Kent Carroll, Carroll/Blanco & Associates, Partner, Publishing Consulting Division
Whether he’s launching the American subsidiary of an acclaimed European publishing house, founding his own company that would end up generating two decades of literary successes, or influencing the nation’s cultural perspective as Editor-in-Chief of one of its most iconic publishers, Kent Carroll’s legacy is considerable.
Europa Editions began in the fall of 2006. In three years Kent Carroll has made the company's name a brand. Readers buy their literary fiction and high-end crime fiction simply because they are the publisher. The first novel that Europa released, The Days of Abandonment, was favorably compared to Anna Karinina by the New York Times. Jane Gardam's Old Filth was short listed for the Orange Prize and named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. Zeroville by Steve Erickson has been selected as a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Toronto Globe & Mail and National Public Radio. Its most recent success, The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Fall 2008), is a New York Times Bestseller.
Prior to his current role as publisher of Europa, Mr. Carroll founded the publishing house Carroll & Graf where he was the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief for over twenty years. The firm was one of the most respected publishers in America best known for quality fiction, history and biography. Among the many writers he edited and published there are: Beryl Bainbridge (five times nominated for the Booker Prize), Ferdinand Mount (editor of the times Literary Supplement and winner of the Hawthordon Prize), Madeline St. John (Booker Prize nominee), Jane Gardam (twice nominated for the Booker Prize, twice winner of the Whitbread Award), Auberon Waugh, Andrew Barr (his book Drink won the 1999 Food & Wine magazine Book-of-the-Year award), Camilla Gibb (her first novel won the Toronto Book Prize), Anthony Burgess, Philip K. Dick, Penelope Fitzgerald (Booker Prize winner), D. M. Thomas, Alice Munro, Alexandra Richie, James Le Fanu (his book The Rise And Fall Of Modern Medicine won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award), George MacDonald Fraser of Flashman fame, Denise Mina (her crime novel Exile won the John Creasey Award). Also Michael Sharra (Pulitzer Prize winner), A.E. Hotchner the international best seller (Papa Hemingway) Alfred Lansing (whose account of Ernest Shackelton’s epic Antarctic adventure Endurance was a New York Times best-seller in 1999 and 2000 and has sold almost one million copies), William Cherry-Gerard (his non-fiction classic The Worst Journey In The World was selected by the National Geographic as one of the five best travel books of all time), Bartle Bull’s acclaimed historical novel Café on the Nile, Sally Vickers’ British bestseller Miss Garnet’s Angel, and Jim Marrs whose best selling history Crossfire was made into the movie JFK by Oliver Stone. Authors whose books have recently been made into movies include Davis Benioff (The 25th Hour) and Chuck Barris (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind).
Between 1996 and 2001 Mr. Carroll’s books received over one hundred reviews in the New York Times including 31 in 2001 alone.
Previously, Kent Carroll was Editor-in-Chief of Grove Press, a publisher that redefined the literary landscape of America by publishing such authors as: Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett, Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Henry Miller and Margurite Duras. He also edited Grove’s influential magazine Evergreen Review as well as acquiring and editing American Graffiti (George Lucas made the movie), John Rechy’s controversial bestseller The Sexual Outlaw and the Pulitzer Prize winning and perennially popular novel A Confederacy Of Dunces. He is currently the Publisher of Europa Editions.
He has lectured at writers’ conferences and spoken on television, radio and before university audiences on various aspects of the writing profession and the publishing business. During a leave from Grove Press he wrote and produced the feature film Abduction that starred Academy Award winner Dorothy Malone.
Mr. Carroll graduated from Princeton. He divides his time between Manhattan and East Hampton.
