People Round-Up, Mid-March 2020

PEOPLE

At Macmillan, Sarah Crichton will return as Editor-in-Chief for Holt on April 6. She previously ran the Sarah Crichton Books imprint until the line was eliminated. Retha Powers joins the imprint as Editor at Large on May 1; she has been working as Assistant Director at the CCNY Publishing Certificate Program at City College.

At Simon & Schuster, Steve Rubin joins as Consulting Publisher. He is the former President and Publisher of Henry Holt. Margaret Southard, lately Publicity Manager at Little, Brown and Company, joins Simon & Schuster as Assistant Director of Publicity, while Brianna Scharfenberg, lately Senior Publicist at Picador and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, joins as Senior Publicist. Leah Miller joins Atria as Executive Editor; she had been Senior Editor at Grand Central Publishing. At Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Lisa Quach joins as Marketing Manager; she had been Senior Marketing Coordinator at Big Honcho Media. At Gallery, Hannah Braaten joins as Senior Editor. She previously worked as Editor at St. Martin’s Press. Clare Maurer, formerly Associate Publicist at St. Martin’s Press, joins Scribner as Publicist.

Workman has launched its own audiobook publishing division, with Ana Maria Allessi, President of the Audio Publishers Association, joining as Publisher. The division will be distributed by Findaway. Kristina Peterson will retire on March 31 after fifteen years with the company. She is presently Director of International Publishing.

Elizabeth Mendez Berry, formerly Director of Arts and Media at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, joins One World as VP, Executive Editor. At Ten Speed Press, Sarah Malarkey, formerly Executive Editorial Director at Chronicle Books, joins as Executive Editor. Lindsay Boggs is leaving her position as Associate Director of Publicity at Penguin Young Readers to move to London and can be reached at ltb3k@virginia.edu. Hannah Hecht joins the imprint as Assistant Manager, Subsidiary Rights. At Random House Children’s Books, Erika Schwartz, previously Senior Production Associate at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, joins as Production Supervisor and Lauren Diethelm, formerly Production Assistant at Professional Sports Publications, joins as Production Associate, Elsewhere in the imprint, Andrea Lau, formerly Senior Designer at Random House Publishing Group, joins as Senior Interior Designer, while Jen Valero, formerly Junior Designer at RHPG, joins as Interior Designer and Allyssa Price, formerly Senior Designer at Happy Cog Agency, joins as Brand Marketing Designer. Additionally, Morgan Maple, formerly Publicity Assistant at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, joins as Associate Publicist and Maria Correa, formerly Junior Designer at Little Tiger Group, joins as Associate Editor of the Classics brand.

Sam Raim joins Hachette as Senior Editor, moving over from his previous position as Editor at Penguin Books. Elizabeth Belsky, lately Copywriter for Digital Natives Group, joins as Senior Marketing Manager. Lauren Rosenthal joins as Senior Publicist; she had previously been Publicist at Pegasus Books.

At Audible, Beth Anderson has retired from her position as EVP, Publisher. Jessica Preeg has joined Amazon Publishing as Publicity Lead. She was previously Assistant Director of Publicity at St. Martin’s Press.

Barry Brover, EVP, Operations at Barnes & Noble Education and EVP at Barnes & Noble College, has been dismissed and will depart the company at the end of the fiscal year in April.

In June, Sarah MacLachlan will step down as President and Publisher of House of Anansi Press. Semarah Al-Hillal will serve as President, and Bruce Walsh and Karen Li will join as Publishers of Anansi and Groundwood Books, respectively.

Mark Waid has been named Publisher of Humanoids. Waid is an Eisner-winning comics writer who has previously written for Marvel, DC, and other major publishers.

Tina McIntyre, previously VP of Marketing at Novel Effect, joins Wattpad as Interim Head of Publishing. Caitlyn Stewart joins as Marketing Manager; she had previously held that title at James Lorimer & Company. Holly Corfield, formerly Senior Publicist at House of Anansi Press, also joins the company as Publicity and Marketing Manager.

Shona Burns, Executive Director, Production Development at Chronicle Books, has left the company to launch her own consulting business for executive/leadership coaching and organization development. Bebe Barrow joins as Sales Operations Coordinator.

Jennifer Jensen joins Independent Publishers Group as Director, Publisher Development. She had previously worked as Director, Product Management for Hachette Book Group.

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has named Linda-Marie Barrett its new Executive Director, effective June 16. She succeeds outgoing head Wanda Jewell.

At ReaderLink, Paul Bodman joins as Director of Demand Planning while Quentin Turner joins as Category and Consumer Insights Manager and Detra Page joins as Recruiter.

At university presses: Ashley Runyon has returned to the University Press of Kentucky as Director, having most recently worked as Trade Director at Indiana University Press. At SUNY Press, Tim Stookesberry, formerly SVP and General Manager at Wiley, joins as Director. Gisela de la Concepción Fosado joins Duke University Press as Editorial Director following a nationwide search; she has been with the press since 2010. At the University of Nebraska Press, W. Clark Whitehorn, who has previously worked as Editor-in-Chief of the University of New Mexico Press, joins as Executive Editor, Bison Books. At the University of New Mexico Press, Michael Millman, formerly Senior Acquisitions Editor at ABC-CLIO, joins under as Senior Acquisitions Editor. Hilary Claggett joins Georgetown University Press as Senior Acquisitions Editor, Global Business; previously, she was Senior Editor, Business at Praeger. Kait Heacock joins the University of Washington Press as Publicity Manager. She was formerly Publicist at Dottir Press. At University of California Press, Chloe Wong, formerly Sales and Marketing Specialist at Berrett-Koehler Publishers, joins as Product Marketing Manager.

Margie Guerra joins The Experiment as Contracts and Rights Director. She was formerly Rights and Permissions Manager at Benchmark Education.

Tattered Cover Book Store COO Matthew Miller will retire on June 30.

In agency news…Kurestin Armada joins Root Literary as Agent; she previously held that title at P.S. Literary Agency. At Ayesha Pande Literary, Annie Hwang joins as Agent, coming over from that title at Folio Literary Management. At Folio, Roger Freet joins as VP, Agent; he had been Agent at Foundry Literary + Media. Kelly Dyksterhouse and Kortney Price join Raven Quill Literary Agency as Agents; Price had previously worked as Literary Agent for Corvisiero Literary Agency. At Salky Literary Management, Eryn Kalavsky joins as Literary Agent. Ross Yoon Literary Agency has hired three new agents: Ethan Bassoff, formerly Agent at Massie & McQuilkin; Tina Pohlman, formerly Agent at Union Literary; and Shannon O’Neill, lately a publishing consultant. At the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, Megan Barnard joins as Associate Agent. Margaret Bail has retired from her position as Agent at Fuse Literary to focus on her writing career.

At Fortress Press, Carey Newman, previously Director at Baylor University Press, joins as Executive Editor.

At Bloomsbury Children’s US, Ksenia Winnicki, formerly Senior Publicist at Tor, joins as Senior Publicist.

Stephen Isaacs joins McGraw-Hill as Senior Editor, He most recently worked as Acquisitions Editor at Bloomberg Press.

At Quirk, Shaquona Crews joins as Senior Contracts Manager. Previously she was Senior Research Analyst, Intellectual Property at Princeton University Press.

At Scholastic, Savannah D’Amico, formerly Children’s Field and Educational Sales Manager at Hachette, returns as National Account Manager for Barnes & Noble while Samantha Rios joins as Assistant Production Editor. Naomi Duttweiler, formerly Publicity Assistant at Penguin Random House, joins as Publicity and Marketing Associate.

April Wills, formerly Lead Publishing Review Specialist at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, joins Sourcebooks as Managing Editor, Children’s and YA. Kate Roddy joins as Assistant Editor; most recently, she was Assistant Editor at Rowman & Littlefield. Stephanie Gafron joins as Senior Designer. Kelsey Fenske joins as Production Editor. Additionally, Lindsey Holaday joins as Assistant Controller.

At Glasstown Entertainment, Jenna Brickley, formerly Development Manager at Random House Studio, joins as Associate Editor & Literary Development/Adaptation Executive.

Holly Rice joins William Morrow as Assistant Publicist. She had been Publicity Assistant at Minotaur Books.

At Abrams, Talia Behrend-Wilcox rejoins as Subsidiary Rights Manager. She had worked previously as Subsidiary Rights Assistant. Kay Makanju, formerly National Account Manager at Rand McNally, joins as Sales Manager.

Nathan Halter is serving as US Customer Service Representative for Batch for Books as the initiative rolls out stateside. He was previously Sales Data Analyst for Ingram Content Group.

Elisa Gabbert joins the New York Times Book Review as Poetry Columnist, succeeding David Orr, who will continue to contribute as a reviewer. In addition to her work as a poet, Gabbert has worked as Director of Content and SEO for WordStream.

At Baker Publishing Group, Steve Ayers has retired as Academic Sales Manager.

Sarah Armstrong, Client Relations Manager at Ingram Publisher Services, has left the company and can be contacted at sarahlilitha@gmail.com.

Shawn Quinn has retired from his position as Accounting Director at Porchlight Book Company, while Terry Taylor joins as Custom Projects Coordinator and Dan Brouchard joins as Customer Service Specialist.

At InterVarsity Press, Adam Dalton joins as Assistant Director, Trade Sales. He was previously Sales Manager at Moody Publishers.

Nicholas Sinisi, Sales Manager, has left Diamond Book Distributors and can be contacted at nicholas.sinisi@gmail.com.

PROMOTIONS

At Barnes & Noble Education, Jonathan Shar moves up to EVP, Retail and Client Solutions while Lisa Malat becomes President of Barnes & Noble College.

Randi Rosenkranz is now SVP, Sales Development at Penguin Random House. Jessica Wells becomes Senior Director, Customer Operations and Nicole Hersey becomes Assistant Director of Creative Services. Jill Santopolo has been promoted to VP, Associate Publisher, Philomel Books. At the recently-acquired Little Tiger Group, all imprints (including Caterpillar, Stripes, and 360 Degrees) will be rebranded to carry the Little Tiger name, and Thomas Truong has been promoted to Group Publishing Director overseeing all lines. At Viking Children’s Books, Kate Renner has been promoted to Assistant Art Director. At Del Rey, Sarah Peed is now Senior Editor; Tom Hoeler, Editor; and Alex Larned, Associate Editor. Matt Klise has been promoted to Associate Editor at Penguin Books. At Putnam Books for Young Readers, Caitlin Tutterow and Elise LeMassena have both been promoted to Assistant Editor.

At Little, Brown, Sabrina Callahan is now VP, Executive Director of Publicity, while Shannon Hennessey becomes Associate Publicist and Alyssa Persons becomes Senior Publicist. In the trade art department, Kirin Diemont has been promoted to Junior Designer. Tracy Shaw has been promoted to Executive Art Director at Jimmy Patterson Books. At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Katharine McAnarney has been promoted to Senior Publicity Manager. Jessica Chun is now Marketing Director of Little, Brown Spark. Juliana Horbachevsky becomes Assistant Director of Publicity for the Spark and Voracious imprints. At Grand Central Publishing, Elizabeth Connor has been promoted to Senior Art Director, and other promotions in that imprint include Alana Spendley, Marketing Associate; Tiffany Sanchez Porcelli, Marketing Manager; Maddie Caldwell, Senior Editor; Rachel Kambury, Associate Editor, Twelve; Alli Rosenthal, Associate Publicist; and Kamrun Nesa, Publicist. Brian Distelberg is now Editorial Director, History and Social Sciences at Basic Books; Claire Potter has been promoted to Senior Editor for Basic Books and Seal Press. At PublicAffairs, Brooke Parsons becomes Assistant Director of Publicity. At Orbit, Paola Crespo is now Marketing Manager. Isabella Nugent is now Marketing & Publicity Coordinator for Running Press and Black Dog & Leventhal, while Hannah Jones has been promoted to Senior Managing Editor for Running Press and Jenna McBride becomes Associate Design Director at Running Press Studio.

Alyssa Cordova has been promoted to VP, Marketing and Publicity at Regnery Publishing.

Nanci McCloskey has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing and Sales at Tin House. Masie Cochran is now Editorial Director.

At Chronicle Books, Lindsay Sablosky becomes Executive Director of Production. Kayleigh Jankowski becomes Production Manager at Chronicle Chroma.

At Abrams, Yulia Borodyanskaya has become VP, Subsidiary Rights and Export Sales. Meanwhile, Rebecca Kaplan becomes Editor-in-Chief; Monica Shah is now Executive Director, Special Markets & National Accounts; Nadine Sferratore is now Associate Director, Special Sales; Wayne Gurreri is now Senior Manager, Special Sales; and Shelby Ozer becomes Sales Coordinator, Special Sales. At Abrams Children’s Books, Meredith Mundy becomes Editorial Director for Preschool and Courtney Code becomes Editor. Jamison Stoltz has become Editorial Director at Abrams Press.

Kendra Newton has become Senior Marketing Director at Dey Street Books. At William Morrow, Nick Amphlett is now Editor. At HarperOne, Hilary Swanson has been promoted to Senior Editor and Anna Paustenbach has been promoted to Editor. Gabriella Doob has been promoted to Editor at Ecco.

Sara High is now Director of International Sales at Workman, while Kendra Poster becomes Rights Director.

At Simon & Schuster, Susan Fissell has been promoted to Director, Specialty Markets. Katherine Devendorf has been promoted to Executive Managing Editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. Julia McCarthy is now Associate Editor at Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Natasha Simons is now Executive Editor at Threshold Editions and Gallery Books. At Scribner, Mia O’Neill is now Publicist. On the Simon & Schuster indie sales team, Megan Manning has become Telesales Account Manager covering the Pacific Northwest. Emily Varga is now Associate at the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau.

At St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Rebecca Lang becomes Assistant Director of Publicity; Katie Bassel becomes Senior Publicity Manager; Kathryn Hough Boutross becomes Publicity manager; and Kayla Janus becomes Publicist. At Metropolitan Books, Grigory Tovbis has been promoted to Senior Editor and Brian Lax has been promoted to Assistant Editor.

At OverDrive, Alexis Petric-Black has been promoted to Director of Content Strategy and Publisher Account Services.

At Duke University Press, Cason Lynley moves up to Director of Marketing, Sales, and Finance, while Allison Belan becomes Director, Strategic Innovation and Services.

Katie Eberle has become Creative Director at Parallax Press.

At Rowman & Littlefield’s Lexington Books, Nicolette Amstutz becomes Director of Editorial and Becca Beurer becomes Managing Editor.

Brittany Kaback Osinski has been promoted to Director of Digital Marketing at Big Honcho Media.

At Porchlight Books, Sally Haldorson becomes Managing Director; Ryan Schleicher becomes Operations Director; and Emily Porter becomes Sales Specialist.

At Smith Publicity, Sarah Miniaci is now Director of Literary Strategy.

Margret Aldrich has been promoted to Director of Communications and Media Relations at Little Free Library.

In agency news…Nora Rawn becomes Director of Foreign Rights at Trident Media Group, where Alice Fugate and Logan Harper have each been promoted to Associate Agent. Madelyn Burt has been promoted to Contracts Manager and Agent at Stonesong. Alison Lewis is now Agent at the Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. At Raven Quill Literary Agency, Lori Steel is now Agent.

Betsy Politi has become National Accounts Manager for Proprietary Projects at Scholastic.

Romy Golan is now Senior Managing Editor at Alloy Entertainment. Viana Siniscalchi becomes Senior Editor.

At DC Books for Young Readers, Kristy Quinn is now Senior Editor.

Grace McNamee has been promoted to Associate Editor at Bloomsbury’s adult trade division, while Morgan Jones becomes Assistant Editor. At Bloomsbury Children’s, Mary Kate Castellani becomes Editorial Director; Kate Sederstom, Assistant Editor; Beth Eller, Senior Director of School and Library Marketing and Domestic Subsidiary Rights; Phoebe Dyer, Marketing Associate; and Jeanette Levy, Assistant Art Director.

Deeba Zargarpur becomes Associate Editor at Glasstown Entertainment.

At Grove Atlantic, Emily Burns is now Assistant Editor.

Aaron Howe is now Senior Sales Manager at Independent Publishers Group.

At Ingram Publisher Services, Max Jones is now National Account Manager.

At Readerlink, Carrie Sieja has been promoted to National Account Manager; Anna Ross, to Regional Operations Audit Manager; and Mallory Groff, to Children’s Product Manager

Mason Slater has been promoted to Academic Sales Manager at Baker Publishing Group.

At Laurence King Publishing, Alex Coumbis has become Publicity Manager and Anastasia Scott is now Marketing and Publicity Manager.

At Sourcebooks, Anthony Feliciano is now Systems Analyst.

DULY NOTED

In distribution news…Simon & Schuster will handle sales and distribution worldwide for Indigo River Publishing, effective April 1. Also beginning in April, Hopkins Fulfillment Services will manage warehousing, fulfillment, and sales representation for the Modern Language Association’s publications program. Beginning in June, Ingram Academic Services will provide distribution, sales, and academic marketing services for Edinburgh University Press in the US, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Effective July 1, Two Rivers Distribution will distribute Welbeck Publishing Group in the US and Princeton University Press will handle sales, marketing, and distribution internationally and domestically for Zone Books. Beginning in October, Workman Publishing will distribute Future House Publishing and Hachette Book Group will distribute National Geographic Partners; the latter arrangement has exceptions in certain international territories.

David Moberg, formerly group publisher of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and Byron Williamson, former President and CEO of Worthy Publishing, are jointly launching Moberg | Williamson, a consulting firm serving publishers and other mass media clients.

Boyds Mills & Kane has announced a “substantial investment” in minedition, the board and picture book publisher founded by Michael Neuguebauer. Neuegebauer, who is publisher, will retain complete creative control, while Boyds Mills & Kane CFO Leying Jiang will oversee business operations. Sales and distribution will move from Independent Publishers Group to Penguin Random House on July 1.

Flatiron Books has opened a new imprint, Stuff You Should Read: An iHeartBook, in partnership with iHeartMedia’s iHeartPodcast network. The books will focus on the network’s curiosity podcasts, and Imprint, a division of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, will publish young readers’ editions of the books.

Phil Turner of Phil Turner Book Productions is working as Editorial Consultant with Mayo Clinic Press on their list of narrative nonfiction and consumer health books, which are distributed to the trade by Simon & Schuster.

Karla Olson, Director of Patagonia Books, has been elected Chair of the IBPA Board of Directors, succeeding She Writes Press Publisher Brooke Warner on July 1.