About Shelf Awareness

John Mutter

John Mutter is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness. He was the longtime executive editor of bookselling at Publishers Weekly and executive editor of the former PW Daily for Booksellers. He enjoys reading anything funny or mysterious and loves maps, crossword puzzles, running, visiting bookstores, travel and watching Jenn Risko demonstrate the fine art of business.

Neil Strandberg

Neil Strandberg is our chief executive and brings to Shelf Awareness 35 years of experience in the independent bookselling community. Prior to joining Shelf in 2015, Neil was the American Booksellers Association director of technology, where he was responsible for the e-commerce platform IndieCommerce, digital content partnerships and other tech projects. Prior, he served many roles over the course of a twenty-three year career at Denver's Tattered Cover Book Store. Neil applies his experience with technology, retail and bookselling to support Shelf Awareness staff and its many projects and is always eager to "talk shop" with booksellers and publishers, when not enjoying the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest.

Matt Baldacci

Matt Baldacci is our publisher, meaning he's the guy to talk to for anything from planning the best way to use the Shelf to reach your marketing objectives to the craziest, unlikely idea you have to sell books. He has worked as a roofer, bank teller, teacher, social chairman, and publishing executive, with experience at S&S Children's, Simon & Schuster, DK, St. Martin's Press and Scholastic. Matt lives with his wife and children in Summit, N.J., but likes Seattle and visits often. He enjoys paddle tennis, being the bartender, rooting for the Yankees, and spending time with his extended family. In fine Shelf tradition, he’s a New York Giants fan. 

Richard Jobes

Richard Jobes is our chief financial officer. He holds a bachelors degree in accounting from the University of Nebraska, an MBA from the University of Michigan and was a financial strategist for years in cell phone related businesses. He fell in love with cinema via basement classroom viewings of classics like Persona and The Third Man presented by various U of M film societies. Subsequent searches for complete screenplays led him many times to the cozy and well-stocked Borders bookstore in Ann Arbor--works of Dick Francis, C.S. Lewis and The Far Side collections he found there provided escape and perspective during the travails of graduate school. Richard has a deep pain-and-pleasure obsession with Cornhusker college football and women's college volleyball. He lives in Seattle, near Wide World Books & Maps, and now loves sushi even more than steak.

Robin Lenz

Robin Lenz has been a bookseller (indie, then chain, then indie), a librarian, did a brief stint at a large publishing house, and spent many years as managing editor at Publishers Weekly. She now gets to combine her loves for things geekish and things bookish as managing editor of Shelf Awareness. She organizes, copy edits, scours the Internet for story leads, and brightens the newsletters with photos.

Dave Wheeler

Dave Wheeler, senior editor, joined Shelf Awareness after working for several years as a bookseller at The Elliott Bay Book Company and at Village Books. His favorite authors include Bill Hayes, Hari Kunzru, Ruth Ozeki and Hanya Yanagihara. When he's not reading he's writing, and he earned his BA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University. In his spare time, he likes to try recipes from cookbooks that he has primarily accumulated for the pictures. Results vary widely.

Siân Gaetano

Elaine Cho

Associate editor Elaine Cho came to Shelf Awareness from a stint as a bookseller at the illustrious Elliott Bay Book Company. She's worked for various arts nonprofits around Seattle and has an MFA in Flute Performance from CalArts. Her debut novel, Ocean's Godori, is the inaugural title from Hillman Grad Books, an imprint of Zando. She also loves watching and talking film (anything from Edward Yang to aspect ratios to which Fast and Furious movie is the best), and is a kyūdō practitioner.

Kristianne Huntsberger

Partnership program manager Kristianne Huntsberger has worn a few hats: writer, teacher, storyteller and bookseller (Elliott Bay Book Co. Pioneer Square alum). Some of her earliest reading memories are The Phoenix and the Carpet and Hans Christian Anderson. The book she reads most frequently is Moby-Dick. Her bookshelves are full of travel narratives, off-kilter fiction and fairytales. When she's not traipsing about in far-flung corners of the world, she walks wide circles around town to discover strange landmarks in familiar places and record them on Spectator Spots.

Alex Mutter

Alex Mutter is our associate editor. He profiles booksellers, covers author events and reports on trade shows. His first job was a part-time gig at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, N.J., and he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in Creative Writing. Before joining Shelf Awareness, he interned with Publishing Perspectives as an editorial assistant. He is an avid hiker and traveler. His German is poor, but he tries. When he's not working, he's reading, writing, drinking coffee with abandon and obsessing over the New York Giants. He is an evangelist for Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan, and True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey.

Robert Gray

Robert Gray is a contributing editor and weekly columnist for Shelf Awareness. For 15 years he was a bookseller and buyer at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., but before that he worked as managing editor of Sailboard News, a windsurfing trade magazine based in landlocked Vermont. Learning how to read unpredictable, sometimes hazardous winds and waves proved to be ideal training for understanding the publishing world. He has written for numerous publications, ranging from Cimarron Review to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

Casey Stryer

Casey Stryer is the production assistant at Shelf Awareness. Before joining the Shelf, he was a bookseller for 14 years, starting his career at Barnes & Noble, and then working at the venerable Elliott Bay Book Company for a decade. Casey can be found most days walking his dogs, Orpheus (Orphie) and Watson, reading young adult or middle grade novels, bingeing on television, or cooking something he found at the farmer’s market that week.

Madison Gaines

Madison Gaines, our publishing assistant, hails from Seattle's Third Place Books and the rolling hills of northern Appalachia. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell, and their first favorite book was Savvy by Ingrid Law. They enjoy adult fantasy, romance, and horror, but are first and foremost a children's bookseller. In her free time, Madison yearns for puzzles, listens to B.B. King on vinyl, and drinks tea with too much sugar.

Jess Mayfield

A born-and-raised Seattleite, sales & marketing assistant Jess has been toying with the written-word since before she could hold a pen, and knew from a young age that working in the publishing industry in some capacity was her calling. Like many of her colleagues, she found her footing in independent bookselling before joining the Shelf team. In 2022, she obtained a BA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University, TA’ing and bussing tables along the way. Recently, she’s found her way back to Seattle and is establishing roots in their bustling literary community. The first book she truly fell in love with was Camus’ The Stranger. When she’s off-the-clock, she can be found with her nose in a memoir or short story collection, trying out a new restaurant, or re-watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the hundredth time.

Jenn Risko

Jenn Risko is the co-founder and publisher emerita of the Shelf. She started the Shelf with John Mutter back in 2005 and loved (almost) every minute of building this company for close to 20 years. She departed the company in 2024, to take a break and find what she calls The Next Jenn. When she isn’t searching for her next adventure in the book business, she is often found in her garden, on a trip, baking or quietly judging others paint color choices. Keep up with her at www.jennrisko.com.

Alex Baker

Alex Baker is the art director, mascot dresser and designer for Shelf Awareness. He has a background in painting, fine-art printmaking and book design and binding and is probably the only member of staff to have actually done a saddle stitch. When not designing or playing the role of wrench in an otherwise well-oiled machine, Alex can be found experimenting in the kitchen, reading, playing with his old cars or trying to finish the remodel on his house. Or drinking.