Maya Rutherford to Head Up Publicity at Scribner

Maya Rutherford will join Scriber as VP of publicity on March 17. She joins the Simon & Schuster imprint from HarperCollins’ flagship literary fiction imprint, where she was the senior director of publicity and worked with such renowned authors as Barbara Kingsolver, Ann Patchett, and Louise Erdrich.

Rutherford has held positions at Viking, W.W. Norton, Bloomsbury, and Houghton Mifflin, and has worked with such authors as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sebastian Geraldine Brooks, Ruth Ozeki, and Leïla Slimani.

In a memo announcing the hire, Scribner publisher Marysue Rucci praised Rutherfords “exquisite literary taste, innovative publicity campaigns (see: midlist dark horses!), and exceptional author care.”

The addition of Rutherford comes on the heels of a reorganized senior management structure at the Simon & Schuster imprint, which included the promotions of Kathryn Belden and Stu Smith to editor-in-chief and associate publisher, respectively. Rucci, who was recently appointed as publisher of Scribner, also announced that Scribner’s marketing team—led by VP of marketing Brianna Yamashita—will report to Smith, while the editorial team will report to Belden. 

Rucci's eponymous imprint, which she had helmed since 2021, will publish titles through the end of 2025 with the Simon Element team, and current Marysue Rucci staff will be reorganized, with executive editor Emily Graff now acquiring for both Simon Element and Scribner, and executive editor Anne Speyer moving to Scribner, reporting to Belden. Clare Maurer, senior publicity manager at Simon Element/Marysue Rucci Books, is also moving to Scribner. Brian Belfiglio, previously the VP and director of marketing and publicity at Scribner, has left the company.