People Round-Up, Mid-November 2014

PEOPLE

Jeanne Reina will join the Morrow Group as VP, Art Director, where she will oversee the art group and be responsible for Morrow hardcover, trade paperbacks, and Dey Street Books. She will report directly to HarperCollins SVP, Publisher Liate Stehlik. Previously, she was Art Director at Atria. Update added to the original post on 11/21/14.

Meredith McGinnis will join the Trade Department of W.W. Norton & Company in the newly created position of Director of Marketing. She was previously Director of Marketing at Harmony Books and Clarkson Potter. She will report directly to President Drake McFeely. Update added to the original post on 11/20/14.

Hachette Book Group will acquire Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers in a deal that is expected to close over the next few months. It will become an imprint in HBG’s newest division Hachette Books, which is led by Publisher Mauro DiPreta. Black Dog & Leventhal Founder J.P. Leventhal will continue as Publisher and the company’s management will stay in place. Rebecca Koh will be promoted to Editorial Director and Maureen Winter to Associate Publisher. Update added to the original post on 11/20/14.

Ed Park joined Penguin Press as an Executive Editor. Previously, he was Senior Editor at Amazon’s Little A imprint.

Katherine McCahill joined Penguin Random House as Senior Director, Digital Development.

Courtney Young joined Riverhead Books as Executive Editor. Previously, she was Senior Editor of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Emi Battaglia joined Regan Arts as Director of Marketing and Publicity. She was previously VP, Associate Publisher and Marketing Director at Grand Central Publishing. Additionally, Alexis Gargagliano joined the imprint as Executive Editor of Fiction and Nonfiction. Formerly, she was Executive Editor at Atavist Books.

Elizabeth Bennett has joined Perseus Book Group as Associate Director, Client Services. She was most recently at Random House.

Maha Khalil joined Skyhorse Publishing as Director of Sales and Marketing while Rodger Weinfeld joined as Managing Editor.

Paul Gazzolo joined Gale as Senior VP and General Manager. Previously, he was VP and General Manager of Research & Learning at CCH Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Louis F. Yonke is now Senior Director of Finance at Macmillan Higher Education. Previously, he was Director of Finance at Hachette Book Group.

Becky Nesbitt is leaving her position as VP, Editor-in-Chief at Howard Books at the end of the year to pursue opportunities as a freelance editor.

Tracy Locke joined Henry Holt & Company as Publicist-at-Large after leaving her position as Associate Publisher at Penguin Press in May.

Amelia Possanza joined Touchstone as Publicist. She was formerly Associate Publicist at Little, Brown.

Lisa Kaufman will step down as Marketing Director and Senior Editor of PublicAffairs at the end of November after 17 years with the company. She will continue to work with some of her authors and may be contacted at lisabethkaufman@gmail.com.

In children’s publishing, Jennifer McClelland-Smith joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as Marketing Coordinator. Previously, she was Temporary Administrative Assistant in Hachette’s International Sales Department . . . At Klutz, Hannah Rogge joined as Director of Product Development while Caitlin Harpin joined as Senior Product Editor and Flora Kim joined as Product Editor. Before moving to Scholastic, Rogge was Creative Director of ROBIE, Harpin was Assistant Editor at Potter Craft, and Kim was freelancing as a Developmental Editor for Springer Science + Business Media. Katie Benezra joined as Senior Designer. She was previously Designer, Book Group for becker&mayer!. Additionally at Klutz, Barrie Zipkin is now Assistant Managing Editor and Emily Feliberty is Marketing Manager. Zipkin was formerly Reader-at-Large at The Literarian and Feliberty was Assistant Manager of Marketing and Brand Strategy at Toys R Us.

Mark Brokering joined LID Publishing as Associate Publisher. Previously, he was VP of Content Strategy and Acquisition at Safari Books Online.

Ryan Sheehan joined Yorkshire Publishing as Manager.

Sarah Mangiola joined TheReadingRoom as Editorial Manager and Jin Kang joined as Chief Product Officer. Mangiola was Associate Editor at Penton Media.

At literary agencies, Richie Kern joined Foundry Literary + Media as Director of Filmed Entertainment. He was previously Senior Editor, Television Development Executive at Macmillan Entertainment/Thomas Dunne. Additionally, Peter Steinberg and Roger Freet have joined Foundry Literary + Media as Agents. Steinberg was previously Agent at The Steinberg Agency while Freet was Executive Editor at HarperOne . . . Sandy Hodgman left her position as Rights Director at Einstein Thompson Agency to launch Hodgman Literary, which will handle foreign rights for a select group of agencies.

In religious publishing, Steve Cobb, President and Publisher of Crown imprint WaterBrook Multnomah, announced his retirement after 19 years with the company. Meanwhile, it was announced that Alexander Field will join the imprint in the new position of VP, Publisher. Previously he was Publisher at David C. Cook. Additionally, WaterBrook VP and Editor-In-Chief Kenneth Petersen will leave the company at the end of the month.

At university presses, Richard Henning joined the University Press of New England as Director, Marketing and Sales. Previously, he was Director of Marketing at Northeast Foundation for Children.

PROMOTIONS, Etc.

Alison Rich was promoted to Associate Publisher for Nan A. Talese Books.

James Johnston was promoted to SVP, Worldwide and U.S. Financial Reporting, Planning, and Accounting at Penguin Random House.

David Kopp has been promoted to VP, Executive Editor of Convergent Books. In some shuffling of duties, Crown Business and Crown Forum Associate Publisher Campbell Wharton will now also be Associate Publisher at Convergent. Marketing and Publicity will be overseen by CrownExecutive Director of Marketing Donna Passannante and Crown VP, Executive Director of Publicity Carisa Hays. Senior Editor Gary Jensen will acquire for Convergent in addition to his current role in acquisitions for Image Books.

At HarperCollins, Ben Bruton was promoted to Senior Director of Publicity for Morrow/Avon and Brianne Halverson was promoted to Director of Publicity. Amy Ryan was promoted to Art Director of Harper Children’s. Additionally, Amy Baker was promoted to VP, Associate Publisher of Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks. With Harlequin Nonfiction now being published under William Morrow, Deborah Brody, Cara Bedick, and Rebecca Hunt will be reassigned to Morrow with Brody becoming Executive Editor and the latter two becoming Senior Editors.

At Skyhorse, Bill Wolfsthal was promoted to VP, Executive Director of Sales and Marketing and Abigail Gehring to Associate Publisher of Skyhorse and Editorial Director of Good Books.

In the Perseus Sales Department, Peter D’Erasmo was promoted to Director, Airport and Club Sales for Perseus imprints, Perseus Distribution, Legato, CBSD, and Publishers Group West. Keith Arsenault was promoted to Director, Canadian Sales for Perseus imprints and distribution clients. Jeanne Emanuel was promoted to the new role of VP, Special Markets and Custom Publishing, Eric Green to Senior Director, Specialty Retail, and Sonya Harris to Assistant Director, Specialty Wholesale and Mail Order.

Little A will now be run by Editorial Director Tara Parsons. Carmen Johnson will take over as Senior Editor. Johnson was previously Editor of Amazon’s Literary Journal Day One.

Peter Blackstock was promoted to Editor at Grove Atlantic.

Jessica Echeverria was promoted to Editor at Lee & Low Books.

The Reader’s Digest promoted Debra Polansky to Publishing Director, Books. She will lead the Studio Fun, Select Editions, and adult trade businesses.

Leyla Aker was promoted to SVP, Publishing at VIZ Media and Hope Donovan to Managing Editor.

Caroline Nitz was promoted to Publicist at Holt.

At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Alvina Ling was promoted to VP, Editor-in-Chief while Andrea Spooner was promoted to VP, Editorial Director and Pam Gruber to Senior Editor. Additionally, Christina Quintero was promoted to Senior Art Director, Mara Lander to Director of Brand and Licensed Marketing, and Mary-Kate Gaudet to Senior Editor.

Sara Weiss is now Editor at Grand Central Life & Style and Grand Central Publishing.

At Atria Books, Johanna Castillo was promoted to VP, Executive Editor, Sarah Cantin and Jhanteigh Kupihea to Senior Editors and Todd Hunter to Editor.

The bookstore chain Family Christian promoted Dan Hubka to VP of Merchandise.

DULY NOTED

Sheree Bykofsky Associates has taken over the list of DSM Agency.

Novelist Jerry Jenkins shut down The Christian Writers Guild after 50 years.

The BelieversGroup announced the formation of a nonprofit educational arm called BelieversTrust, to be overseen by Rebeca Seitz. The company has also formed a for-profit arm, BelieversMedia, which will provide services for content creators and be run by Dave Sheets, former President of The Christian Writers Guild.