Weidenfeld & Nicolson has appointed Juliet Annan, founder and publisher of Fig Tree, to the role of publishing director

Weidenfeld & Nicolson has appointed Juliet Annan, founder and publisher of Fig Tree, to the role of publishing director. Starting on 27th February, Annan will acquire a select number of fiction and non-fiction titles and report to Jenny Lord, executive publisher of W&N and Literary.

Annan spent 23 years at Penguin General, first running Viking and then as the founder and publisher of Fig Tree. During her time at Penguin, she published the winners and runners up of the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize and the Costa Prize, numerous bestsellers and launched a successful cookery list.

Since stepping down from her role as publisher of Fig Tree in October 2020, she has completed an MA in English Literature at University College, London, while continuing to edit a small handful of writers. She has mentored primary and secondary school students for more than 20 years and has spent some of the past two years mentoring aspiring writers.

Annan said: “I wasn’t looking to return to publishing at all, but Jenny’s offer was irresistible: her team and their acquisitions and publishing are exciting and dynamic. I have worked with Jenny before, and I trust her clear-thinking judgement and great style. I am looking forward to this adventure and working with writers and publishing colleagues enormously.”

Lord described Annan as “one of the most passionate, effervescent and steely publishers in the business”.

“Like the best editors, her taste has always been hugely wide-ranging and uniquely her own. Her hits have been numerous, and she fully deserves her legendary reputation. It has been impossible to miss the successes her authors have enjoyed over the past two years and I can’t quite believe we have convinced her it is time to return to a role where she can do what she does best,” she said. “Juliet joins us at such an exciting time for the imprint and I can’t wait to see what she will bring to the list.”