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Who

See that novel on the front table of Barnes & Noble? Hensley put it there–she's the chain's lead fiction buyer and one of the most powerful figures in publishing.

Backstory

The daughter of an entomologist, Hensley grew up in Baton Rouge and started out in the book world working retail at a B. Dalton bookstore during college. She subsequently worked her way up the ladder, joining Barnes & Noble after B&N chief Len Riggio acquired the B. Dalton chain in 1987. Over the course of her career, she's credited with the success of such blockbusters as Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, not to mention the non-success of an untold number of titles that were shelved at the back of the store: Hensley decides which novels Barnes & Noble and B. Dalton will carry, as well as how many copies the chains will buy and how they'll be displayed in stores. That means making Hensley happy is priority number #1 for many publishers. "Outside the publishing business, she's essentially anonymous; inside it, she's seen as the most important player this side of Oprah," New York once wrote.

Personal

Hensley, who claims she once dumped a paramour because he didn't like One Hundred Years of Solitude, is married to William Rusin, who works in sales and marketing for publisher W.W. Norton. They live in Maplewood, New Jersey.