Naomi Huffman grew up in the Midwest. In 2012, she began working in independent publishing in Chicago, where she edited at the ambitious small presses Curbside Splendor and Featherproof Books. During that time, she developed her taste for the audacious, voice-driven, and transgressive literature championed by independent houses. Later, she worked for MCD x FSG and FSG Originals, imprints of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, where she edited multiple titles and developed the overall digital strategy and brand identity.

She is drawn to non-fiction with a distinct and thoughtful perspective, that bears a sense of social responsibility, and corrects erroneous histories or contributes to lesser-known literary lineages. She is excited by fiction that explores voice and form, springs from a particular place and experience, and exhibits a singular style.

She has worked with many musicians and artists to develop their novels and memoirs, and she specializes in drawing out confident work from writers from other creative disciplines. She is a very sensitive editor, and she maintains an open and candid collaboration with her clients. Above all, she ensures a work succeeds on its own terms, sentence to sentence, word by word. 

Julia Ringo, a native of the Pacific Northwest, has spent nine years working with the most highly-regarded literary publishers in New York, first with Publishers Group West, distributor for Grove Atlantic and other fine independent houses, and then in editorial with Alfred A. Knopf and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

She is omnivorous in her reading interests, and is drawn above all to precision and specificity in prose, place, and character, along with stories that trace the intersection between human and non-human lives. She is passionate about fiction and narrative nonfiction, with particular interest in genre-bending and hybrid forms, prose written by poets, and writing about travel, nature, community, and the weight of history. And dark humor is a bonus! She has shaped academic texts for trade publishing and helped many first-time authors gain a sense for structure and scene. As an editor, her primary goal is always to bring a manuscript as close as possible to the best version of itself, in keeping with the author's vision, all through close communication and mutual understanding.

The hagfish is a jawless fish with concentric sets of teeth, three hearts, and prodigious slime glands. She is mysterious—little is known about her history, reproduction, or life cycle. She is often numbered among the most repulsive creatures in the sea, but we think she’s beautiful: here is a creature who works to improve her environment, produces a fibrous goo of extraordinary strength and flexibility, and evades her prey with impressive defenses honed over 300 million years. In this spirit, we hope to be as cunning and innovative, and to embody her slippery grace.

Our identity was designed by L + L, whose brilliance exceeds even the depths of the sea.