JOHANNA CASTILLO , 30
BA ’02
Senior Editor, Atria Books
(Simon & Schuster)

When Johanna Castillo came to New York from Ecuador in 1999, she had worked in finance for six years, having obtained a degree in that subject from Espirito Santo University in Guayaquil. “It’s one of the few ways to earn a living there,” she says of her early career choice. Once in New York, however, she realized that she could pursue a variety of professions. An ardent reader, she chose publishing. After creating her own major (Spanish literature), she graduated from Baruch with a BA in 2002.

While in school, she’d used her internship at the literary agency Sanford J. Greenburger Associates to research the Latino market, which she believed was underserved by the publishing industry. (She also did an internship at Random House Español and took a summer job at the Laura Dail Literary Agency.) After graduation, she approached Greenburger with a business plan to develop books and writers for the Hispanic market, and she was hired immediately. At the time, she was the only Latina agent in the country representing Latino writers exclusively. That distinction soon attracted suitors like Simon & Schuster, who hired Castillo this past February to develop its own books by Latino authors.

“There’s a huge Latino population, and they’re consumers, too,” she notes. “Especially after the elections of 2004—where the Latino vote was so important—publishers are starting to realize there’s a market there.” Of course she realized it first, and that’s why she’s at the forefront of a
growing segment of the publishing industry.

—Marina Zogbi
(Photo: Jerry Speier)

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