People Round-Up, Early February 2015

PEOPLE

Mitchell Klipper will retire from his position as CEO, Retail of Barnes & Noble in May. He will continue to act as an advisor to the company moving forward.

Michael Siglain is now Director, Creative Franchise at Lucasfilm Publishing. Formerly, he was Executive Editor at Disney Book Group.

Steve Quinn joined Perseus Book Group as Assistant Director, Specialty Retail Sales. Previously, he was Specialty Sales Manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Rakesh Satyal is now Senior Editor at Atria Books. He was most recently a Freelance Editor. He started his career in the editorial departments at HarperCollins, Doubleday Broadway, and Random House, before briefly moving to California to work in marketing.

Jordan Hamessley joined Adaptive Books as Editorial Director. Formerly, she was Editor at Egmont USA.

Christine Swedowsky joined Penguin Random House as Director, International Marketing and British Commonwealth Sales. She was previously Associate Director, International Marketing and Publicity at HarperCollins. Meanwhile, Rick Pascocello left his position as VP, Executive Marketing Director. He can be contacted at rpascocello@gmail.com.

Jocelyn Hale will step down from her position as Executive Director of Minneapolis’s Loft Literary Center in August after eight years in the position.

Andy Hunter and Elizabeth Koch announced publishing startup Catapult, which will launch in fall 2015. Catapult will “celebrate powerful voices, breakthrough narratives, and extraordinary storytelling experiences.” Hunter, who will act as Publisher, is Co-Founder of Electric Literature and Koch, the CEO, is Founder of Black Balloon Publishing. They have hired Pat Strachan to be Editor-in-Chief. She was most recently Senior Editor at Little, Brown. Julie Buntin is Associate Editor and Community Manager, Leigh Newman is Editor-at-Large, and Jennifer Abel Kovitz is Publicity and Marketing Director. Buntin was most recently Director of Programs & Strategic Outreach for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. Newman is Editor-at-Large at Black Balloon Publishing and Deputy Editor at Oprah.com. Abel Kovitz was Director & Founder of 45^th Parallel Communications.

Andrew Wheeler left his position as Marketing Manager at Wiley after seven years with the company. He can be reached at acwheele@optonline.net.

Alexander Czik is now Data Market Analyst at Crown Publishing Group. Previously, he was Analyst, Strategy & Analysis at Digitas. Karin Schulze’s position of Associate Director, Foreign Rights at Crown Publishing Group has been eliminated. After February 6^th, she can be reached at karin.schulze@gmail.com. Lisa Tauber is now Editor at Clarkson Potter. She was previously Associate Editor at Chronicle Books.

Viniita Moran joined Chronicle as Web Manager. Previously, she was Online Store Assistant Manager at SF MoMA.

Sarah Smith is now Art Director at The Experiment. She was formerly Senior Designer at Workman.

Sarah Falter joined Hachette Nashville as Publicist. She was previously Publicist and Social Media Manager at History Press.

At literary agencies, Leslie Owen launched Leslie E Owen, Agent, LLC, which will specialize in mainstream genre fiction. . . Alex Glass launched Glass Literary Management, which will specialize in nonfiction, adult literary fiction, general fiction, and children’s fiction. He was most recently Agent at Trident Media Group. . . Heather Flaherty joined Bent Agency as Agent. Formerly, she was Children’s/YA Scout at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. . . Allison Hunter is now Agent at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency. Previously, she was Agent at Inkwell Management.

Dean Smith is now Director of Cornell University Press. Formerly, he was Director, Project Muse at Johns Hopkins University Press.

Mary Anne Baynes joined Overleaf as Head of Sales and Marketing. Previously, she was Sales Director and Solution Catalyst at Cenveo Publisher Services.

PROMOTIONS

Dan McCarthy is now Interim CEO of Taunton Press. Tim Rahr, the current CEO, left the company after 16 years.

Mark Allin will be promoted to EVP, COO at Wiley in May. He is currently SVP, Global Professional Development.

At Bloomsbury USA, Derek Stordahl was promoted to EVP, Academic and Trade Businesses and Cristina Gilbert to VP, Sales and Marketing, US Adult and Children’s divisions.

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers promoted Sasha Illingworth to Executive Art Director, Saho Fuji and Tracy Shaw to Art Director, and Maggie Edkins to Designer.

Penguin Random House promoted Linda Cowen to SVP, Associate General Counsel and Marlene Glazer to VP, Associate General Counsel. Additionally, Ruth Liebmann was given the new title of VP, Accounting Marketing at Penguin Random House. Her new role will require her to act as ambassador to independent booksellers for Penguin and Random House while also overseeing the Random House Events Department.

Crown Publishing Group promoted Alexis Washam to Executive Editor of Crown and Hogarth and Matt Inman to Senior Editor of Crown and Three Rivers Press.

Meredith Burks was promoted to Publicity Manager at Viking and Penguin Books.

Zondervan promoted Melinda Bourma to Associate Publisher, Bibles.

Claire Noble was promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing at Naval Institute Press.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt promoted Stephanie Kim to Publicity Manager and Brittany Frick to Specialty Retail Sales Manager.

Christy D’Agostini was promoted to Publicity Manager at St. Martin’s Press.

DULY NOTED

Egmont USA closed at the end of January, seven years after its launch. Its spring 2015 catalog will be published and its books will continue to be distributed through Random House.

Festival Neue Literatur 2015, which will be held February 19^th-22^nd, announced that its theme will be Love & Money. The 2015 FNL Chairperson is author Monique Truong and the Curator will be translator Tess Lewis. The event will feature international authors Marjana Gaponenko, Anna Weidenholzer, Navid Kermani, Matthias Nawrat, Jonas Lüscher, Monique Schwitter, Adam Haslett, and Tiphanie Yanique.

Simon & Schuster launched its new imprint North Star Way, which will be led by VP, Publisher Michele Martin.

Brown Books Publishing launched The Agency at Brown Books, which will offer PR, Marketing, Branding, and Distribution to authors.

Stanford University Press launched Redwood Press, a trade imprint that will focus on publishing “intellectually stimulating” nonfiction and fiction.

Alice Turner passed away on January 17^that 75. She was Fiction Editor at Playboy for 20 years.

Simon Master passed away on January 16^that 70. He was Editorial Director, Publishing Director and Managing Director of Pan Macmillan in the 70s and 80s. He was then Deputy Group Chairman for Random House UK from 1989 to 2004.

Harriet Blacker, who worked in the PR departments at Putnam, Random House, and Abrams during her publishing career, passed away on January 24^th at 74.