Publisher
Betsy Wollheim
(she/her/hers)
Elizabeth (Betsy) Wollheim is the only child of legendary paperback editor Donald A. Wollheim and grew up in the world of science fiction and fantasy publishing, regularly socializing with authors and artists. She attended her first science fiction convention at age 6, and during her youth was active in fandom. In 1975 she began work at DAW Books, first as an assistant editor, then as an associate editor. In April, 1985 when her father became catastrophically ill, she took over the company. She became the President of DAW Books, and ran DAW from August, 1985, with business partner, co-publisher, and friend, Sheila E. Gilbert. During her career Betsy has worked with C.J. Cherryh, Tad Williams, Mercedes Lackey, Patrick Rothfuss, Nnedi Okorafor, Kristen Britain, C.S. Friedman, Jennifer Roberson, Saladin A. Ahmed, David Gerrold, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Tanith Lee, Bradley Beaulieu, Wole Talabi, and many, many other authors. In 2012, she was the first female long form editor to win the Hugo Award during her lifetime. Betsy also art directed the covers of her books for decades, working with many noteworthy artists including Michael Whelan, Donato Giancola, Todd Lockwood, Dan Dos Santos, and others. In 1982 Betsy married “freak folk” musician Peter Stampfel and they have two daughters, Zoe and Lily.
In 2022, DAW was purchased by Thinkingdom Media Group (Beijing) to be the SFF line of Astra Publishing House. Betsy continues to lead her list, as publisher of DAW, with her former employees and authors, on behalf of Astra.
As of 2024, Betsy has been a professional editor and publisher of SFF for fifty years.