EMILY BESTLER
Senior Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Emily attended Barnard College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor’s degree in English and received her M.A. in English from ColumbiaUniversity. After attending New York University’s Publishing Program, she began her career at Macmillan Books and then moved to Random House where she became a Senior Editor. Emily was named Editorial Director of Pocket Books and became Executive Editorial Director at Atria/Pocket Books. In 2011, she founded Emily Bestler Books, where she is a Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief.
LARA JONES
Senior Editor
Lara joined Emily Bestler Books in 2015. Prior to joining the imprint, she held an editorial position at Europa Editions, working on a wide range of critically acclaimed and bestselling novels in translation. Raised in Portland, Oregon, Lara is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course and Seattle University, where she studied English and Italian. Her list includes upmarket and commercial suspense, thrillers, mysteries, horror, rom coms, and book club fiction. Her authors include TJ Alexander (Chef’s Kiss), Jaclyn Goldis (The Chateau), Ally Wilkes (Where the Dead Wait), Kit Frick (The Split), and Amy Pease (Northwoods), among others.
SARAH GRILL (SHE/HER)
Senior Editor
Sarah Grill joined the team at Emily Bestler Books in 2024. Previously, she was an editor at St. Martin’s Press, and worked in television development at Alloy Entertainment before shifting into the publishing world. She has acquired and edited a wide range of commercial fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestseller A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft; USA TODAY bestseller These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant; the Edgar Award-nominated biography, A Mystery of Mysteries by Mark Dawidziak; Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne; and The Make-up Test by Jenny L. Howe. She is looking for smart upmarket fiction and mysteries, thrillers, and suspense where the writing is as satisfying as the twists. Her wish list can best be described as "coming-of-age but with a murder": sophisticated, juicy adult novels exploring the sinister side of friendships, relationships, and lost innocence.
HYDIA SCOTT-RILEY (SHE/THEY)
Editorial Assistant
Hydia joined Emily Bestler Books/Atria in September 2023 and assists editor-in-chief Emily Bestler. Before joining the imprint, Hydia came to Simon & Schuster in January 2022 through the Associate’s Program. She grew up in Bermuda and holds a BA in English from Howard University. She is drawn to upmarket and commercial fiction with atmospheric writing, dynamic plots, and nuanced characters.
