People Round-Up, Early January 2015

PEOPLE

Geoff Shandler joined William Morrow as VP, Editorial Director at its new unnamed imprint, handling the nonfiction side of the list, which will also feature literary fiction. He was most recently Editorial Director of Adult Trade at Little, Brown.

Bob Spizer is leaving his position as Group Director of Domestic Rights at HarperCollins at the end of January after 31 years. He can be reached at robertspizer@yahoo.com.

W. Ralph Eubanks is leaving his position as Editor-in-Chief at the Virginia Quarterly Review in June. He may be reached at wreubanks@starpower.net.

Brant Rumble joined Blue Rider Press as Senior Editor after leaving a position with the same title at Scribner.

Hilary Teeman joined Crown as Senior Editor. She was previously Editor at St. Martin’s Press.

In children’s publishing, Gillian Levinson is now Paperback Publishing Manager at Random House Children’s. She was previously Editor at Razorbill. . . Kara Sargent joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as Executive Editorial Director for brand, licensed, and media tie-in publishing. Formerly, she was Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster Children’s. . . Michael Petranek is now Senior Editor at Scholastic. He was previously Associate Editor at Papercutz.

Nan Vermylen Thornton joined Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Agency as Agent. Previously, she was practicing copyright law as In-House Counsel at Pearson Education.

In religious publishing, Shaun Tabatt is Nonfiction Publicist, Bethany House and Chosen at Baker Publishing Group. Formerly, he was Community Development Manager at Fortress Press.

Amanda Diehl is now Publicity Manager at David R. Godine. Previously, she was Publicity Intern at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Pamela Sandstrom is now Reference Editor at Choice, the publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries.

Rebekah Anderson is now Director of Marketing at Sasquatch Books. She previously was Supervisor of Customer Engagement at Puget Sound Energy.

Leon Wieseltier joined The Atlantic as Contributing Editor and Critic. He was previously Literary Editor at The New Republic.

PROMOTIONS

In a reorganization of Rodale, Mary Ann Naples was promoted from VP and Publisher to Senior VP and Publisher. Naples will be working with VP and Deputy Publisher Kristin Kiser, whose job responsibilities have been expanded to include content strategy and product development of Rodale’s direct online list. Additionally, Alyse Diamond was hired as Editorial Director of Online Integrated Product Development, Aaron Pattrapy as e-course and DVD producer, and Leah Miller will join the company as Senior Editor to acquire spirituality/mind/body titles. Diamond was previously at OpenSky, Pattrapy at Howcast Media, and Miller at Crown Archetype and Harmony.

Ingram Content Group Chief Operating Officer Shawn Morin was given the additional title and responsibilities of President.

Anita Eerdmans was named President and Publisher of William B. Eerdmans Publishing after Bill Eerdmans announced that he is stepping down from the role. She was previously the VP, Marketing of Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Bill Eerdmans held the position for 51 years. He is now Chairman of the board.

McFarland Publishing Founder Robert Franklin announced that he is stepping down as President and will now hold the new titles of Founder and Editor-in-Chief. EVP Rhonda Herman was promoted to President of Academic and Nonfiction Books.

At Basic Books, TJ Kelleher was promoted to VP and Editorial Director of Sciences and Dan Gerstle was promoted to Editor. Additionally at Perseus, Kate Burke was promoted to Director of Publicity at Lifelong Books.

At Candlewick Press, Liz Bicknell was promoted to EVP, Executive Editorial Director, and Associate Publisher. Mary Lee Donovan was promoted to Director of Editorial Operations, a role she will take on in addition to her responsibilities as Editorial Director. Meanwhile, Sarah Ketchersid was promoted to Senior Executive Editor, Kate Fletcher to Senior Editor and Andrea Tompa to Senior Editor.

Steve Geck was promoted to Editorial Director at Sourcebooks’ children’s imprint Jabberwocky, based in New York.

Blue Rider Press promoted Brian Ulicky to Associate Director of Publicity and Eliza Rosenberry to Senior Publicist. Additionally at Penguin, Penguin Classics Executive Editor John Siciliano will take on the additional role of Senior Editor at Penguin Books. Meanwhile, Sarah Stein was promoted to Editor, moving from Riverhead to Penguin Books.

Random House Books for Young Adults promoted Xiomara Nieves to Designer.

At Tor/Forge, Marco Palmieri and Melissa Frain were promoted to Senior Editor and Miriam Weinberg to Editor.

Emily Bell was promoted to Editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Other Press promoted Charlotte Kelly to Publicist.

Penguin Random House promoted Cristi Navarro to Sales Development Manager, Europe and the Middle East and Anke Reichelt to Regional Sales Director, Europe.

Nick Cizek was promoted to Editor at The Experiment.

DULY NOTED

There’s still time to get a discount off Launch Kids or Launch Kids + Day One of Digital Book World. Use the code LAUNCHKIDS155 while registering for the event.

The public relations firm Orchard Strategies launched Orchard Literary, a literary agency. Lucas Hunt will be the director. He was previously Rights Manager and Agent at Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency.

Pitney Bowes Director Matthew Kissner was been nominated to take over as Chairman of John Wiley when Peter Booth Wiley retires from the position in September 2015 after 12 years. Wiley will continue to be a board member.

Recorded Books acquired audio publisher Tantor Media.

The National Book Critics Circle has elected Michele Filgate, Michael Miller, Leigh Newman, Katherine Powers, Mark Rotella, Liz Taylor, Kate Tuttle, and Clay Smith as board members.

Bloomsbury Director Richard Charkin will become President of the International Publishers Association later this month as Elsevier Chairman YS Chi steps down.

The New York University Advanced Digital Publishing Institute is now open for enrollment. The month-long course on specific topics of digital books is being offered to mid- to senior-level publishing executives in March. Enrollment closes February 1^st.