Tiny Reparations Books
Overview
Founded in 2020 by comedian, bestselling author, producer, and actress Phoebe Robinson, in partnership with Plume and Penguin Random House, Tiny Reparations Books is a highly curated imprint dedicated to fiction and nonfiction that highlights and amplifies unique and diverse voices. The imprint has published bestselling and award-winning books and is committed to full and honest work that pushes the conversation forward.
Tiny Reparations Books’s fiction includes the instant New York Times bestseller, #1 international bestseller, and Edgar Award finalist Portrait of a Thief and Anatomy of a Betrayal, both by Grace D. Li; Holler, Child, which was long-listed for a National Book Award, by LaToya Watkins; As You Wish by Mark Twain American Voice Award and Joyce Carol Oates Prize long-list honoree Leesa Cross-Smith; ABA Indies Introduce Pick Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis; Center for Fiction and NAACP Image Award finalist What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris; and Good Morning America Buzz Pick Gone Like Yesterday by Janelle M. Williams.
Our nonfiction includes Phoebe Robinson’s most recent bestseller Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes; Josephine Baker’s memoir Fearless and Free (for the first time in English); Magical/Realism, which was longlisted for a National Book Award and for a National Book Critics Circle Award, by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal; Great Falls, MT by comedian and bandleader on The Late Late Show with James Corden Reggie Watts; Marsha by TIME100 Honoree Tourmaline; Eight Million Ways to Happiness by New Yorker contributor Hiroko Yoda; and Big Asian Energy by TikTok star and leadership coach John Wang.
The imprint has been praised and featured across media, including on the Today show, The Daily Show, The Drew Barrymore Show, NPR, Vulture, the Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Essence, Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, The Associated Press, and Refinery29. For details about our other imprints, visit: Dutton and Plume.
New & Upcoming Releases
Meet the Team
Phoebe Robinson, Founder
Phoebe Robinson is a stand-up comedian, writer, producer, and actress. She is the co-creator and co-star of the hit podcast turned HBO series 2 Dope Queens and other critically acclaimed podcasts including Sooo Many White Guys and Black Frasier. She’s also the New York Times bestselling author of You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain and Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay, which was developed into a Freeform series. Additionally, Phoebe starred in the films Ibiza and What Men Want, and was a moderator for Michelle Obama’s Becoming book tour where she interviewed the former first lady. In 2019, Phoebe launched Tiny Reparations, a production company under ABC Signature, whose first series Doing the Most with Phoebe Robinson, premiered April 2021 on Comedy Central. In 2021, Phoebe published her third book of essays Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes, which quickly became a national bestseller and the inaugural title from her imprint, Tiny Reparations Books, which champions writers of color. Her debut hour comedy special, Sorry, Harriet Tubman, premiered Oct 2021 on HBO Max.
Emi Ikkanda, Executive Editor
Emi Ikkanda is an Executive Editor acquiring nonfiction and select fiction projects at Tiny Reparations Books, Dutton, and Plume at Penguin Random House. She previously worked at Seal Press at Hachette, and Spiegel & Grau at Random House. She publishes a diverse list of award-winning, bestselling, and culturally relevant books. Over the years she has edited #1 New York Times and international bestselling authors, and edited winners or finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Carnegie Medal, Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, and the TIME 100.
Highlights on her list include #1 New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo’s Mediocre, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans, Josephine Baker’s memoir Fearless and Free, Carla Power’s Pulitzer finalist Home, Land, Security, TIME 100 honoree Tourmaline’s Marsha, TikTok star and leadership coach John Wang’s Big Asian Energy, Minda Harts’s Right Within, Arianna Davis’s What Would Frida Do?, international bestselling novelist Michael David Lukas’s The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Sanaë Lemoine’s New York Times Editor’s Choice The Margot Affair, NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott’s Back to Earth, and former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao’s Reset.
Emi's Featured Titles
Lashanda Anakwah, Editor
Lashanda Anakwah is an editor at Tiny Reparations Books acquiring fiction and select non-fiction titles. Before joining Tiny Reparations she worked at the Simon & Schuster flagship imprint where she co-acquired The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson, a Reese’s Book Club pick.
She is building a list that captures a wide array of human experiences, and is drawn to edgy voice driven literary, upmarket and commercial fiction centered on complicated unique characters. Smart immersive prose written with craft, intention, and depth of feeling is sure to capture her attention. As well as themes of geographic identity, culture, and coming of age.
Lashanda is also looking for transformative memoirs, in addition to narrative non-fiction that answers the “why” and “how” in regards to the socio-political-economic systems we are all mired in, with a clear vision of the way forward.
Her upcoming titles include Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis, Francine’s Spectacular Crash a Burn by Renee Swindle, and This Kind of Trouble by Tochi Eze.
Jamie Knapp, Director of Publicity
Jamie Knapp is the Director of Publicity for Plume and Tiny Reparations Books and the Associate Director of Publicity for Dutton. She also serves as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council Representative for the PPG Division at Penguin Random House.
Since joining Dutton in 2008, she has built buzzworthy and bestselling campaigns for many books including the National Book Award Winner for Fiction Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, the Read with Jenna pick The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, NBA Star Andre Iguodala’s The Sixth Man, and the NYT instant bestseller Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li.
Other authors she has worked with include Drew Barrymore, Karma Brown, Liam Callanan, Harlan Coben, Martin Duberman, Craig Ferguson, Kai Harris, Tami Hoag, Jeff Lindsay, Trixie Mattel and Katya, Sona Movsesian, Megan Mullaly, Nick Offerman, Bill Russell, Phoebe Robinson, E.G. Scott, Daniel Stone, David Wright, and many others.