Meru Gokhale to leave PRH, Milee Ashwarya named publisher for adult publishing

Shrinagesh said, “Since our merger in 2013, we have seen our adult English publishing programme evolve under the skillful supervision of Milee Ashwarya and Meru Gokhale, steering our editorial groups Ebury Publishing and Vintage and The Penguin Press Group, respectively. Always with the author and readers in mind, they have grown their respective publishing programmes and succeeded in building not only diverse lists across genres but also dedicated teams capable of winning an array of awards.”

Gokhale said, “After 18 wonderful years working at PRH, I am moving to a new stage of my career. I have been exceptionally lucky to be part of such a wonderful place. I joined when I was 24 years old, and more or less grew up with the colleagues and authors that make up the company's past, present, and future. Most of all, I have learned from my authors — and what a privilege it has been to work with some of the most brilliant minds of our time, such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Sudha Murty, Nandan Nilekani, Devdutt Pattanaik, Amitav Ghosh, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Ramachandra Guha.”

There will be certain changes to the editorial division after her departure.

Milee Ashwarya has been appointed as publisher for Penguin Random House India Adult Publishing. In this newly created role, Milee will be leading the publishing vision and programme for the entire frontlist and backlist for adult publishing. She comes into this role with a wealth of experience in managing people, teams, authors, agents, customers, and stakeholders. She has, over the past decade, built India’s most successful popular fiction and non-fiction lists under Ebury Publishing and an enviable literary list under Vintage, where she, her authors, and her teams have found incredible success. Milee has published some of the most celebrated writers of our time, such as Piyush Pandey, Rahman Abbas, Prannoy Roy, Hussain S Zaidi, Sugata Srinivasaraju, Shiv Aroor, Dr Kamlesh Patel, Hindol Sengupta, and Harish Bhat, to name a few.

Ashwarya said, “I have been a part of Penguin Random House India for more than fourteen years, and I am delighted and excited to take on the new role of publisher for our adult publishing programme. I hope to continue to publish diverse voices, discover talented debut writers, and build on the inclusive programme to further strengthen our award-winning and successful publishing list. This is a new chapter in my life, and I hope to work even more closely with our authors, agents, booksellers, and partners in India and across the world.”

As part of the new structure, Manasi Subramaniam will be taking on the role of editor in chief for Penguin Press, being responsible for continuing to build on the brilliant list of authors who publish under the imprints Allen Lane, Viking, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Books, Penguin Classics, and Modern Classics. Many of Manasi’s published books have gone on to win national and international accolades, including Tomb of Sand and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, which won The Booker International Prize and The Booker Prize in 2022, respectively. She is an advocate of inclusive and accessible publishing and has been invited to speak about many prevalent topics in the literary and publishing worlds on major platforms. Manasi will be reporting to Milee for her deliverables.

Speaking about the change, Shrinagesh said, “Meru’s contribution has been invaluable to the company, and while I am excited for her as she ventures into a new phase of her career, we have mutually decided to continue her association with penguin as a consultant, working directly with me. Having worked with Milee for many years, I am confident in her converting our vision of being home to the most eclectic and inspiring publishing lists in the country into reality. I would also like to congratulate Manasi as she steps into a new role to build an even more enviable list for our editorial group.”