Founder/Director

Helen Corner-Bryant spent a number of years in editorial at Penguin before setting up Cornerstones Literary Consultancy in 1998. In 2016, she opened Cornerstones US, creating the world’s first transatlantic literary consultancy. Cornerstones is known for teaching self-editing techniques, providing feedback on all types of genres, scouting for agents, and launching many writers such as: Ayisha Malik, Sarwat Chadda, Ava McCarthy, Kate Glanville, Victoria Selman and Emily Gunnis. Helen is a guest lecturer at writer conferences and leading universities including UCL Centre for Publishing and the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford University. She is co-author of On Editing: How to Edit Your Novel the Professional Way (John Murray, 2018) and director of the Edit Your Novel online course.

Managing Editor

Kate Padiachy graduated from Warwick University in 2019, where she read American History and Literature. Her time as a bookseller at George Bayntun, an antique bookshop and bindery in Bath, confirmed her desire to stay in the world of publishing, and she joined the Cornerstones team as an intern in July 2021 before becoming an editorial assistant, and then managing editor. Her role includes editorial project management – overseeing the development of titles and supervising freelancers alongside assessing submissions and strategic work. Outside of work she can often be found with her nose in a book, and her favourite writers include Elizabeth Strout, Sandra Cisneros, Deborah Levy, and Frank O’Hara.

Editorial Director

Monica has over twenty years’ experience as an editor in the publishing industry, with a number of titles topping the Sunday Times Bestseller List. She has an MA in English Literature from Cambridge University and a post-graduate year learning print production at UAL.

She worked as an Editorial Director at HarperCollins Publishers, where she commissioned and edited her own list, transforming manuscripts and original ideas into successful, desirable books for a competitive market. She also has previous experience working for Picador, Profile Books, Faber Academy, and Dorling Kindersley. She has been an Industry editor at Cornerstones for many years, and now heads the scouting programme.

Editorial Assistant

Kyrie Roxby graduated from Royal Holloway University in 2020, with a BA in English. Before coming to Cornerstones, Kyrie worked as a librarian at a school for ages 5 to 16, managing the library, running events and organising author visits and inter-school literary competitions. She also worked with the Social Impact Director at Penguin Random House, learning about all the different roles and departments in a publishing house. This cemented her desire to work in publishing and refined her editorial skills. At Cornerstones, she focuses on assessing new manuscripts that come in, pairing authors with editors, and proofreading editorial reports.

Outside of work, she can be found buying way more books than she needs. Her favourite genres include fantasy, contemporary fiction, historical fiction and anything else escapist.