Canelo
Hannah Taylor, Editor, August Books
I am primarily interested in stories about community and belonging – whether this comes in the form of folkloric histories like Stone Lands by Fiona Robertson, or in more contemporary issues like radical online spaces, as seen in Julia Ebner’s Going Dark.
I have worked for Canelo for three years, moving from fiction into non-fiction in 2024. I support Martina O’Sullivan on several August Books titles and have recently started acquiring a list of my own.
I I am looking for books that have a political bent and tackle forgotten injustices, like Party Lines by Ed Gillett, as well as books that advocate for the natural world, like Underland by Robert Macfarlane or Wild Service by Nick Hayes and Jon Moses.
A book I’m proud of…
A book that I am proud to have worked on is When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow, the New York Times bestselling story of the golden age of luxury department stores, and the trailblazing women who ran them. The book combines cultural history, political insight and stylish storytelling: the three core elements of my editorial interest.
A book I wish I’d published…
The book that I would have loved to have published is The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight, the stranger-than-fiction story of John Barker’s experiments in parapsychology that took place amongst the fringes of 1960s British public life. I find myself repeatedly drawn to offbeat histories like this one – especially if they follow the perspective of the underdog.