People Round-Up, Early October 2014

PEOPLE

Jim Childs was named Publisher at Rowman & Littlefield. Previously, he was Publisher at Time Home Entertainment Inc.

Eric Price joined Melville House as VP, New Business Development. He was formerly Director of Sales and Marketing at Quercus.

Andy Sareyan joined Andrews McMeel Universal as President, CEO. Previously, he was President, National Journal and EVP, Atlantic Media at Atlantic Media Company.

Chitra Bopardikar has left her position as VP International Sales & Business Development at Perseus Book Group. She can be reached at cbopardikar@gmail.com.

Julia Cheiffetz returned to HarperCollins as Executive Editor at Dey Street Books. Previously, she was Editorial Director at Amazon Publishing.

Rachel Rosenfelt joined Verso Books as Creative Director. Formerly, she was The New Inquiry’s Co-founder and Publisher.

Valerie Cortes is now Publisher at Boston Review. Previously, she was Circulation Director at Bookforum and Artforum.

John Coughlan, Founding Member and Publisher of Capstone Press, retired after 25 years.

Jan Johnson stepped down from her position as Publisher at Red Wheel/Weiser. She will work with select authors and develop new ventures for the company under the title of Publisher Emerita.

Kat Meyer joined Publishers Weekly as Director, Events and Community Engagement. She was Community Manager and Conference Chair for Frankfurt Book Fair and had held a similar role at O’Reilly’s Tools of Change.

In children’s publishing: Sue Cole joined Highlights for Children as Director of Production. Before moving to Highlights, she was Director of Production at Grove/Atlantic. . . . Emilie Polster has joined Little, Brown Children’s as Executive Director of Marketing. She was previously Senior Director of Integrated Marketing & Operations at Harper Children’s. . . . Bridget Hartzler has joined Penguin Young Readers Group as Publicist. Previously, she was Publicist at St. Martin’s Press. . . .Elizabeth Bennett joined HMH Books for Young Readers as Executive Editor, Franchise Publishing. She was formerly Senior Editorial Consultant at Reader’s Digest Children’s Books. . . . Maggie Tokuda-Hall joined Chronicle Books as Marketing Manager, Children’s. Before, she was Children’s Director of Marketing and Events at Books Inc. . . . Caitlin Casey joined Little Bee Books as Manager, Marketing and Publicity after previously working for Scholastic Reading Clubs as Senior Manager. . . . Laura Mancuso joined Little Pickle Press as VP of Sales and Marketing. Previously, she was Special Market Sales Manager and Kids Task Force Member at Lonely Planet. . . .Sarah Dotts Barley joined Flatiron Books as Senior Editor for YA crossover books. Previously, she was Editor at Harper Children’s and HarperTeen.

Tim Wright joined the Chronicle Books Special Markets Sales Team. Previously, he created and sold his own line of greeting cards.

Abrams appointed Karrie Witkin to its new role of Editorial Director, Gift & Paper Products and Hana Nakamura as Associate Art Director, Gift & Paper Products for its new imprint, Abrams Noterie. Witkin was Senior Editor/Manager at Penguin Random House and Nakamura was Art Director at Mucca Design.

Mandy Major joined The Crown Publishing Group as Editorial Director of the cooking blog Tastebook.com. Formerly, she was Online Editor for Emerging Brands at Scripps Networks Interactive.

Jessica Lawrence joined St. Martin’s Press as Publicity Manager. Previously, she was Senior Publicist at Simon & Schuster. Also at Macmillan, Shannon Donnelly has joined Picador as Marketing Manager. Previously she was a Marketing Manager at Dey Street Books.

Katie Zaun joined Emma Sweeney Agency as Rights Manager. Formerly, she was Literary Scout at Barbara Tolley and Associates.

Laura Nolan joined Kuhn Projects as Agent after leaving her position as Head of the Book Division at Paradigm.

Josh Leventhal, former Publisher of MVP Books, joined The Minnesota Historical Society as Acquisitions Editor.

In religious publishing: John Kramp joined HarperCollinsas Senior VP, Bible Group. Previously, he was VP, Church Resources Division at LifeWay. . . . Kathy Armistead joined HarperCollins Christian Publishing as Associate Publisher, Study Resources. Formerly, she was Lead Editor, Bible, Leadership, Theology at Abingdon Press. . . . Worthy appointed Pamela Clements VP, Associate Publisher of its new Inspired imprint. Previously, she was Associate Publisher of Christian Living and Fiction at Abingdon Press.

At university presses: Joshua Machat joined Yale University Press as Publicist, Art & Architecture. His previous position was Publicist at Getty Research Institute. . . . Gary Dunham joined Indiana University Press as Director. Previously, he was Director of Publications at American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

As added to our last Round-Up: Terry Newell retired from Weldon Owen, where he was CEO, after 15 years with the company. He may be reached at noodlesterry@gmail.com. . . . Lisa Gallagher moved to DeFiore and Company from Sanford J. Greenburger Associates as Literary Agent.

PROMOTIONS

At Weldon Owen, Roger Shaw was named Terry Newell’s successor as President and Amy Kaneko was promoted to Senior VP, Sales & Marketing.

Mary-Alice Moore was named to the newly created Highlights for Children position of VP, Publishing Strategy and Product Development. She will continue to oversee the Highlights Book Group in addition to her new duties.

At Picador, Andrea Rogoff has been promoted to Senior Publicist, while Elizabeth Bruce has been promoted to Associate Editor. Additionally, St. Martin’s Press promoted Michelle Cashman to Associate Publicist and Tor promoted Lauren Brantley to Ad/Promo Content Manager and Rebecca Yeager to Ad/Promo Coordinator.

Penguin Random House promoted Caroline Riordan to Director, Digital & Online Business Development; Akiko Iwamoto to Regional Sales Director, Asia; and Mike Zaug to Regional Sales Director, Americas, Africa, Middle East, and India. . . . Additionally within Penguin Random House, Jessica Shoffel was promoted to Associate Director of Publicity at Penguin Young Readers Group, Kate Childs was promoted to Director of Special Events at Random House, and Ballantine Bantam Dell promoted Jennifer Hershey to Associate Publisher of the fiction list.

Grand Central Publishing promoted Amanda Pritzker to Brand Director, Nicholas Sparks and Marketing Manager; while Brian McLendon was promoted to VP, Associate Publisher/Marketing Director of Grand Central Publishing and Twelve.

Isabelle Bleecker and Jennifer Thompson were both promoted to VP, International Rights when Perseus Book Group restructured their International Sales Team.

Ken Cleary was promoted to Senior VP and Chief Accounting Officer at Scholastic.

Judy Pray was promoted to Executive Editor at Artisan.

Open Road promoted Stacy Horowitz to Publicity Manager for front list titles.

Simon & Schuster promoted Carolyn Connolly to Senior VP, Human Resources.

Lisa Cheng was promoted to Senior Editor at Running Press.

Rachel Berkowitz was promoted to Associate Director, Foreign Rights at The Crown Publishing Group.

Daniel Kirschen was promoted to Agent at ICM Partners.

Anne Marie Turner was promoted to Marketing and Projects Manager at Kensington.

Laura Bagnato was promoted to Senior Designer at Chronicle Books.

IN MEMORIAM

Sian Tee Lee, the Founder and Owner of CS Graphics in Singapore and Infinity Graphics in Malaysia, suddenly passed away in New York City while on a business trip to visit clients. Linus Lee, his son, can be reached at leezhiy@googlemail.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Click here to see our full calendar of publishing events

Sep 30 – Oct 2
NEIBA Fall Conference
Providence, RI

Oct 1 – 3
LIBER 2014
Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain

Oct 7 – 9
Brand Licensing Europe 2014
Hilton London Olympia Hotel, London, United Kingdom

Oct 8 – 12
Frankfurt Book Fair
Guest of Honour: Finland
Frankfurt, Germany

Oct 9 – 11
Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Conference
Denver, CO

Oct 9 – 12
New York Comic Con
Javits Center, New York, NY

Oct 14
Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014
Announcement of the winner in London on October 10, 2014.
This is the first year nominees were selected from a global English language list.

Oct 21 – 22
Digital Kids Summit
San Francisco, CA

Oct 25 – 26
Texas Book Festival
Austin, TX

Oct 25 – 30
DMA 2014
San Diego Convention Center, West Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA

Nov 5 – 15
Sharjah International Book Fair
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Nov 6 – 9
World Fantasy Convention
Washington, DC

Nov 8
Twelfth International Conference on Books, Publishing and Libraries
Simmons College, Fenway, Boston, MA

Nov 13 – 16
Bouchercon Mystery Convention 2014
Long Beach, CA

Nov 13 – 16
Toronto Book Fair
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada

Nov 19 – 24
Salon du Livre de Montréal
Place Bonaventure, Montreal, QC, Canada

Nov 29 – Dec 7
Guadalajara International Book Fair
Expo Guadalajara, Avenida Mariano Otero, Verde Valle, Guadalajara, Mexico

Jan 8-11
Key West Literary Seminar
Key West, FL

Jan 8-11
MLA Annual Convention
Vancouver, BC, Canada