In Conversation with Joy Peskin

About Joy Peskin

As Senior Executive Editor at Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, Joy Peskin edits a range of books for children and teenagers. Books she has edited for FSG BYR include The 57 Bus, by Dashka Slater, New York Times Bestseller and recipient of many honors including the Stonewall Book Award (winner); Speak: The Graphic Novel, written by Laurie Halse Anderson with art by Emily Carroll, recipient of five starred reviews; and For Black Girls Like Me and Stonewall Honor book In the Key of Us, by Mariama Lockington, each the recipient of five starred reviews. Joy edits the bestselling and award-winning Escargot picture book series, written by Dashka Slater and illustrated by Sydney Hanson and the USA Today Bestsellers Jawbreaker and Slouch, by Christina Wyman. At Macmillan, Joy was a founding member of the MCPG Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community committee and she teaches a company-wide course on Author Care. A graduate of Vassar College, the Radcliffe Publishing Program, and the Rutgers Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance Program, Joy has taught writing to aspiring authors, youth experiencing homelessness, incarcerated women, and teens in a juvenile detention center. Her own essays have been published in Salon, Glamour, The Huffington Post, Parents magazine, Publishers Weekly, Writer’s Digest, and Lilith magazine and she is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Writing about Seniors, Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. Dear Hope, a play she wrote, was produced by the Hangar Theater in Ithaca, New York. Through her small business, Joy Peskin Professional Coaching, Joy provides professional coaching with a personal touch to clients who work in creative fields, social services, business environments, and more. She is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC), credentialed by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She has mentored and tutored children in New York City and New Jersey since 1997, and she is now a CASA (court appointed special advocate) and Peer Coordinator within the foster care system in Essex County, New Jersey. Joy has served on the boards of the non-profits organizations Every Child a Reader and Literacy for Incarcerated Teens.