HONOREES
GREG HUNTER
Editorial director
Lerner/Graphic Universe, MinneapolisH
unter is a fast riser, moving up the ladder from intern in 2009 to his current
position as editorial director of Lerner’s children’s graphic novel imprint.
Editor-in-chief Andrew Cummings credits Hunter with leading an aggres-
sive expansion that has doubled the publishing program in two years.
Among the novels he has developed that feature “empathetic, adventurous work, a range
of perspectives, and sense of humor,” Cummings says, are the boundary-pushing YA
graphic novel Losing the Girl by MariNaomi, the Eisner-nominated 2019 Batchelder Honor
book My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun, and Artur Laperla’s bestselling
The Epic Origin of Super Potato. Cummings also cites Hunter’s productive and diverse rela-
tionships with global partners including the Angouleme International Comics Festival,
Toronto Comics Arts Festival, and the German Book Office Editors Trip. “Greg is the
reason that Lerner continues to invest and develop Graphic Universe,” Cummings says.JENNIFER
GRIFFITHS
Book designer
Penguin Random
House Canada,
TorontoI
n 2016, Jennifer
Griffiths began
at PRH Canada
on a design con-
tract, and one year
later she became a
full-time designer.
“Her quiet demeanor
contradicts her fear-
less push of creative
boundaries and her
unflinching commitment to bringing beauty and craftsmanship
to our books, inside and out,” her manager, Terry Nimmo, says.
That commitment has won her many awards in excellence in book
design from Canada’s Alcuin Society. Last year, she won for The
Inviting Life by Laura Calder, Lost in September by Kathleen Winter,
Admission Requirements by Phoebe Wang, The First Mess Cookbook
by Laura Wright, and The Agony of Bun O’Keefe by Heather T.
Smith. This year, the Alcuin Society awarded her for Split Tooth
by Tanya Tagaq and for her codesign with CS Richardson on I’m
Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya. The cover for Joanne Proulx’s We
All Love the Beautiful Girls (2017) appeared in Quill & Quire as
Book Cover of the Year. Calling her “a shining star with immense
creative talent and a collaborative spirit,” Nimmo says that she
beautifully combines business and art.10 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
ADRIA GOETZ
Literary manager
Martin Literary Management, SeattleW
hile attending the University of
Washington, where she earned a BA in
English with an emphasis on creative
writing, Goetz worked as an intern at
Martin Literary for three years, where she received academic
credit for her work. Once out of school, she worked part-time
at the agency and part-time as a communications specialist
at the Pierce County Library System in Tacoma, Wash. But
it was Martin Literary
where she wanted to build
her career, and she proved
it to the team there by
taking Columbia
University’s summer
intensive course in pub-
lishing. Subsequently, she
won a full-time job at the
agency. In her first year,
Goetz attended over a
dozen writers’ conferences,
reports colleague Celia
Gore, who adds that Goetz
“has gone above and
beyond what is expected of her.” Upcoming on Goetz’s 2020
slate are the picture books The Ugly Doodles by Valeria Wicker
(Jimmy Patterson), The Ocean Calls by Tina Cho (Kokila),
Gone Bone Gone by Kitty Moss (Page Street Kids), and
Breakfast with Jesus, also by Tina Cho (Harvest House).