SOHO Press

Summary

Soho Press is an independent book publisher founded in 1987 by Laura and Alan Hruska with the help of editor Juris Jurjevics. The company was passed down to the Hruska's daughter, Bronwen Hruska, after Laura Hruska died of cancer. Soho has remained independent throughout its publishing lifetime and plans to remain "fiercely independent" in the words of Bronwen Hruska, nor has it made any acquisitions of its own. It has four imprints (Soho Press, Soho Crime, Soho Teen, and their new horror imprint, Hell's Hundred) and specializes in literary fiction and crime. Soho, while being a small indie press, has a notable standing in the publishing and literary world and its authors are frequently featured in awards and recognitions. Recently, author Jaqueline Winspear won the GP Putnam's Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award for her novel The Comfort of Ghosts.

History and Mission

As mentioned in the summary, Soho began as a small, almost purely family-based publishing house. It is still small with under twenty full-time employees, but the company has grown since its inception. Even now the publisher remains dedicated to elevating risk-taking literature that blends genre and literary fiction, which are traditionally held as separate entities. As Bronwen Hruska put it, "Big Five corporate publishing wasn’t giving new voices a chance, Soho filled a much-needed void." Soho works with lots of debut authors and focuses on the quality and meaning of the work rather than its marketability as a purely commercial product.

Editorial Staff

Bronwen Hruska (Publisher): Daughter of founders Laura and Alan Hruska. Worked as a journalist and screenwriter for two decades before learning the publishing trade from her mother in 2008. In 2010 Laura died and Bronwen inherited the company, determined to keep Soho's values and reputation intact while expanding its reach and scope in the modern publishing world.

Juliet Grames (Associate Publisher): Graduate of Columbia College with a degree in History. Pursued a career in book publishing and has worked at Soho since 2010 as an associate publisher and editorial director. She is an international bestselling author. Her two notable works include The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia. In 2022 she received the Mystery Writers of America Ellery Queen Award for her editorial work in crime fiction.