Meet Artisan
Lia Ronnen
SVP, Publisher
Lia Ronnen is SVP, Publisher and Editorial Director of Workman, Artisan, and Black Dog & Leventhal, and Publisher of Workman Calendars. Since joining Workman Publishing in 2011, Ronnen has worked to apply a singular visual and editorial lens to the imprints’ publishing programs, focusing on subjects and categories ranging from food and design to lifestyle, history, pop culture, humor, stationery, gardening, men’s gift, and more. She has strengthened Workman’s mission of creating and maintaining a thriving backlist while directing the company’s ability to pivot and succeed in a constantly evolving retail landscape. Perennial category killers she has published and/or edited include René Redzepi’s The Noma Guide to Fermentation, Matt Hranek’s A Man & His Watch, Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons, John Derian’s Picture Book and Sticker Book, Glenn Boozan’s There Are Dads Way Worse Than You, and Ramit Sethi’s Money for Couples, along with work from famed brands including Flow, Kinfolk, Remodelista, HBO, Nathalie Lété, and Terrain.
Zach Greenwald
Associate Publisher
Zach Greenwald is Associate Publisher of Artisan, Workman, Black Dog & Leventhal, and Workman Calendars. He collaborates with the imprint’s editorial, design, and marketing and publicity teams, as well as the digital operations, supply chain, and production and manufacturing departments. He is also the liaison between the Workman imprints and Hachette’s sales team. Greenwald actively acquires titles for the Workman group, looking for voices and brands that can translate into books with beauty and depth. His acquisitions include social media phenoms (Dog Only Knows, Meet Cutes NYC, Hotel Kitsch, and The Old Jewish Men’s Guide to Eating, Sleeping, and Futzing Around), singular experts (Champion Mindset), and inventive category killers (The Tennis Court).
Judy Pray
Editorial Director, Cookbooks, Artisan & Workman
As the Editorial Director managing the food and drink lists for Artisan and Workman, Judy Pray brings over three decades of experience in acquiring and editing some of the most influential and award-winning books in the culinary world. She has shaped numerous James Beard and IACP award winners, including Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin, Jang by Mingoo Kang, Heritage by Sean Brock, Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee, and Whole Food Cooking Every Day by Amy Chaplin, among others. Pray has acquired and edited groundbreaking titles including Ghetto Gastro’s Black Power Kitchen, Tom Colicchio’s Why I Cook, Francis Mallmann’s Green Fire, Natasha Pickowicz’s More Than Cake, and Aran Goyoaga’s The Art of Gluten-Free Bread. Beyond the kitchen, she has brought to life beloved lifestyle books such as Elias Weiss Friedman’s The Dogist and The Dogist Puppies.
Becky Koh
Publishing Director, Black Dog & Leventhal
As Publishing Director of Black Dog & Leventhal, Becky Koh acquires, edits, and works with the Black Dog team to produce illustrated, content-rich coffee table books that balance text and art. Black Dog books feature expert authors, top brands and licenses, and talented artists, illustrators, and photographers and cover a range of categories, including pop culture, music, movies, TV, and entertainment; fine art; the performing arts; style and fashion; science and math; history; mythology; and reference. Among Koh’s notable titles are the New York Times bestseller Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt’s Creek; E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey; Martha Graham Dance Company 100 Years; Math with Bad Drawings; Apollo Remastered; Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: The 75th Anniversary Edition; The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe; and Spider-Man Total Universe: All the Comics and the Characters.
Jamie Thompson
Editorial Director, Workman Calendar & Gift
In her role as Editorial Director of Calendar and Gift at Workman Publishing, Jamie Thompson focuses on exploring publishing partnerships with dynamic brands and iconic licenses to create product lines that are visually captivating, culturally significant, and boldly imaginative. Her background spans more than a decade in publishing along with a prior career as a film studio executive, experience that’s convinced her that compelling content can come from the most unexpected and unlikely places. The most recent partnership she brokered is a publishing program between Workman and Pantone, the color solution company. She is based in Los Angeles.
Maisie Tivnan
Executive Editor, Workman
Maisie Tivnan is an Executive Editor at Workman acquiring and editing primarily narrative nonfiction books in parenting, health and wellness, self-help, social issues, inspiration, and more. Recent books include the bestselling Atlas Obscura series and parenting titles such as The Montessori Toddler, the What to Expect series, Raising a Kid Who Can, Parenting in a Climate Crisis, and Talk to Your Boys. She’s also drawn to big ideas in surprising packages such as Ejaculate Responsibly by Gabrielle Blair, Yolk by Jessamyn Stanley, We Are Called to Be a Movement by Rev. William J. Barber, and Do the Work!: An Antiracist Workbook by W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz.
Danny Cooper
Senior Editor
Danny Cooper is a Senior Editor and has been with Workman since 2014. He edits a variety of titles, focusing on humor, sports, men’s gift, pop history/science, and games/trivia. Some recent and notable titles include Schott’s Significa by Ben Schott, The Birding Dictionary by Rosemary Mosco, A History of Basketball in Fifteen Sneakers by Russ Bengtson, and the New York Times bestselling Money for Couples by Ramit Sethi. He looks for books with passionate voice, quirky expertise, and major gift-ability.
Shoshana Gutmajer
Senior Editor
Shoshana Gutmajer is a Senior Editor at Artisan acquiring and editing nonfiction visual books in men’s interest, lifestyle, pop culture, travel, nature, fashion, illustrated self-help, and general interest photography. Titles include A Man & His Watch and A Man & His Car by Matt Hranek; 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (deluxe edition, 2019) by Patricia Schultz; The Tennis Court by Nick Pachelli; Il Dolce Far Niente by Lucy Laucht; Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion by Mitchell S. Jackson; The Space Shuttle by Roland Miller; Pacific Coasting by Danielle Kroll; and Tiny Love Stories by Daniel Jones and Miya Lee of the New York Times.
Bridget Monroe Itkin
Senior Editor
Bridget Monroe Itkin is a Senior Editor specializing in home and garden titles, as well as illustrated books on architecture, travel, wellness, creativity, crafts and hobbies, and broader lifestyle subjects. Some recent projects that reflect the quality of authorship and production value she constantly aims for include Christian Douglas’s The Food Forward Garden, Chris Mitchell and Pilar Guzmán’s Patina Modern, Amy Merrick’s On Flowers, and Frances Palmer’s Life in the Studio. She works with high-profile brands, including Remodelista, Terrain, and the Neat Method, to develop illustrated book programs across genres.
Rachael Mt. Pleasant
Senior Editor
Rachael Mt. Pleasant is a Senior Editor who specializes in illustrated gift books, calendars, and stationery. She is passionate about discovering talented illustrators and authors and collaborating with them to make beautiful, charming, and creatively packaged products. She has developed and worked on many of Workman’s sticker books, such as the So. Many. Stickers. and State of Mind Stickers series, as well as titles like Welcome to the Grief Club, 2 Kinds of People, and A Book Lover’s Box.
Lisa Tenaglia
Senior Editor
Lisa Tenaglia is a Senior Editor at Black Dog & Leventhal. Since joining the imprint as an editorial assistant in 2007, she has worked on a variety of illustrated books in categories like art, history, reference, photography, sports, music, film, television, and more. She has collaborated with brands including the New York Times, the Louvre, and PBS to create complex and innovative gift books. Recent acquisitions and/or published titles include Court Queens, Hidden Landmarks of New York, Taylor Swift All the Songs, Wes Anderson All the Films, and Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance.
Bella Lemos
Editor
Bella Lemos is an Editor who acquires for the Artisan, Workman, and Black Dog & Leventhal imprints, specializing in cookbooks, illustrated reference books, and nonfiction titles that explore topics such as food and drink, art, pop culture, Western lifestyle, Latin American culture, and fashion from a visual perspective. Lemos’s list of edited books includes Yassou by Shaily Lipa, Cook Color and The Hostess Handbook by Maria Zizka, A Field Guide to Tequila by Clayton Szczech, and For the Love of Kewpie by Kewpie Corporation, Elyse Inamine, and Jessie YuChen. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Analucia Zepeda
Associate Editor
As an Associate Editor at Workman—where she also supports executive editor Maisie Tivnan and editorial director of cookbooks Judy Pray—Zepeda has edited cookbooks, prescriptive nonfiction, gift, and calendars, and now manages the Photicular book brand and cookbook titles by Steven Raichlen (The Barbecue! Bible). She has worked on the Make It Plant-Based! cookbook line and the Spanish-language editions in the What to Expect series. In the tradition of Workman’s generalist editors, she looks to acquire titles in a wide range of categories, including cookbooks, gift, humor, inspiration, paper goods, and photo-driven volumes.
Brooke Beckmann
Assistant Editor
Brooke Beckmann is an Assistant Editor at Workman Publishing, where she works across the Workman, Artisan, and Black Dog & Leventhal imprints on titles in the food and drink, gift, lifestyle, and art categories, and looks for projects related to the natural world, artworks and their artists, crafting, pop culture, and style. Beckmann is the editor of The Book of Modern Ceremony by Shari Dunbar Boyer and Cheese Sex Death Page-A-Day Calendar by Erika Kubick. She has also contributed to John Derian Picture Book II by John Derian, Mother Sauce by Lucinda Scala Quinn, and Let’s Eat Paris! by François-Régis Gaudry.
Julia Perry
Assistant Editor
Julia Perry is an Assistant Editor at Workman Adult, Artisan, and Workman Calendars, where she also supports editors Bridget Monroe Itkin and Danny Cooper. Since joining Workman as an editorial assistant in 2023, she has managed a full calendar list and worked on a wide range of books across Workman’s imprints, including Unplug, Pseudoscience, and Mythic Plants. Julia has started to acquire her own titles, including the forthcoming Nepo Babies and an empowering collection of quotations compiled by Kathryn and Ross Petras. Her interests include mind/body/spirit, motivation and inspiration, self-help, pop culture, and humor.