Ruoxi Chen, Executive Editor

Ruoxi Chen joined Putnam in 2024, and acquires genre-bending crossover speculative fiction for a general audience. She’s drawn to voice-driven, character-forward books that effortlessly slip between genres, worlds, and boundaries, and is looking for deeply specific stories with broad commercial potential that will find their exact reader regardless of what BISAC they live under.

At Putnam, she’ll follow a strong voice across categories and edits a wide-ranging list that includes queer fantasy rom-coms like Máire Roche’s Bromantasy, electrifying horror with camp skin and a literary spine like Samantha Josephs’ Carrying, a fresh and acid-sharp inversion of a haunted house novel like Micaiah Johnson’s The Unhaunting, lush fantasy with historical fiction crossover like Caitríona Moran’s The Trial of Magdalena Overmorrow, and high concept book club fiction that approaches its speculative premise with warmth like Karisa Tell’s Hello, World, among others.

Prior to Putnam, she was at Macmillan and the Tor Publishing Group, where she worked with Emily Tesh, winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel, USA Today bestseller Freya Marske, World Fantasy Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi, and Hugo Award winner and USA Today bestseller Nghi Vo. She has taught at the Clarion West Writers Workshop and has been recognized for her editorial work with two Hugo Awards for Best Editor, Long Form and the top honor for the Publishers Weekly Star Watch program.