PEOPLE
The Book Industry Study Group has a new Executive Director in the person of Michael Healy, Editorial Director of Nielsen Book Services. He will be the keynote speaker at BISG’s September 8 annual meeting and may be reached at michael@bisg.org. BISG’s previous Director, Jeff Abraham, left at the beginning of the year to become President of Random House Distribution Services.
Andrea Glickson has been named Director of Publicity at Watson Guptill. She was most recently Director of Marketing at Stewart, Tabori & Chang.
Editors are on the move: Peternelle van Arsdale is moving to Putnam as an Executive Editor after seven years at Hyperion. . . . Selena James has been named Executive Editor at Kensington overseeing Dafina Books. She had been at Pocket. . . David Patterson has joined Holt as Senior Editor, reporting to Jennifer Barth. He was previously at Public Affairs.
At Penguin, Jeffrey Krames has been named Editorial Director of Portfolio, reporting to Adrian Zackheim. Krames was most recently VP Publisher of McGraw-Hill‘s trade business books division. At McGraw-Hill, Leah Spiro has joined former HC colleague Herb Schaffner (who had reported to Krames) as Senior Editor in the business group. And Ellen Mendlow joins M-H’s test prep group as Publisher, reporting to Group Publisher Philip Ruppel. She was Editorial Director for test prep books at Princeton Review.
Jill Schwartzman has moved from HarperCollins to RH Trade Paperbacks as a Senior Editor, reporting to Jane von Mehren. Meanwhile, Doubleday Broadway Executive Editor Trish Medved has left the company. And RH Children’s Books VP Marketing Daisy Kline has also left.
Amy Kaneko was named to the new position of VP, Sales and New Business Development at Weldon Owen, recently acquired by Swedish media giant Bonnier. She has spent the last seven years at Chronicle Books, most recently as Executive Director of Marketing, and as Director of Mass Market and Specialty Sales.
Carie Freimuth has joined RH’s Waterbrook Press as Director of Sales, Marketing & Planning for General Market Sales.
OUP is creating a new scholarly reference unit, based in New York, incorporating print and online publishing for the institutional market, run by Kim Robinson as Editorial Director, reference. Lenny Allen has been named Associate Director of field and inside sales. He had been in national accounts at FSG, and Kimberly Craven has been named Director of Trade and Academic Marketing. She had been at Wiley. Meanwhile, Betsy DeJesu, who had been at OUP, is moving to S&S Children’s as senior Publicist for Simon Spotlight Entertainment.
At Globe Pequot Press, Cissy Tiernan has joined the company as Director of National Accounts, succeeding Michelle Lewy who was promoted to VP, Sales earlier. Tiernan was recently Director of Sales for Yorkville Press and VP Sales & Publisher Services at Blue Sky Media Group.
John Wicker has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Klopotek North America. Wicker had been EVP of Vista International.
Reader’s Digest has hired David Krishock as President of Books Are Fun, taking over from interim president Thomas Barry. Krishock had been President and CEO of Scholastic Book Fairs.
In publicity, Annsley Rosner has joined Crown as Director of Publicity for Harmony Books and Three Rivers Press. Rosner most recently was Associate Director of Publicity at Dutton and Gotham Books. Meanwhile, Christine Aronson has been named Director of Publicity for Crown Publishers and will continue as Director of Publicity for Shaye Areheart Books. She had been Associate Director. And at FSG, Laurel Cook has been named Assistant Director of Publicity. She had been in book retailing.
Mike Rohrig has left Scholastic and may be reached at 203.451.0187.
PROMOTIONS
RH Children’s Books VP, Executive Director, Publicity, Judith Haut has been promoted to VP, Comm-unications for the division.
At S&S Children’s, Caitlyn Dlouhy has been named Editorial Director, Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Pulse Aladdin and Pulse PAM have been merged into one imprint as of Spring 2007, Simon Pulse. As a result, Jennifer Klonsky, Executive Editor, has moved over from Aladdin to work on Simon Pulse full-time. Senior Editor, Michelle Nagler, continues with Simon Pulse.
Kate Rados has been promoted to Publicity Manager at Sterling.
Kathryn Mennone was recently promoted to Director of Strategic Partnerships at Globe Pequot. She will work with parent company Morris Communications divisions to create business synergies between the publishing division Globe Pequot Press, and the magazine, newspaper, and radio units.
Lyssa Keusch has been promoted to Executive Editor, Avon mass market
Joelle Dieu has been promoted to Subsidiary Rights Assistant Manager for both the Random House and Ballantine imprints of the RH Publishing Group.
SEPTEMBER EVENTS
PW reports that the first annual Brooklyn Literary Festival will be held on September 16 at Borough Hall in downtown Brooklyn. The festival, organized in conjunction with the Brooklyn Literary Council, Brooklyn Tourism, the Brooklyn Public Library and BAM, will feature a range of authors, including Ann Brashares, Jennifer Egan, Nicole Krauss, Jhumpa Lahiri, Philip Lopate, Rick Moody, and Colson Whitehead. Several local independent bookstores, among them McNally Robinson, Freebird Books, Spoonbill & Sugartown, and St. Petersburg Books, will be on hand to sell books. There will be more than 100 exhibitors. Call Briggs Haddon at 718 802 3717 for further information, or go to http:// visitbrooklyn.org.
September 29th is the final submission date for entries for the Eleventh Annual Books for a Better Life Awards, presented by the NYC Chapter of the National MS Society. The ceremony will take place on February 26th at the Millennium Broadway Hotel.
The 2006 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets (rain or shine). The festival is free and open to the public. www.loc.gov/ bookfest
The Sobol Award for Literature, a “national contest designed to discover gifted but unknown writers and help them get published and find enthusiastic readers” will accept submissions starting in September. The winner receives recognition, help with his or her writing career and a $100,000 cash prize. The Sobol Award Literary Agency will represent the authors of the ten finalist novels as well as selected other entries from among the top 50 submissions and will help them find the right publishing houses and “secure the best terms.” Brigitte Weeks is the Editorial Director and Laurie Rippon is the Marketing Director for the awards. For information go to www.sobolaward.com
DULY NOTED
The second annual New York Times Great Read in the Park, presented by Target, is Sunday, October 15 in Bryant Park. More than 120 nationally known authors including James Elroy, Mary Gaitskill, Oscar Hijuelos, Susan Isaacs, Malika Oufkir and Frank Rich will read and sign books and participate in various panel discussions. The Great Brunch will feature Mary Higgins Clark, Sebastian Junger, Alice McDermott, Anna Quindlen and Tavis Smiley; and The Great Tea featuring mystery writers Tess Gerritsen, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts and newcomer Jed Rubenfeld, will be held at The Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Broadway Hotel. In addition, Target hosts a Children’s Stage with all-day, live programming. The Gently Used, Greatly Loved Book Sale will also be held, with proceeds benefiting the New York public libraries and the Fund for Public Schools. For further info: www.nytimes.com\greatreads
Goddard Riverside is soliciting donations of books or gift items for their 20th annual New York Book Fair, November 17-19. Go to Goddard.org for details.
Ten years ago, Bookreporter.com launched on AOL and this Fall Co-Fonder and President Carol Fitzgerald is celebrating The Book Report Network’s 10th anniversary and the 1.3 million unique visitors who go to its seven sites every month. It is, Fitzgerald claims, the largest non-commercial group of book websites on the web. For more information, go to www.TheBook ReportNetwork.com.
Foteini Tsigarida, who was Manager, Market Analysis and Forecasting at HarperCollins is returning to Athens to take over and relaunch a bookstore, Bookstop. She tells PT that “It will specialize in foreign language books, eclectic world literature and travel.” If you’re in the area, or want to meet at Frankfurt, email her at foteini@ earthlink.net
Rick Frishman tells PT (and presumably, the world) that Planned TV Arts ( PTA) will be celebrating its 45th Anniversary in February. With its many specialty divisions, PTA is are always looking for dedicated publicists. For more information, go to http://www.planned tvarts.com for more.
