People Round-Up, Mid-November 2017

PEOPLE

John Kulka has been named Editorial Director at Library of America, replacing the retiring Geoffrey O’Brien. Kulka was most recently Executive Editor at Basic Books. In addition, Leslie Schwartz is now Publicity Manager, having worked previously as Associate Director of Marketing for New American Library.

Radhika Jones has been selected as the next Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair. She replaces Graydon Carter, who announced his retirement in September, and was previously Editorial Director of the books department at The New York Times.

Michael Selleck, EVP, Sales and Marketing at Simon & Schuster, will retire at the end of the year after more than 30 years with the company.

Maris Kreizman, Editorial Director of Book of the Month Club, will leave the company on November 30 to pursue her own writing.

Tina Jordan will leave her role as Senior Editor for Books at Entertainment Weekly when the publication relocates to LA in March 2018. She has been with EW since 1989.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Kate Napolitano has joined as Senior Editor. She was previously Senior Editor at Plume/Blue Rider.

Chad Felix has joined Grove/Atlantic as Digital Marketing Manager. He was previously Director of Library and Academic Marketing at Melville House.

At Workman, Caitlin Rubinstein has joined as Senior Manager, Children’s School and Library Sales/Marketing. Most recently, she was Marketing Manager at little bee. Diana Griffin has also joined the company as Senior Publicist, having worked previously as Publicist at Tor/Forge.

In agency news, Alia Hanna Habib will join The Gernert Company as Agent on November 27. She was previously Agent at McCormick Literary.

Faye Bi joins Holiday House as Publicity Manager; she was most recently Senior Publicist at Simon & Schuster.

Lucy Silag has joined Amazon Publishing as Publicity Lead, having worked most recently as Assistant Director of Publicity for Random House Publishing Group.

At Sourcebooks, Katie Cooper has joined as Digital Content Specialist. Previously, she was Social Media Manager at Wyzant.

Hannah Bennett is now Acquisitions Editor for Cleis Press/Viva Editions and Start Publishing. She was previously Associate Publisher at Rosetta Books.

At Westchester Publishing Services, Mark DaGrossa has joined as Director of Creative Services. He was previously co-founder and principal of Folio Designhaus, LLC.

Ken Brooks will leave his position as Chief Operating Officer at Macmillan Learning at the end of the year in order to return to his consulting practice, Treadwell Media Group.

At Abrams, Michael Kaserkie has joined as Associate Production Manager. He most recently worked with Color-X.

Laura Ayrey Burnett has resigned as Executive Director of the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. She has held the position since 2010. A search for her replacement is underway.

PROMOTIONS

At Simon & Schuster, Gary Urda has been promoted to SVP, Sales and Colin Shields is now VP, Executive Director of Global Digital and International Sales. At Simon & Schuster Publishing Services, Michael Perlman is now VP, General Manager. At Scribner, Daniel Loeden has been promoted to Editor and both Sarah Goldberg and Sally Howe move up to Editor. In children’s news: Katrina Groover has been promoted to Senior Production Editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s, while Tatyana Rosalia and Bernadette Flinn have both been promoted to Production Associate; KeriLee Horan moves up to Senior Marketing Manager; and Jenica Nasworthy has been promoted to Managing Editor. Clare McGlade has been promoted to Senior Production Editor for Atheneum and Margaret K. McElderry Books. At Aladdin, Laura DiSiena has been promoted to Art Director, and Rebecca Vitkus is now Associate Production Editor for Aladdin and Simon Pulse. Hannah Carroll has been promoted to Designer for Simon Spotlight and Little Simon.

Mark Doten has been promoted to VP, Executive Editor at Soho Press. Paul Oliver moves up to VP, Director of Marketing and Publicity.

Christina Amini has been promoted to Executive Publishing Director for the art, food, and lifestyle lists at Chronicle Books.

Heidi Richter has been promoted to Senior Publicity Director at William Morrow, while Anwesha Basu has been promoted to Publicity Director. Kaitlin Harri is now Senior Marketing Director.

Maya Bradford has been promoted to Senior Publicist, Adult at Abrams. Stephanie Lee has been promoted to Senior Digital Publishing Associate at Abrams Plus.

At Abingdon Press, Robin Glennon has been promoted to Director of Trade Sales.

At Casemate, Curtis Key has been promoted to VP, Digital Services and Publishing Operations. Michaela Goff has been promoted to the new role of VP, Sales, Marketing and Client Relations. In addition, Sam Caggiula is now US Group Marketing and Publicity Director.

At The Experiment, Nicholas Cizek has been promoted to Senior Editor and Liana Willis to Assistant Editor.

Mika Kasuga has been promoted to Publishing Manager at Random House Publishing Group.

Maureen Winter has been promoted to Associate Publisher at Getty Publications.

At Catapult, Nicole Chung has been promoted to Web Editor-in-Chief as Yuka Igarashi moves to Editor-in-Chief of Soft Skull Press.

In agency news, Kim-Mei Kirtland has been promoted to Agent at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

Rob Dawson has been promoted to Managing Editor at Georgetown Publications.

Kyla Pigoni has been promoted to Marketing Manager at Amazon Publishing.

DULY NOTED

Baker Literary Scouting has been appointed nonfiction scout for Natur och Kultur in Sweden, while KF Literary Scouting has been appointed scout for Tchelet in Israel and Eksmo in Russia.

Diamond Book Distributors has been named worldwide distributor for Seven Seas Entertainment’s new imprint, Ghost Ship.

Holiday House will move to downtown Manhattan in April 2018. Its new address will be 50 Broad Street, Floor 3.

IN MEMORIAM

Sally Dedecker, longtime industry executive and most recently Director of Education for BookExpo, died on November 6 following a bout of cancer. She was 62.

Liz Smith, “longtime queen of New York’s tabloid gossip columns” per the New York Times, died on November 12. She was 94.

Longtime publishing executive, book and author promoter, and literacy advocate Parker Ladd died on November 14. He was 89.