People Roundup, Mid-June 2013

PEOPLE

The National Endowment for the Arts announced that Ira Silverberg, Director of Literature programs, will leave the agency and return to New York City. Silverberg’s departure is effective July 11, 2013. Amy Stolls, Literature Program Officer, will be the Acting Director of Literature until a new director is in place. Silverberg joined the NEA in October 2011.

Beth Lamb has been appointed to the newly created position of Vice President, Associate Publisher, Vintage Anchor, reporting to Anne Messitte. She was most recently Associate Publisher for Trade Books at Rodale. As a result, Hyperion VP, Associate Publisher Kristin Kiser is moving to Rodale as VP Deputy Publisher, reporting to newly named Publisher, Mary Ann Naples. Naples has also announced that Jennifer Levesque will be joining as Editorial Director of Trade Books. She was most recently at Abrams.

Elisabeth Dyssegaard, Hyperion Editor in Chief, will join Palgrave Macmillan as Executive Editor on June 24 with a focus on acquiring books in history. She will report to Karen Wolny, Editorial Director of Trade.

Jacob Lewis has been named VP, Publishing Director for Crown, Hogarth, and Broadway Books, effective July 8. He is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Figment.com.

Phoebe Yeh will join Random House Children’s Books as VP, Publisher, Crown Books for Young Readers on June 21, reporting to Barbara Marcus. Yeh was most recently Editorial Director at HarperCollins Children’s. Michelle Nagler will join Random House Children’s Books as Associate Publishing Director for the Random House / Golden Books group.

With publication of fine arts and photography instruction titles by Watson-Guptill and Amphoto Books reassigned to Ten Speed Press, nine positions are being eliminated, including that of Victoria Craven, Editorial Director of Watson-Guptill, Amphoto Books, and Potter Craft.

Betina Cochran is joining Highlights in the newly created position of Editorial Director of Interactive Publishing and Strategic Partnerships. Most recently, she worked as Associate Director of Licensing and Business Development for the American Museum of Natural History.

Joe Wikert, formerly General Manager of the TOC Division of O’Reilly, has announced that he has accepted a position with Olive Software.

Tim Ditlow has left Amazon Children’s, within the Marshall Cavendish division, where he was Associate Publisher (after working for Amazon-owned Brilliance Audio since 2008). He can be reached at timditlow@gmail.com

As a result of Kingfisher’s decision to scale back its U.S. operations, Kingfisher has announced that Brian Buerkle, who joined the company as Associate Publisher and Director of Marketing, left the company in December 2012.

Genoveva Llosa has joined HarperOne as Senior Editor. She was at Jossey-Bass most recently and has also worked at HarperBusiness, Crown, and Harvard Business Review Press.

Sarah Harrison Smith will become the new Children’s Editor at The New York Times, taking over from Pamela Paul, who was promoted recently to Editor of The New York Times Book Review. Paul replaced Sam Tanenhaus, who stepped down after nine years in the position to become a Writer-at-Large. Smith has served as an editor in the Metropolitan section and also worked as the Managing Editor of The New York Times Magazine.

PROMOTIONS

Jennifer Brehl, SVP, Executive Editor and Director of Editorial Development, announced that Emily Krump has been promoted to Editor of William Morrow/Avon/Voyager; she joined the company in August 2006.

Lynn Grady, SVP, Executive Editor and Director of Editorial Development of the William Morrow Group, announced that Shelby Meizlik has been promoted to VP, Publicity. Shelby will continue to act as the Group Publicity Director for all of the William Morrow Group, including Morrow Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Avon, Harper Voyager, It Books, Impulse and Cookbooks.

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has promoted Caroline Abbey and Mary Kate Castellani to Senior Editor positions. Brett Wright and Laura Whitaker move up to Associate Editor. Both Castellani and Whitaker move over from Walker Children’s, under imprint Publishing Director Emily Easton.