Nan A. Talese

Nan Talese (née Ahearn; born December 19, 1933) is an American editor and a veteran of the New York publishing industry.

Career

Talese is Senior Vice President of Doubleday and the Publisher and since 1990 has been Editorial Director of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, an imprint known for literary excellence. She began her editing career at Random House and later at Simon & Schuster and Houghton Mifflin. She has edited many notable authors, including Pat Conroy, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Jennifer Egan, Antonia Fraser, Barry Unsworth, Valerie Martin, and Thomas Keneally. Her imprint also published James Frey's controversial memoir A Million Little Pieces.

Talese was the recipient in 2005 of the very first Maxwell Perkins Award, given by the Center for Fiction. The award was established to "honor the work of an editor, publisher, or agent who over the course of his or her career has discovered, nurtured and championed writers of fiction in the United States. This award is dedicated to Maxwell Perkins in celebration of his legacy as one of the country’s most important editors."