Soho Press Publisher Laura Hruska Dies

Laura Hruska, co-founder, longtime publisher and editor-in-chief of Soho Press, died on Saturday after a long illness. She was 74 years old. Hruska had been at Soho, which began publishing literary fiction and crime novels since 1987, from the very beginning, and took over as publisher from Juris Jurjevics (the house’s fellow co-founder, along with her husband, Alan Hruska) in 2006. Her daughter, Bronwen, was recently named publisher; now it appears we know why this announcement was necessary so recently.

Through Soho Crime, Hruska worked with and launched the careers of writers such as Dan Fesperman, Rebecca Pawel, Tod Goldberg, Stan Jones, Martin Limon, Jacqueline Winspear, Cara Black, James Benn, Adrian Hyland, Stuart Neville and Leighton Gage, to name just a few. Soho also published literary and mainstream works by the likes of Edwidge Danticat, Stephen Fry, Sara Gran, Barbara Gowdy and Susan Richards. Earlier in her career, Hruska published three novels, two under the pen name of Laura Chapman and one under her real name.

A memorial service for Hruska will be held this Friday, January 15th, at 11:30AM at the Campbell Funeral Home, 1076 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.