Shayna Keyles

Shayna is the associate director of acquisitions at North Atlantic Books (NAB) in Berkeley, CA. Her approach to books is exploratory, collaborative, and goal-oriented. A nonprofit publisher, NAB’s mission is to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of the world, and seed transformation, all while elevating traditionally underrepresented voices. We love to work with authors who wish to share this mission!

Outside of the office, Shayna spends her time nerding out, finding yummy food, playing with cats, and enjoying games with her friends and partner.

Shayna works on books that take a systems-analysis approach to discussions of gender and sexuality, embodiment, racialization, productivity culture, care work, disability, and more. In terms of categories, Shayna has worked with (and is looking for more books on) herbalism and folk medicine, nonappropriative areligious spiritual practices, actionable discussions on place/community building, capitalism-aware mental health resources, and more. Here are some examples of books Shayna has acquired and edited:

• Refusing Compulsory Sexuality, Sherronda J. Brown
• Body Aware, Erica Hornthal
• Dissociation Made Simple, Jamie Marich
• Belly of the Beast, Da’Shaun Harrison
• Fresh Banana Leaves, Jessica Hernandez
• The Intimate Herbal, Marie White
• Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex, Justice Williams e.d.
• Ashkenazi Herbalism, Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel
• Hospicing Modernity, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
• Grief on the Front Lines, Rachel Jones

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to submissions@northatlanticbooks.com

I am only acquiring nonfiction adult titles. I am not accepting memoir. I am not accepting fiction. I am not an agent!

Please visit the provided link for our submission guidelines. Read all proposal guidelines and submit a full proposal for review as an email attachment. Due to inbox density, it may take me a few weeks to respond to any submissions.

If you are addressing a proposal specifically to me, rather than to all of NAB, please include Shayna (MSWL) in the subject line. I tend to look less favorably upon emails sent directly to my email address (as opposed to the submissions address) if I have not personally invited such contact.

Guidelines & Details