Meg Keene, an activist whose own novel failed to sell, is helming an eponymous imprint at Wicked Son Books.
by Philissa Cramer
An unpublished novel has paved the way for the birth of a new Jewish fiction imprint, in the leading edge of a flurry of initiatives to combat antisemitism in the publishing industry by taking hold of the means of production.
Meg Keene had an enthusiastic agent with a long track record of sales when she submitted her novel, a romance with Israeli characters, to publishers in 2024. But she said heard over and over that her book seemed too Jewish to publish at a time when the war in Gaza had turned anything that could be perceived as pro-Israel radioactive. As has happened to an untold number of Jewish authors in recent years, her book did not sell.
Now, Keene is the eponymous tastemaker at the helm of a new imprint within Wicked Son Press, a 5-year-old publisher that has released mostly nonfiction that leans right.
Meg Keene Books will release four to six novels over the next year that she and Wicked Son’s founders believe will elevate Jewish voices and reconstruct a bygone communal Jewish literary conversation. She’ll also edit a forthcoming literary magazine designed to shape the Jewish book-buying audience.
“My goal is to make Jewish publishing feel really cool,” Keene told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“I’m planning to acquire books across genres — male authors, female authors, romance, thriller, literary fiction — you know, the works,” she added. “I also intend to put everything I have behind each book, and sort of ask the Jewish community to support these books and make the case for them.”
At the same time, she said, she has broad support from Wicked Son’s co-publishers to depart from the conservative and explicitly pro-Israel stance that has characterized most of their recent and forthcoming releases, which include the posthumous memoir of pro-Israel philanthropist and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson and a treatise on anti-Israel sentiment on U.S. college campuses by the activist and former professor Shai Davidai.
“I really dislike books that are where you can sort of hear the author tapping the mic to do an op-ed through fiction,” Keene said. She added, “Not only am I not going to publish quote-unquote conservative fiction, I’m not going to publish ideological fiction at all.”
