Ben Sevier
Senior VP and Publisher
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Krishan Trotman is the Vice-President, Publisher of Legacy Lit. She joined Hachette Books in 2016. In 2020 she launched Legacy Lit, an imprint dedicated to books that give voice to issues, authors, and communities that have been marginalized, underserved, and overlooked. This includes BIPOC authors, all women, and any group that they believe deserves a spotlight. The imprint is committed to promoting equality, equity, and inclusion for all people. The books are bold, mission-driven commercial works. Social justice and empowerment are Trotman’s passion. She likes to work with authors who are candid, bold, and, in their own unique way, not afraid to shake things up.
Her authors have included a range of award-winning and New York Times bestsellers, including: congressman John Lewis’ Across That Bridge; journalist Stephanie Land’s Maid; MSNBC political analyst Malcolm Nance’s The Plot to Destroy Democracy; New York Times columnist Lindy West’s The Witches Are Coming and Shit Actually; UFC’s Mixed Martial Artist Paige VanZant’s Rise; Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad’s Proud; radio and TV host Zerlina Maxwell’s The End of White Politics; TV personality Ed Gordon’s Conversations in Black; journalist Talia Lavin’s Culture Warlords; Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales’ forthcoming memoir Nothing Personal; BRAVO’s Million Dollar Listing star Ryan Serhant’s Sell It Like Serhant and Big Money Energy; Morning Joe’s cohost Mika Brzezinski’s Earn It! and Comeback Careers; The Today Show’s cohost Al Roker’s You Look So Much Better in Person; and empowerment coach Gina DeVee’s The Audacity to Be Queen, to name a few.
Krishan has been featured in the New York Times, Essence Magazine, New York Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, Salon, Shondaland, Cheddar TV, MSN, CSPAN, and more. She is the self-described Beyoncé of Books, and mom to her son Bleu.
I have, much to my astonishment, been working in publishing for over thirty years. I started as the receptionist at Alfred A. Knopf (where I actually had to use a Dictaphone) and moved on to Grove Atlantic. I’ve held senior editorial and management positions at Bloomsbury, Penguin Press, and Flatiron Books, where I helped launch the imprint as Editorial Director, and most recently at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I have acquired and edited many bestselling and award-winning books and authors, including in recent years Promise Me, Dad by President Joe Biden, How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger, Boys in the Trees and Touched by the Sun by Carly Simon, The Deviant’s War by Eric Cervini, How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg, and The Fact of a Body by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich. At Bloomsbury I acquired and edited the multi-million copy bestsellers Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott and My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler, and I’ve had the great pleasure of editing the novelist Paul Beatty across multiple publishers, including Beatty's Man Booker and National Book Critics Circle award-winning novel The Sellout for FSG. I’m currently acquiring across a wide range of categories, including pop culture, memoir, narrative history, and pop science. I grew up in Vermont and earned a B.A. in English from Amherst College.
I joined Grand Central in 2016 to continue Grand Central’s tradition of excellence in the commercial thriller, supernatural fiction, and literary horror genres. I’m drawn to upmarket suspense with strong, sympathetic characters, high concept thrillers, series fiction that endures book after book, year after year, and page-turning stories that engage, play with, or subvert genre expectations. I also edit nonfiction that appeals to male readers—stories that interrogate, explore, and challenge contemporary masculinity. My authors include the #1 New York Times bestsellers Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Stephen Chbosky, and nationally bestselling authors Chuck Hogan, Ben Mezrich, and Chuck Palahniuk, to name a few. Prior to joining GCP, I helped launch Little, Brown’s Mulholland Books imprint, where I worked with authors like C. J. Sansom, Joe Ide, and more. Authors I have worked with have received the ALA Alex Award, the Nero Award, the Macavity Award, the Strand Critics Award for Best Debut, have been featured as Best Books of the Year in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and have received or been nominated for Edgar Awards in the Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Paperback Original categories.
Like so many of my colleagues, as a child I always had my nose in a book; I also told anyone who would listen that I wanted to be a doctor, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that I found my way to health and wellness books. The cornerstones of my list are radically practical, audience-driven titles that speak to the diversity of our lived experiences and give readers concrete tools to live full, healthy, inspired lives. Since starting my career at Harper Wave in 2014 I've been fortunate to work with bestsellers, award-winners, and thought leaders from across the practical nonfiction spectrum, including Dr. David A. Kessler, Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar, Dr. Judy Ho, Caroline Dooner, and Christine Platt, among others. I’m always working to understand our readers and their needs through the lens of data, and my editorial interests include: self-help, women’s health, psychology and mental health, lifestyle, relationships, parenting, work and productivity, and spirituality, as well as fresh perspectives on nutrition and physical health. When I’m not reading you can find me on the dodgeball court or baking pies.
Amina Iro is an Assistant Editor at Legacy Lit. She started her publishing career as an Editorial Assistant at Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, where she worked on titles by esteemed authors such as Cicely Tyson and Zora Neale Hurston. A writer and performance poet originally from Prince George’s County, MD, Amina was a 2020 Fellow for the Watering Hole Winter Writer’s Retreat. She has performed at venues in the US, England, Nigeria, and South Africa. Amina is a graduate of the First Wave program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she studied Neurobiology and English Creative Writing. She is interested in books with brave motifs that invite readers to the juncture of identity and social change. She is particularly passionate about books that illuminate the vastness of Black and queer life.
I joined GCP in 2019 after working at Palgrave Macmillan, having previously interned at HSG Literary and Frances Goldin Literary Agency. In 2017, I graduated from Hamilton College, where I majored in English and Economics before promptly forgetting everything I learned from the latter.
I enjoy nonfiction, especially narrative, with a pop culture, feminist, deeply reported journalistic, or sociological bent, as well as comedic or culturally relevant memoir. On the fiction side, I gravitate towards voice-driven, quirky or literary titles with a unique perspective. I support Suzanne O’Neill and Maddie Caldwell.