INDIANAPOLIS: Associate Director and Editorial Director of Beacon Press, Gayatri Patnaik received Biographers International Organization's 2020 Editorial Excellence Award on November 9, at an online event featuring three of her authors: Imani Perry, Marcus Rediker, and Jeanne Theoharis, along with literary agent Tanya McKinnon.
According to a communication received from Communications and Marketing Office of Goshen College, Gayatri Patnaik is associated with Beacon Press for the last 18 years where he has edited and published a number of books on race, ethnicity, and immigration.
Gayatri, a native of India emigrated with her family to the United States as a child, She has focused on African American history, creating Beacon’s “ReVisioning American History” series and its “Queer Action / Queer Ideas” series.
BIO’s Editorial Excellence Award is presented annually to an outstanding editor from nominations submitted by BIO members. Past recipients are Tim Duggan, Robert Gottlieb, Jonathan Segal, Ileene Smith, Nan A. Talese, and Robert Weil.
BIO’s Award Committee chair Kai Bird, , with Tim Duggan, Peniel Joseph, Kitty Kelley, and Megan Marshall, praised Gayatri Patnaik for her work as “a very gutsy, courageous editor who has taken on some high-risk, controversial biographies and published so many outstanding authors.”