dynamics are always a plus.
Marcy Harris kickstarted her career in publishing working with the best indie book shop ever, Harvard Book Store, before moving into a life of serialized romance fiction for eight years with Radish and Tapas. She received her BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College. She likes to call herself a professional nerd, with a love for all things sci-fi/fantasy. When she’s not reading or writing she’s program managing for a Twitch collective of talented gamers in the TTRPG community.
She is looking for romantasy titles that excel in deep worldbuilding and turn standard tropes on their heads (the darker the better, bonus points for monster romances!) She is seeking anything from twisted fairytales to classic and neo gothic speculative works. On the horror side she is looking for stories that cross genre expectations with monsters as heroes and unexpected villains.
Editor Caroline Timmings joined Crooked Lane Books / Alcove Press in 2026 after spending the previous 4 years acquiring for Harlequin Books, HarperCollins Publishers. She is an avid reader of all things romance and loves a good locked room mystery. When she’s not reading, Caroline can be found traveling all around the world or at home spending time with her dogs.
For Crooked Lane Books, Caroline is looking for mysteries and thrillers set in small towns (Scottish, English, and Irish settings are a huge plus!) filled with buried secrets and complex, well-developed characters similar to William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series or the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves. She’s also looking for compelling detectives similar to those found in Anthony Horotwitz’s Hawthorne & Horowitz series and Susan Ryeland series, or in Caroline Graham’s Chief Inspector Barnaby series.
For Alcove Press, she would love to see romantasy with unique, immersive world building and high emotional stakes similar to Samantha Sotto Yambao’s Water Moon, Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series, and Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. Caroline is also interested in paranormal and Sci-Fi romance like Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series, contemporary retellings like Jane & Edward by Melodie Edwards, and romantic suspense similar to works by Nora Roberts and Iris Johansen.
Editor Maxine Shen joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books in 2025. The former newspaper reporter’s publishing career includes an internship and royalties admin duties at Nancy Yost Literary Agency and being Content Acquisition Lead at Radish Fiction, where she focused on romance titles. She attended the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford and obtained an MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing from Emerson College.
For Alcove Press, Maxine is on the hunt for characters and voices to fall in love with in the contemporary, sports, and paranormal romance space, especially if there’s series potential. (Darker themes are welcome!) She’s also interested in urban fantasy-themed stories (for fans of Kate Daniels, The Dresden Files, Rivers of London) and humor-driven fantasy (The Lies of Locke Lamora, Assistant to the
Villain).
For Crooked Lane, she’d love to see mystery/crime/thrillers with leads like Jack Reacher, Nick Ryan, Nadia Stafford, Rizzoli and Isles, Jonathan Quinn, and Elvis Cole and Joe Pike; sci-fi or cyberpunk detective stories (Altered Carbon, Leviathan Wakes); historical mysteries (for C.S. Harris, Deanna Raybourn, Alison Goodman, and Jennifer Ashley fans); and cozies of all subgenre.
Senior Editor Christine Zikas joined Crooked Lane/Alcove Press in 2026. Previously she was the Lead Editor for the Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Large Print — where she had a bird’s eye view of the publishing trends and up-and-coming authors as submissions from all publishers crossed her inbox. Prior to joining the book clubs, she was a book editor a Berkley, Dell Publishing, and Avon Books where she edited commercial fiction and nonfiction. Authors she has worked with include: PC Cast, Beverly Jenkins, Linda Winstead Jones, Susan Johnson, Betina Krahn, Rhys Bowen, and Lora Leigh to name a few.
She is looking for mysteries, romance, women’s fiction, historical fiction, romantasy, as well as general fiction.
Assistant Editor/Production Coordinator Thaisheemarie Fantauzzi Pérez graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a BA in Comparative Literature, a minor in Communications and Writing, and a curricular sequence in Italian; she also has an MS in Publishing from NYU. Before joining Crooked Lane Books, Thai interned at Simon & Schuster. She enjoys reading everything from mysteries to holiday romances, and some of her favorite authors are Carmen María Machado and Elizabeth Acevedo.
For Crooked Lane Books, she is looking for gothic and historical mysteries with atmospheric settings that act as another character. Anything dark academia or with a slight horror flair is right up her alley, think Donna Tartt, Sulari Gentil, Rebecca Makkai, V. Castro, and Mona Awad. She is also looking for thrillers or psychological suspense with a supernatural, speculative, or magical twist.
For Alcove Press, she is looking for cozy fantasy and romantasy. She is not interested in high fantasy or epic fantasy. She’s also looking for magical realism in the vein of Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, but fabulism is welcome too. She’s a big fan of romcom, especially those set around Christmastime. She loves commercial book club fiction that is searingly honest, darkly comedic, or that tackles societal issues in surprising ways. As a Latina herself, Thai would love to work with underrepresented voices, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or other historically marginalized voices.
Team
Publisher Matt Martz launched Crooked Lane Books in 2014 and Alcove Press in 2020. He began his trade career at St. Martin’s Press where he acquired both crime fiction and nonfiction, and has published New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestsellers. He enjoys crime fiction of all kinds. He is particularly drawn to small town settings, stories with compelling family dynamics, and seemingly ordinary characters who harbor dark and explosive secrets. In addition to crime fiction, Matt is also looking for nonfiction from thought leaders with the ideas and voice to start the movements that change the way we think and live.
Assistant Marketing Director Tanya Leet has over 15 years of marketing, communications, and operations experience in the publishing, fintech, and higher education sectors. She was previously at Penguin, Bloomsbury, and HarperCollins, where she worked on the bestselling Notorious RBG. When not reading, she enjoys yoga, horror films, and animal rights activism.
Associate Publicist Lindsey Staub earned her degree in English and history from UC Berkeley before beginning her career in the entertainment industry. After a few years, she made the move to publishing, where she continues to pursue her love of compelling stories. Prior to joining Crooked Lane Books in 2026, she was at Entangled Publishing. Lindsey will read just about anything—so long as it keeps her on her toes until the very end.
Subrights Manager Elena Silverberg graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in English and Psychology from Cornell University. During her undergraduate studies, she interned at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency and The Overlook Press. Before joining Crooked Lane Books in 2025, she was the Rights Manager at Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. for many years. Her joys in life include fantasy novels with interesting magic systems, dramatic space operas, and trying to guess the end of mystery novels before the other members of her various book clubs.
Publishing Assistant Julia Abbott graduated with a BA in English and Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies and a minor in history from the University of Richmond. She also has a certificate from the Columbia Publishing Course. Prior to Crooked Lane, she interned at Creative Media Agency. Julia reads across many genres but especially enjoys fantasy, romance, and mystery. Her favorites include Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker, Lexicon by Max Barry, and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.
Production & Design Associate Mal Jamison joined the Crooked Lane Books team in 2026. Previously, she designed children’s books and covers at Little Bee Books and Penguin Random House Books for Young Readers as well as marketing materials for St. Martin’s Press. She always has a book in hand, whether a classic novel, a murder mystery, an old horror paperback, or a fantasy tome.
Production Associate Victoria Vulaj graduated from University College London with an MA in English: Issues in Modern Culture. She also graduated from CUNY City College of New York with a BA in English Literature, minoring in Cinema Studies. Before joining Crooked Lane Books, Victoria worked at Berghahn Books. She enjoys reading contemporary fiction, such as the works of Lily King, Tayari Jones, Patti Smith, and Sally Rooney.
Marketing Assistant Beata Garrett graduated with a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, and has interned with Pegasus Books, Wunderkind PR, and Quirk Books. She loves horror movies, and will read anything if it has complex characters, political intrigue, or sharp commentary.
Art Manager William Ruoto joined Crooked Lane Books in 2026. Previously, he was a member of design teams at both HarperCollins in New York City and Turner Publishing in Nashville. His design influences include cinema, retro music industry advertising, pop art, and vintage horror and science-fiction. He has designed many best-sellers and has won multiple New York Book Show awards in the fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novel categories. His favorite books to read are true crime, transgressive fiction, horror, film and music history, and the occasional graphic novel. He currently lives outside Nashville, Tennessee.
