Julie Strauss Gabel

Early life & education

Strauss-Gabel grew up in a suburb of New York City called White Plains, the daughter of a forensic photographer and a teacher of home economics. She attended Amherst College where she edited the college newspaper, The Amherst Student, and met her future husband. She graduated cum laude from Amherst, then graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Career

Strauss-Gabel was associate editor at Clarion Books and was later an editor at Hyperion Books for five years. She is editor and publisher at Dutton Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group. In one week in April 2015, novels that she edited occupied five of the top ten spots. According to one count, she has edited 22 books which were New York Times Bestsellers. She edited numerous titles such as Will Grayson, Will Grayson, a story of two young men sharing the same name but who had different sexual orientations. Her books have won numerous book awards, including the Printz, two Edgars, a Boston Globe-Horn, and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. She has been described as having a knack for spotting talent and nourishing writers. She was instrumental in helping novelist John Green create the blockbuster book The Fault in Our Stars, a story about the inconvenience of teenaged love in the face of tragedy.

Strauss-Gabel believes that the best results happen when there is an active collaboration between the writer and the editor. She oversees most aspects of book development, from editing to book cover design to marketing. She is a tough editor, known for her "stinging critiques" which are highly sought after by writers, since her changes often lead to highly successful revisions; her editorial letters to writers have been described as being "famously intimidating."

Personal life

Strauss-Gabel married David Feldman, a writer and puppeteer for children's television, in 2000.