Free Press senior editor Amber Qureshi is decamping for Viking, where she will take on the role of executive editor in January 2011. Viking president Clare Ferraro made the announcement today, noting, “Amber is an exciting addition to Viking’s exemplary editorial team. Her keen editorial eye and wide range of interests are sure to add to Viking’s award-winning and bestselling list of authors. I’m delighted to be working with her and eager to see her list take shape at Viking.”
Qureshi, who PW profiled in 2008, earned an undergraduate degree in advanced mathematics and did graduate work in econometrics in Japan. She spent five years there, eventually landing a job at a translation house--Qureshi speaks French and Japanese in addition to English. She attended the Radcliffe Publishing Institute at Harvard, where Knopf editor Gary Fisketjon signed her up to be his assistant, launching her editorial career. After her tenure at Knopf, which lasted from 2000 to 2003, she moved to Picador. In 2006, she joined Free Press as senior editor. While there, she acquired and edited a number of bestselling titles including 2008 Man Booker winner The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau, and Heart Like Water by Joshua Clark.
Of her new post, Qureshi said, “I’m honored to be joining this supremely talented team. It will be a privilege to publish under this legendary colophon, a standard in publishing that is as interesting as it is successful.”
