About Christi Cassidy

Christi Cassidy is an editor and writer with more than thirty years’ experience in book publishing, editing fiction, nonfiction, poetry and short stories.

“Books have always been my passion—my work and my life,” she says.

Although her career spans stints in fiction editing, publicity, content licensing and marketing, the common thread that weaves throughout her professional life is her love of and respect for books and the literary arts.

Beginning in 1986, Christi has been a freelance fiction editor, editing approximately a dozen titles per year. Her clients have included Naiad Press, Bella Books, TM Enterprises and individual authors.

For the last 20 years she has also worked with authors and aspiring authors on nonfiction books including memoirs, sexuality books, self-help books and business books. She was for many years active in the Lambda Literary Awards as a judge of the prestigious annual awards.

She launched her career in 1981 as a book publicist at an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, then moved on to E.P. Dutton, Bantam Books and Oxford University Press, where she worked with John Cleese, Wolf Blitzer and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, among many other respected nonfiction authors.

As Poets & Writers magazine Director of Marketing and Circulation, she was responsible for all PR and publicity, trade show management and website implementation and oversight.

In 1998, after a satisfying dozen years in nonprofit magazine and book publishing, she expanded into brand licensing at PressCorps, a medical publisher. Two years later, she accepted an offer to become the syndication and brand licensing manager at Weider Publications, the health-and-fitness magazine giant, where she had the pleasure of working with the editors of Shape and Natural Health magazines to help shepherd their books into the hands of publishers.

Drawn back to her roots as a publicist, Christi began a close association with Mantra Public Relations, a boutique New York PR firm with a challenging roster of eclectic clients. In the ever-changing media arena, she enhanced her publicity, writing and editing talents under the guidance of Mantra president Gaye Carleton, working on accounts for book publishers, authors, musicians, financial services firms, technology companies, fashion designers, retailers, politicians and others.

In 2000, Christi moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continued to work with writers, authors and creative artists on their projects. She handled marketing for several years for Testa Dura Productions, which brought stage and screen legends Kaye Ballard and Liliane Montevecchi to the Santa Fe stage for many song-and-dance performances. She worked with Santa Fe-based musician Donald Rubinstein, a client of Mantra PR.

While in Santa Fe, Starlight Runner Entertainment, based in New York City, brought on Christi to facilitate the launch of its imprint, Kissena Park Press. Christi publicized and promoted the launch and worked on selected initiatives of Starlight Runner’s founder, the inimitable transmedia master Jeff Gomez.  

In 2010, Publishers Weekly, “the bible of book publishing,” engaged Christi as publicity and licensing director. She also works with the New York Rights Fair team on publicity, marketing and writing blog posts.

Christi is back East now, living two hours’ north of NYC in the Hudson Valley, where she continues to work directly with people in all facets of book publishing: authors, fellow editors and publicists, publishers, literary agents, book packagers, graphic designers, copywriters, printers, production managers, marketing managers and directors, sales reps and all the amazing people who make the business of books a joy.

Christi was a MacDowell Artists Colony Fellow in 1988 and a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant Recipient in Poetry, 1988-1989.

Christi received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and Master’s in Fine Art in poetry from Columbia University.

When she’s not at her desk or editing, she can be found reading a book of her own choosing or doing the New York Times crossword puzzle. She is an avid Yankees’ fan and lives with her partner in Hudson, New York.