Kate Medina, after a long career at Random House, is retiring at the end of June. In a memo to staff, Random House executive v-p and publisher Andy Ward recounted that Medina began her career in publishing at Doubleday, where "as an editorial assistant, she was asked to read the manuscript of Peter Benchley's debut novel, Jaws. After reading her comments, Benchley asked that Kate be his editor for all his books going forward; he would eventually follow her to Random House."
 |
|
| Kate Medina | |
In 1985, Medina joined Random House, where she eventually rose to executive v-p, associate publisher, and executive editorial director of the imprint.
Jon Meacham, who published eight books with her, said, "Kate Medina embodies editorial excellence. A great conceptual thinker and a rigorous steward of language, she also has the two most important skills required to work well with writers: a gift for psychiatry and a seemingly infinite supply of patience. Henry James might well have had Kate in mind when he wrote that we should all strive to be someone on whom nothing is lost. She's just the best."
Anna Quindlen said, "Since 1988 I have had a single book editor. All these years later, Kate speaks fluent Quindlen, which makes all the difference when she is tackling my first drafts. More important, she has always made me feel encouraged, supported, and, yes--we writers being fragile creatures--loved. When she won me at auction all those years ago, it was one of the luckiest days of my life."
Among the other authors she has edited are Azam Ahmed, Afia Atakora, Catherine Banner, Elizabeth Berg, Amy Bloom, Katherine Boo, Tom Brokaw, Michael Chabon, Emma Cline, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Jonathan Darman, John Dickerson, E.L. Doctorow, Alan Drew, David Ebershoff, Andrea Elliott, David Finkel, Fannie Flagg, Jane Fonda, Alan Furst, Carol Gilligan, John Irving, Tracy Kidder, Adrian LeBlanc, Yiyun Li, Margaret MacMillan, Catherine Venable Moore, Sandra Day O'Connor, Marisha Pessl, Nancy Reagan, Emily Ruskovich, Connie Schultz, Sally Bedell Smith, Gloria Steinem, Evan Thomas, Alice Walker, Karen Thompson Walker, Isabel Wilkerson, and Brenda Wineapple.
"Over the past decades, Kate has been an essential part of making Random House what it is today, both with her books and with the mentorship she has offered to so many of us here," Ward noted. "Kate, we consider ourselves lucky to have worked with you and learned from you, and are grateful for your dedication to Random House, as well as your many, many enduring contributions to the world of books. Thank you for everything."