NEW YORK: Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has named Kathy Sova and Erin Salvi co-publishers of the TCG Books program. Sova and Salvi will work with outgoing publisher Terry Nemeth through January to manage the transition, and Nemeth will stay on as publisher emeritus.
“After a robust search that included a consultative process with leaders in the publishing field, it became clear that successfully transitioning from Terry’s leadership as founding publisher would require us to think differently,” Teresa Eyring, TCG’s executive director and CEO, said in a statement. “Through this shared leadership model, the unique strengths and experiences that Erin and Kathy each bring to the work will build on Terry Nemeth’s extraordinary legacy. Under Kathy and Erin’s shared leadership, that legacy will surely grow to new heights.”
The co-publishers will work together on the editorial selection process. Sova will oversee editorial decisions, book designs, author relations, and contracting, while Salvi will oversee finances and title distribution. Additionally, the co-publishers will also oversee TCG’s One Million Books campaign, which will make one million TCG titles available to schools and universities, public libraries, community centers, and independent bookstores.
“I’m thrilled to be stepping into this new role in partnership with my wonderful colleague Kathy,” Salvi said in a statement. “Under the leadership of the inimitable Terry Nemeth, TCG Books has become an essential part of the theatre ecology, providing plays with their much-deserved place alongside other forms of literature. I look forward to building on this strong foundation and continuing to evolve as a publisher alongside the theatre field.”
“It has been the greatest gift in my life to work with our playwrights and the theatre field,” Sova added in a statement. “To spend the majority of my life, nearly 30 years, working with the country’s greatest playwrights is a continual pinch-me moment: How did I get so lucky? And then to luckily parallel someone like Terry in this niche, but exquisite, genre of publishing—let’s just say that I am forever changed about what dedication to writers and their voices means.”
During her 28 years at TCG, Sova has managed the editorial and production work for TCG Books and has edited plays and theatre reference books. She has edited titles by Annie Baker, Aleshea Harris, Jeremy O. Harris, Adrienne Kennedy, Athol Fugard, Tony Kushner, Suzan Lori-Parks, Lynn Nottage, and many others, as well as the Thornton Wilder estate. Sova launched TCG’s playwright series with the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn and is collaborating with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on the development of the Illuminations series, a publishing initiative to bring renewed attention to overlooked plays by Black playwrights. The Illuminations series launched last year with Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind and hopes to publish 10 plays in five years, accompanied by essays by contemporary Black playwrights.
Salvi has been in the publishing industry for over a decade and was previously the publications director at Playscripts, Inc. She joined TCG in 2015 and has served as a liaison to Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, the distributor of TCG Books, and with TCG’s partner publishers. She has also overseen ebook conversions, handled subsidiary rights, and managed short-run printing and print-on-demand for many titles, among other responsibilities. For five years, Salvi served as the co-chair of TCG’s equity, diversity, and inclusion workgroup to ensure accountability to TCG’s mission and workplace goals.
Theatre Communications Group is the national organization for theatre and leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year. TCG Books commits to the lifelong career of its playwrights by keeping all of their plays in print. TCG Books has grown to become the largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature in North America, with a catalog of nearly 500 titles, including 19 Pulitzer Prize-winning plays.
