People Round-Up, Early July 2016

PEOPLE

Stephen Twillinger will join Rodale as EVP and CFO in August. He is currently CFO at Dorling Kindersley. Rhea Lyons is now Subsidiary Rights Director. She was previously Senior Literary Scout at Franklin & Siegal Associates.

Sara Nelson joined HarperCollins in the new role of VP, Executive Editor and Special Advisor to the Publisher. She will acquire titles and act as strategic advisor to Jonathan Burnham. She was previously Editorial Director for Books and Kindle at Amazon.

Brent Gordon is now VP, Education Sales & Strategy at Penguin Random House. He was most recently SVP, General Manager at Wiley. Andra Miller joined Ballantine Bantam Dell as Executive Editor. She was previously Senior Editor at Algonquin. Stevie Mac joined Crown as Marketing Manager, Ad/Promo. She was most recently Lead Bookseller and PT Health Care Aide at Barnes & Noble.

Michelle Howry is now Executive Editor at Hachette Books. Previously, she was Executive Editor at Touchstone.

Brian Napack has joined the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Board of Directors. He was previously President at Macmillan and is now a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity.

Kelly Barrales-Saylor joined Sourcebooks Children’s as Editorial Director. She was previously Editorial Director at Albert Whitman & Company.

Simon Skinner has left his position as Sales Director at Nielsen Book.

At agencies, Rachel Hecht launched Rachel Hecht Children’s Scouting. She was previously Children’s and YA Scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates. . . Laura Lee Mattingly joined Present Perfect Dep’t as Agent and Partner. She was most recently Senior Editor at Chronicle Books. . . Julie Stevenson joined Lippincott Massie & McQuilkin as Agent, and will split her time between New York and Missoula, Montana. She was previously Agent at Waxman Leavell and Sobel Weber Associates. . . Novelist Madison Smartt Bell is now Affiliate Agent at Ayesha Pande Literary. . . Rachel Crawford joined Wolf Literary Services as Agent and Film Rights Manager, returning to New York after previously moving to Australia to work at University of Queensland Press.

Lauren Le Pera joined Insight Editions as Senior Production Editor. She was previously Production Editor at Bridgepoint Education. Mark Irwin joined as Senior Editor and Jordan Hamessley as Senior Editor of Children’s. She was most recently Editorial Director at Adaptive Books.

Aditya Otiv joined Open Road Integrated Media as Social Media Manager. He was formerly Editor at Sky Pony Press.

Kathryn Santora joined Regan Arts as Publicity Manager. She was previously Senior Publicist at Atria.

Sabrina Wise joined Tin House Books as Publicity Manager. She was most recently Publicist at Pomegranate Communications.

Joe Jackson is now Senior Editor of Economics at Princeton University Press. He was previously Economics Editor at University of Chicago Press.

PROMOTIONS

Thomas Dunne Books announced it will become a “smaller and more focused group,” that will acquire several dozen titles a year. Thomas Dunne will continue to head the imprint and Peter Joseph will be Executive Editor with an associate editor and assistant on his team. The remaining TD Books staff was absorbed into St. Martin’s Press. Brendan Deneen joined Tor/Forge as Executive Editor. He was previously Head of Macmillan Entertainment and Executive Editor for Thomas Dunne Books. Pete Wolverton was named VP, Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Press. He was VP, Associate Publisher at Thomas Dunne Books. Kat Brzozowski joined Swoon Reads and Feiwel and Friends as Editor. Executive Editor Laurie Chittenden, Executive Editor Marcia Markland and Editor Emily Angell will also move to SMP.

Additionally at Macmillan, Jonathan Hollingsworth is now Ebook Channel Associate Director.

Kerri Benvenuto was promoted to VP, Marketing for Licensed and Proprietary Brands at Random House Children’s. Shannon Twomey was promoted to Associate Director of Publicity at Viking and Penguin. At Crown, Kevin Sweeting was both promoted to Senior Marketing Manager for Clarkson Potter and Stephanie Davis to Senior Marketing Manager for Clarkson Potter and Harmony. Emily Hughes was promoted to Manager of Content Development and Social Media at Penguin Random House.

At Harlequin, Joanne Grant was promoted to Editorial Director of Harlequin Mills & Boon, Bryony Green to Executive Editor of UK Acquisitions, and Flo Nicoll to Senior Editor at Harlequin Presents. Additionally at HarperCollins, HarperOne promoted Gideon Weil to Editorial Director. Amanda Bergeron was promoted to Senior Editor at Morrow/Avon.

Candlewick Press promoted Kaylan Adair to Senior Editor.

Beacon Press promoted Joanna Green to Senior Editor.

Brett Collins was promoted to Creative Product Director at Open Road Integrated Media.

Jordan Kost is now Creative Director at Albert Whitman & Company.

Jeff Kehoe was promoted to Executive Editor at Harvard Business Review Press.

Springer Nature promoted Sarah Rezvani to Trade Sales Manager.

DULY NOTED

Harlequin announced MIRA Books’ new literary fiction imprint Park Row Books, which will launch in summer 2017. The imprint will be led by VP, General Fiction Editorial Margaret Maybury and Executive Editor Erika Imranyi.

Seal Press became an imprint of Da Capo Press. As a result, Krista Lyons’ position of Publisher was eliminated and she left the company and Da Capo Lifelong Editorial Director Renee Sedliar is now also the Editorial Director of Seal Press.

Penguin Random House renewed its global sales and distribution partnership with Quirk Books in a multi-year extension.

An unnamed source told The New York Post that Amazon is planning to open a brick-and-mortar bookstore in New York City’s Hudson Yards in 2018 or 2019.