Susan Swinwood (She/Her)

Editorial Director

Susan Swinwood joined Harlequin in 1999 and is the Editorial Director of both HQN Books and Graydon House, the commercial fiction imprint she helped launch in 2016. In her career with Harlequin Trade Publishing she has acquired and edited a wide variety of notable and bestselling authors, including Kelly Rimmer, Viola Shipman, Pam Jenoff, Susan Mallery, Kristan Higgins, and Kylie Scott. Her favorite books are epistolary novels, campus-set fiction, historicals, and original takes on the gothic novel. Susan lives in Toronto, Canada.

Melanie Fried (She/Her)

Senior Editor

Melanie Fried began her career at Simon & Schuster before moving to St. Martin’s Press, where she worked on bestselling and award-winning fiction and nonfiction. For GH, she acquires upmarket commercial fiction that’s thought-provoking with a big escapist hook—dual-narrative love stories, locked-room suspense and puzzle mysteries, high-concept family dramas, novels involving toxic relationships, campus settings, feminist themes, high society, gothic atmosphere, or with a speculative twist, immigrant tales, historical fiction inspired by real-life women, and works by writers from marginalized communities across all these categories.

Sara Rodgers (She/Her)

Associate Editor

Sara Rodgers is an Associate Editor at Graydon House. Based in Toronto, Sara has a bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Concordia Montreal, and graduated with high honors from Centennial’s Publishing certificate program. She has read for agents, edited for small presses, and contributed to the growing field of EPUB accessibility as a content certifier. When she isn’t reading or editing, Sara can be found writing, watching cheesy musicals, or putting her art degree to good use and getting her hands dirty.

Marina Green (She/Her)

Editorial Assistant

Marina Green was lucky enough to grow up in a house filled with books. It is no wonder that, even before she learned how to read, she used to make up her own stories that she would recite to her parents every night before bed. Her love and eclectic taste for story has stuck with her all her life. Marina began her publishing career as a part of the editorial team at AOS Publishing while simultaneously building her own freelance editing business. She also spent half a decade working on the other side of the industry as a bookseller and social media manager at Indigo. When Marina isn’t editing, you can find her curled up with a good book and her dog Bailey or writing some of her own stories.