People Round-Up, Early December 2016

PEOPLE

Gail Brussel has joined Penguin Press as Publicity Manager; she most recently ran her own PR company, Gail Brussel Book Publicity. Kelly Joseph is joining McClelland & Stewart on December 5 in the newly-created role of Publishing Manager. She spent the last eight years at House of Anansi Press, serving most recently as Managing Editor, and helped develop the French-language imprint Arachnide.

Dan Lubart will be leaving his position as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Publishing Operations, at Hachette Book Group at the year’s end in order to focus on his data strategy and modeling company, Iobyte Solutions. Shawn Donley has been hired for a newly-created HBG Sales Rep position covering Washington State and Oregon. He had previously been Purchasing Director at Powell’s Books and is Vice President of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Jason Wells is joining in the newly-created role of Vice President, Marketing and Publicity. He was previously Executive Director, Publicity and Marketing, at Abrams Books for Young Readers and had worked there for fourteen years. Lucille Rettino, Vice President, Director of Marketing, is leaving Simon & Schuster after over ten years.

George Gibson will join Grove Atlantic as Executive Editor in January. He is leaving his role as Publishing Director at Bloomsbury US, which he has held since 2008.

Stacy Creamer has left Regan Arts. She joined as Senior Vice President, Executive Editor in April of this year.

Maureen Cole is now Associate Director of Publicity at William Morrow. She was previously Senior Publicity Manager at Simon & Schuster.

At agencies…Quressa Robinson has joined D4EO Literary Agency as Associate Literary Agent. She was previously Editor at St. Martin’s. Larissa Helena, having relocated to New York, is now Manager of Subsidiary Rights and Associate Literary Agent at Pippin Properties. She was previously Executive Editor at Fantástica Rocco in Brazil. Kathleen Schmidt has joined Empire Literary as Agent, focusing on commercial nonfiction and select women’s fiction. She was most recently Associate Publisher at Rodale Books. Beth Vesel has left the Irene Goodman Literary Agency to reopen her own agency, which she ran until joining Goodman as Senior Vice President in early 2014. Cullen Stanley is leaving her position as Partner, Managing Director and Head of Foreign Rights at Janklow & Nesbit, which she has held since 1991. She will be forming her own firm, Cullen Stanley International Agency. Janklow & Nesbit has announced that it is “spinning off its foreign rights department” in support of the new firm, which will handle UK/Commonwealth and translation rights for J&N.

Rebecca Schmidt has joined the sales department at Abrams as National Accounts Manager, having previously worked as National Accounts Manager at Workman. Kelsey Albertson has also joined the department as Special Markets National Accounts Sales Representative. She was previously Corporate and Premium Sales Coordinator at Macmillan. Kim Sheu has joined the company as Associate Marketing Manager, Adult Division, and was formerly Associate Marketing Manager at Monacelli Press. Peggy Garry has joined as Contracts Director; she was previously Assistant Director, Legal Affairs at Perseus. Tree Abraham has joined as Junior Designer, Children’s. She had previously worked as a cover designer with Penguin Random House UK, Faber & Faber, and Little, Brown UK.

Jeanette Shaw has left her position as Editor at Tarcher Perigee after twelve years to start a freelance editorial service firm, JS Editorial.

At Scholastic, Mindy Stockfield has been appointed Senior Vice President of Marketing, Creative and Multiplatform Trade Publishing. She had most recently worked as Senior Vice President, Consumer Marketing at MTV.

At VitalSource, Mike Sugarman has joined as Director of Platform Sales and will work out of the company’s Boston office. He was previously Senior Vice President at Emerald Publishing Group, leading the North American sales group and publishing operations.

Paul Morris is joining the Authors Guild in the new position of Vice President, Programming and Outreach. He was previously Director of Literary Programs at PEN America.

Stephanie Cargill-Greer has joined Chronicle Books as Export Sales Assistant.

Cassie McGinty joined Disney Publishing as Senior Publicist; she was previously Publicist at Random House Children’s.

At Diamond Book Distributors, Ashley Kronsberg has joined as Graphic Novel Marketing. She had been working as a ghostwriter and editor.

PROMOTIONS

Christine McNamara is now Vice President, Marketing Strategy at the Penguin Publishing Group. She was previously Vice President, Partnerships & Content Marketing in Penguin Random House’s consumer marketing development group. In that group, Katherine McHill is now Vice President, Director, Partnerships, Consumer Events, and Apps; Lilly Kim is Director, Partnerships; and Kristin Fritz is Vice President, Content Marketing. Juliana Kiyan has been promoted to Assistant Publicity Director at Penguin Press. At Penguin Random House UK, Hannah Glenny has been promoted to the new position of Head of UK Communications. Due to her job’s elimination in this restructuring, Maureen Corish is leaving the company. At G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, Jen Besser has been promoted to President and Publisher. She had been Vice President and Publisher at the imprint. At Knopf Books for Young Readers, Karen Greenberg is now Assistant Editor.

Following the acquisition of Adams Media by Simon & Schuster, Karen Cooper is now Vice President, publisher of the line. She was previously Vice President, Books and Content. Audrey Gibbons is now Senior Publicist at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. At Atria Books and Washington Square Press, Peter Borland has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief, having served as Editorial Director since 2008.

Amanda Bostic has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Fiction at Harper Christian.

At Harlequin, Nicole Brebner has been promoted to Editorial Director for MIRA. Susan Swinwood has been promoted to Editorial Director for HQN Books and Graydon House Books. Natashya Wilson is now Editorial Director, Harlequin TEEN, and Erika Imranyi is now Editorial Director, Park Row Books. Reka Rubin has been promoted to Director, Subsidiary Rights and Harlequin Audio.

At Sourcebooks, Anna Michels has been promoted to Senior Editor and Beth Oleniczak has been promoted to Marketing Manager, Libraries. Cat Clyne has been promoted to Editor for Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Kate Prosswimmer has been promoted to Associate Editor, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky and Fire.

Angie Giammarino is now Associate Director of Marketing at Rodale Books, having previously worked as Senior Marketing Manager.

At the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, Shaina Birkhead is now Programming and Strategic Partnerships Director, advancing from Director of Programming; Matthew Poulter is Membership and Marketing Director, advancing from Director of Membership; Emma Kantor is Publicity and Digital Content Manager, advancing from Communications Coordinator; and Alexa Frank is Special Project Coordinator, advancing from Office Assistant.

At Ten Speed Press, Ashley Lima has been promoted to Senior Art Director.

Robin Noonan has been promoted to Sales Manager at the Naval Institute Press.

IN MEMORIAM

George Turianski, a senior production manager at Simon & Schuster, passed away suddenly on November 17 at the age of 53.

DULY NOTED

John Makinson, chair of Penguin Random House, will retire on December 31 after over fifteen years with PRH and three and a half years in that position. He will be succeeded by Philip Hoffman, formerly Chief Corporate Finance and Strategic Development Officer at Pearson. Hoffman has served on the Board of Directors since PRH’s inception and has also been chairman of the audit committee.

The Zora Neale Hurston Trust is now represented by Joy Harris Literary Agency. It was previously represented by Victoria Sanders & Associates.

Simon & Schuster has announced, as an agreement with F+W Media, its acquisition of Adams Media. Relevant job changes are reported elsewhere in this article.

As of December 6, the Hachette Book Group-owned Perseus imprints will move from their previous location on West 57^th Street to Hachette’s headquarters at 1290 Avenue of the Americas.