HONOREES
All of us at
Blackstone Publishing
congratulate publicist
extraordinaire
Lauren Maturo
on her PW Star Watch
nomination!
photo left: Julia Gang
photo right: Charlie PappasAMBER OLIVER
Assistant editor
Harper and Harper Perennial, New York City
D
avid Unger, the director of City
College of New York’s Publishing
Certificate program, has kept a
close watch on his mentee Amber
Oliver since she took his graduate-level classes while still an under-
graduate at CCNY. After completing the program, Oliver secured
internships, first at Akashic Books and then at Inkwell Management,
where the Women’s Media Group, an organization committed to
increasing the visibility and the success of women, chose to mentor
her. Now an editor at Harper and Harper Perennial, where she has
been since March of 2016, she acquires literary fiction, upmarket
commercial fiction, and select nonfiction with a particular focus on
marginalized communities. Saying, “There is no doubt in my mind
that Ms. Oliver will become one of the leading editors in the pub-
lishing industry: she combines intelligence and her strong work
ethic with an uncanny sense of the book market,” Unger has abun-
dant confidence in her.
KWANZA OSAJYEFO
Cofounder, creator, author
Black, BlackSuperPower, New York CityA
former editor at Marvel, Kwanza Osajyefo is a writer
and key figure in the launch of Black, a new wave super-
hero series about a world in which only black people
have superpowers. Osajyefo (along with illustrators
Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, and Khary Randolph) launched the series
on Kickstarter in early 2016 and raised more than $91,000 for its
publication. Since then, Black has evolved into a graphic novel
series and a publishing platform (BlackSuperPower) that includes
Black AF: America’s Sweetheart, Black AF: Widows and Orphans, and
most recently White, all written by Osajyefo. Osajyefo and his part-
ners are focused on diversifying the world of superhero comics.
Osajyefo also writes comics full of
diverse characters for other pub-
lishers. He is a key member of a
newly emerging world of tech-
driven indie comics publishing that
is infused with the entrepreneurial
drive of start-ups.