Michael Szczerban

VP, Publisher

I oversee the Voracious and Spark imprints at Little, Brown, which publish books that make life better. As an editor, my interests are driven by appetite and curiosity, and I love helping authors connect readers to their passions.

I have published numerous bestsellers and established several million-copy series that include Pete Souza’s photo books (Obama: An Intimate Portrait and others), cookbook programs from Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street and Jeffrey Eisner, and Sarah Knight’s No F*cks Given Guides. Other projects include Wally Koval’s Accidentally Wes Anderson, Zach Klein’s Cabin Porn, and our half-century-old Ansel Adams program. My authors include Pamela Anderson, Bryan Ford, Sam Heughan, the estate of Johnny Cash, Vivian Howard, Marcus Samuelsson, Daniel Humm/Eleven Madison Park, Brad Leone, and Ayesha Curry. My books have won the Thurber Prize for American Humor and been finalists for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year and the National Book Critics Circle Award. 

Previously, I worked at Simon & Schuster, where I acquired Samin Nosrat’s mega-bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and helped develop the TED Books line. I then helped launch the Regan Arts imprint at Phaidon, and joined Little, Brown in 2014. We launched Voracious in 2019, and I was named publisher of Spark and Voracious in 2024.

I am a recipient of the Lawrence Peel Ashmead Editorial Award and a Publishers Weekly Star Watch honoree, and have written about our business for Poets & Writers. You can follow me on Instagram @foreverbeard.

Raquel Pelzel

Editorial Director

I joined Voracious in 2024. Previously, I was the editorial director of cookbooks at Clarkson Potter, where I edited 21 New York Times bestsellers, two IACP “cookbook of the year” winners, as well as several James Beard award winners and two Art of Eating Prize nominated cookbooks. Some of the authors I edited included culinary icons such as Ina Garten, Melissa Clark, Giada de Laurentiis, Nadiya Hussain, and Michael Symon, as well as celebrity cooks like Gisele Bündchen, Eva Longoria, and Danny Trejo. 

As a life-long curious cook and food obsessive, I’m always looking to be inspired and cookbooks are where I turn to first. Works from Claire Saffitz, Eric Kim, Rodney Scott, Rick Martinez, and José Andrés (World Central Kitchen) not only contribute to our food culture but redefine it, shining a light on new ways to think about and approach cooking and caring for one another. Additionally, I couldn’t be prouder to have published category-killer cookbooks from bright new voices in the culinary space including Suzy Karadsheh and the Leung family (The Woks of Life). 

Before I became a cookbook editor, I was a cookbook co-author on more than two dozen cookbooks, plus the author of a few of my own, and was an editor and recipe developer at Tasting Table and Cook’s Illustrated (where I like to say that I got my “masters” in recipe development and editing). 

Originally from Chicago, after college I went to culinary school at The School of Natural Cookery in Boulder and Johnson + Wales in Providence, and baked and cooked professionally in bakeries and restaurants. You can follow me on Instagram @raquelpelzel.

Jessica Chun

Senior Director of Marketing

I am the marketing lead for Little, Brown Spark and Voracious and have spent most of my publishing career focusing on nonfiction books the inspire readers. I joined Spark in 2018 and Voracious in 2021. Previously, I worked at various imprints across Penguin Random House, including Dutton, Gotham Books, Avery, and Dorling Kindersley. At Voracious I have the pleasure of working with some really amazing authors such as Christopher Kimball, Pete Souza, Brad Leone, Leah Thomas, Stacey Mei Yan Fong, Jeff Guenther (@therapyjeff), the Johnny Cash estate, and many more.

Katherine Akey

Senior Marketing Manager

I joined Little, Brown Spark and Voracious in 2021, with focus in marketing nonfiction books that inform and feed readers’ passions. At Voracious, I’ve worked with incredible authors including Pamela Anderson, Sam Heughan, Jeffrey Eisner, and Accidentally Wes Anderson. Previously, I marketed ELT books at Oxford University Press and medical books at Thieme Medical Publishers. I have a master’s degree in Literature from the University of Colorado, and BAs in English and French.

Juliana Horbachevsky

Director of Publicity

I am the publicity lead for Voracious and Little, Brown Spark, focusing on the cooking, lifestyle, health/wellness, science, and psychology/self-help categories. I’ve spearheaded publicity campaigns for bestselling authors including Nicholas Christakis, Bobby Flay, Josh Axe, Mark Hyman, David Perlmutter, Jillian Michaels, and Deepak Chopra. At Little, Brown, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside authors such as Christopher Kimball, Maida Heatter, Isaac Toups, Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, and David Tamarkin. Previously, I worked in publicity at Penguin Random House, Abrams, and Simon & Schuster. A graduate of Loyola University Maryland, I earned my BA with majors in Writing and Marketing.

Lauren Ortiz

Publicity Manager

I joined Little, Brown in 2020 as an associate publicist with our Little, Brown Spark and Voracious. Now, as a publicity manager with the imprints, I spearhead campaigns for our lifestyle, cooking, health and wellness, business,  science, and psychology titles. Prior to joining Little, Brown, I worked at NBCUniversal as a Page in NBCU’s Page Program and later as a publicity coordinator with NBC Entertainment, where I assisted in publicity campaigns for late night- and prime-time television shows including Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. 

In my time at Little, Brown, I’ve had the opportunity to work with celebrities, influencers, and impactful thought-leaders from every corner of the world. Highlights include Sam Heughan, Leah Thomas, Arlan Hamilton, Hannah Ritchie, Marcela Valladolid, Christopher Kimball, and many more. In addition to my love of publicity, I am passionate about the diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at HBG, as such, I serve as the co-lead of the Employees of Color ERG and on Carrie Bloxson’s DE&I Advisory Board.  A graduate of Rutgers Business School – New Brunswick, I earned my BS in Business Marketing. In my free time I love exploring and walking new neighborhoods, paint by the numbers, and traveling. 

Aayushi Agarwal

Publicity Assistant

I joined Little, Brown as a publicity assistant in 2023, after graduating from the University of Connecticut with a BA in English and Psychology. I mainly work as part of the Little, Brown Spark and Voracious imprints, focusing on lifestyle, cooking, health and wellness, science, and psychology. Previously, I have interned at Beacon Press and Barefoot Books.