People Round-Up, Mid-March 2018

PEOPLE

Mitzi Angel, President for Adult Publishing at Faber & Faber, will return to the US “later this year” to take over as Publisher, SVP of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Jonathan Galassi is leaving that position but will remain as President and will continue to acquire and edit books. At Celadon Books, Anne Twomey will join as Creative Director on April 2. She has been working as VP, Creative Director at Grand Central Publishing.

Following its acquisition of Rodale Books, Crown Publishing Group has hired a number of former Rodale employees. These include Gail Gonzales, VP, Director, Publishing Strategy, Harmony, Rodale Books, and Clarkson Potter; Dervla Kelly, Senior Editor, Rodale Books and Ten Speed Press; Brianne Sperber, Senior Marketing Manager, Harmony and Rodale Books; and Holly Smith, Senior Digital Marketer. Separate from the acquisition, Shauna Barry joins as Marketing Assistant, Harmony and Rodale, and Courtney Mocklow joins as Publicity Assistant.

Stephanie Smirnov joins Scholastic as EVP, Head of Global Corporate Communications. She was previously Managing Director, Brand Practice at Edelman New York.

Rachel Neumann is joining Shambhala Publications as Associate Publisher on April 23. She will be leaving her present position as Publisher and Editorial Director at Parallax.

Jonathan Symington, formerly VP, General Manager at Disney Publishing Worldwide, has launched LA-based consultancy The Lantic Group.

At IDW, Chief Creative Officer and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall has announced that he is leaving the company.

At AAP, Tina Jordan is departing from her role as VP after twelve years to “temporarily explore her lifelong passion of becoming a professional surfer.”

Associate Publisher and Executive Editor Sandy Vander Zicht will retire from Zondervan in July after thirty-three years with the company.

Whitney Hu has joined the National Book Foundation as Director of Public Programs. She was previously Communications Director for the office of New York City council member Brad Lander.

Steven Wallace joined the University of Georgia Press as Director of Marketing and Sales. He was previously Business Development Manager at New Leaf Distributing.

At agencies…Tina Pohlman, most recently EVP, Publisher at Open Road Integrated Media, joins Union Literary as Agent. Chris Clemans, previously Agent at The Clegg Agency, joins Janklow & Nesbit in the same position. Sarah Murphy Mannheimer joins The Tuesday Agency as Senior Agent. She was previously Lecture Agent and Account Executive at the Leigh Bureau Ltd. Leslie Meredith, most recently Editor at Atria and Free Press, joins Mary Evans as Literary Agent. Melissa Edwards has launched MLE Consulting, a publishing contract service for literary agents and authors, and will continue as Literary Agent at Stonesong.

Brooke Borneman has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as Senior Marketing Manager, moving over from the same position at Tarcher Perigee. Samantha Ruth Brown also joins as Publicity Assistant, and Samantha Trovillion joins as Publicity Associate.

Johanna Dickson joins Skyhorse as Senior Publicist. Most recently she was Publicist at Holt.

Scott Gast joined the University of Chicago Press as Editor, Life Sciences. He was previously Features Editor at Orion Magazine.

PROMOTIONS

Jonathan Karp has been promoted to President and Publisher for Simon & Schuster’s adult publishing division. In addition, he will continue as Publisher for the Simon & Schuster trade imprint.

Amy Einhorn has been promoted to Executive VP at Flatiron Books, with all of editorial now reporting to her. At Macmillan, Jennifer Gonzalez moves up to Senior VP, Trade Sales, and Tom Stouras moves up to Senior VP, Online and Digital Sales, Sales Operations and Analysis.

At Crown Publishing Group, Diana Baroni has been promoted to VP, Associate Publisher, Editorial Director, Harmony and Rodale Books. Jill Schwartzman, VP, Executive Editor at Dutton, is taking on the additional role of Editorial Director at Plume. Hilary Teeman becomes Executive Editor, Crown and Hogarth. Chelsea Handler and Daniel Novack have both been named Senior Counsel for Penguin Random House.

At Open Road Integrated Media, Sarah Janet has been promoted to Executive Director, Marketing Analytics.

Erica Barmash has been promoted to Senior Director of Marketing at Bloomsbury Children’s, while Sarah Shumway moves up to Executive Editor, Claire Stetzer moves to Assistant Editor, and Anna Bernard moves to Associate Publicist.

Amanda Pritzker has been promoted to Director of Marketing and Campaign Strategy at Grand Central Publishing. In addition, Andrew Duncan is now Director of Digital Marketing and Content Strategy; Joe Benincase, Digital Marketing and Analytics Manager; Tiffany Sanchez, Associate Marketing Manager; Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski, Deputy Director of Publicity; and Jordan Rubinstein, Associate Publicist. At Hachette Book Group USA, Matt Hooban has been promoted to Associate Director of Communications and Becky Llewellyn to Communications Associate. Mishell Velez becomes Senior Coordinator at Hachette Audio, where Elece Green is now Associate Producer and Tommy Harron becomes Producer.

In the adult division of Abrams, Paul Colarusso has been promoted to Marketing Director and Kim Sheu has been promoted to Marketing Manager.

At Touchstone, Kelsey Manning has been promoted to Assistant Director of Marketing and Isabel DaSilva moves up to Marketing Coordinator.

At Chronicle Books, Miriam Keil and Sam Steele have both been promoted to Sales Manager, Special Markets, and Morgan Amer has been promoted to Associate Sales Manager, Special Markets.

Serena Longo has been promoted to Marketing and Events Manager for Harvard Book Store.

DULY NOTED

Beginning in August, the previously self-distributed Hay House will work with Penguin Random House to sell and distribute their entire catalog in North America.

Rutgers University Press will begin distribution of their print catalog through the University of Chicago Press and the Chicago Distribution Center on July 1, 2018.

BookEnds Literary announced the launch of a children’s division, BookEnds Jr.

Tracy Behar’s previously-unnamed new imprint at Hachette has been titled Little, Brown Spark. The line will launch in fall 2018 with a focus on health, lifestyle, psychology, and science.

The European publisher World Editions, which is dedicated to English-language translations of global fiction, is launching this September in the US with distribution through Consortium. Christine Swedowsky, formerly Director of International Marketing and Sales at Penguin Random House, will serve as US Director.

Zagat, purchased by Google for $151 million in 2011, has been sold to The Infatuation for undisclosed terms. The Infatuation has expressed interest in bringing back Zagat’s printed guides, which ceased production in 2017.

At the Authors Guild, Monique Truong, author of The Book of Salt and Bitter in the Mouth, has been elected vice president, with D.T. Max, author of Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, joining the governing council as a member.

Barring the elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities, former publisher of Virginia Quarterly Review and acting head Jon Parrish Peede has been nominated to serve as chairman of that agency.