Lauren Cerand Joins A Public Space Staff

Brigid Hughes, founding editor of the independent literary magazine A Public Space, announced today that Lauren Cerand will join the magazine, effective immediately, as Marketing and Development Director, working in the office two days per week. Hughes founded A Public Space in 2006, soon after she left the Paris Review, where she had succeeded George Plimpton as editor. The mission of A Public Space magazine is to publish overlooked and unclassifiable work, seeking out writing from beyond established confines.

Jesmyn Ward, Dorthe Nors, Amy Leach, and Nam Le are among the writers whose work was first introduced in A Public Space. In 2011 Hughes was awarded the PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing, and in 2016, the tenth anniversary of A Public Space, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses honored the publication with the Award for Best Literary Magazine.

The tenth anniversary issue featured work from Etel Adnan, Kathleen Collins, Elena Poniatowska, Friederike Mayröcker, and a portfolio on Bette Howland—a MacArthur prizewinner and correspondent with Saul Bellow for decades, whose work had fallen from the public eye until Hughes rediscovered it on the $1 cart at Housing Works Bookstore in New York City. This fall, Bette Howland’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage will be the first title from APS Books. The imprint’s first list also includes the acclaimed British filmmaker Sally Potter; the artist Dorothea Tanning; and more.

“There are publicists, and then there is Lauren Cerand,” said Flavorwire, counting her among “35 Writers Who Run the Literary Internet,” in 2014. In the March/April 2018 issue of Poets & Writers, she is described as "a highly sought-after independent publicity guru who exudes an easy bookish glamour." In more than a dozen years as an independent public relations representative and strategic consultant in New York, she has advised everyone from shipping and private equity firms to scientists, her neighborhood children’s bookstore, and advocates for the arts on how to tell their stories and connect with audiences, often through the lens of media. Publications she has worked with over the years include The Baffler, Metropolis, CNET (for the launch of its "Technically Literate" fiction series), 4Columns, and more. She has served on the board of directors of both Girls Write Now and the Writers Room, and on the membership committee of PEN America. In 2018, she joined the newly formed advisory committee of Film Forum, an essential New York City cultural institution. Lauren is a graduate of Cornell University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations. She lives in Brooklyn, and is learning Italian.

“I am thrilled Lauren is bringing her vision and talent to A Public Space, and to be working with her to launch our Academy and several other ambitious new ventures,” said Hughes.

"I have long admired Brigid and her extraordinary gifts and track record as an editor, as well as her vision to build an institution that is expanding into a dynamic new era, in a moment when our society needs vital communities of intellectually engaged, vigorously thoughtful, critical thinkers most," said Cerand. "She is someone I have valued as a successful woman in media as long as I've been working in the industry, and A Public Space is an iconic cultural brand. In a down-to-earth way, I live a short walk from the Brooklyn office where the magazine is made, and feel more connected to the idea of a positive future when I can see it happening in my neighborhood and make a contribution of my own talent to something that is real. I look forward to helping A Public Space reach new readers and gather the resources to make even greater waves."

To discuss ideas for potential partnerships and marketing and development opportunities of any size, please contact Lauren Cerand at lauren@apublicspace.org.