After university in Scotland, and two years spent working in bookshops in France and Belgium (including the famous Shakespeare & Co in Paris), Maggie McKernan began her career in publishing in the production and design department of Wm Heinemann Ltd in London in 1984.
She very quickly moved on to become an editor, becoming first assistant to the editorial director of Secker & Warburg and later Senior Editor there. From there she went on to Jonathan Cape, leaving it as editorial director, to join Anthony Cheetham when he founded the Orion Publishing Group in 1992.
At Orion, she set up the literary fiction imprint, publishing and editing writers like Vikram Seth, Ben Okri, Colum McCann, Jostein Gaarder, Michael Collins and many others.
In 2005 she left Orion to become a literary agent and consultant to writers. She is based in the city of Edinburgh and works in association with the agency Capel & Land in London.
Photograph of Maggie McKernan by Broad Daylight, Edinburgh.
At Orion, she set up the literary fiction imprint, publishing and editing writers like Vikram Seth, Ben Okri, Colum McCann, Jostein Gaarder, Michael Collins and many others. 