Jenny Hellen to retire from Allen & Unwin Aotearoa as Rachel Nobilo steps up

Publisher at large Jenny Hellen will retire in December 2026, and Rachel Nobilo has been promoted to commissioning editor to lead the children's list.

Allen & Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand has announced that publisher at large Jenny Hellen will retire in December 2026, and that Rachel Nobilo has been promoted to commissioning editor, leading the company's children's list.

Hellen has spent more than 35 years in publishing. The authors she has worked with include Chelsea Winter, Al Brown, Ruby Tui, Nadia Lim, Helen Clark, the Topp Twins, Ruth Shaw and Abbas Nazari, as well as Tom Scott, Gwendoline Smith, Rachael King and Mat Tait. Her list will pass to Nobilo.

Nobilo worked for about a decade at the UK independent publishers Profile Books and Swift Press, most recently as marketing and publicity director across fiction and non-fiction. She was shortlisted for a PPC Bookseller Award and ran marketing campaigns for several Sunday Times bestsellers. She has also freelanced for Sort of Books, HarperCollins Aotearoa New Zealand and The Coalition for Books. She rejoins Allen & Unwin Aotearoa in mid-October.

Hellen said it was "bittersweet to be retiring and leaving the world of publishing", and that she would miss the team. Managing director Melanie Laville-Moore, who has worked alongside Hellen for 12 years, described it as a privilege. Publishing director Michelle Hurley called Hellen the most successful publisher in New Zealand, crediting her with quickly building the children's list into a respected one and with mentoring colleagues.