PEOPLE
Announced this morning, John Sargent will depart as CEO of Macmillan and Executive VP of Holtzbrinck on January 1. Don Weisberg, President of Macmillan US Trade, will succeed him as CEO of Macmillan Publishers, while Susan Winslow, General Manager of Macmillan Learning, will head that division as President. Also at Macmillan, LaToya Rose has joined in the new role of VP, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Most recently she was SVP, Director of Operations and Employee Engagement at Burston-Marstellar. At Holt, Shannon Criss will join on September 28 as Senior Editor; she had been Editor at Callisto Media. Barbara Jones, Executive Editor at Holt, will leave the company on October 16.
Thomas Gebremedhin has joined Doubleday as VP, Executive Editor. He was formerly Senior Editor at The Atlantic. Gerald Howard, who presently holds that position, will retire from Doubleday at the end of the year. At Crown, Madhulika Sikka joins on October 12 as VP, Executive Editor. She had most recently been Executive Producer at The Washington Post.
At HarperCollins, Gisselda Nuñez joins as VP, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on September 21. Most recently she was Executive Director, Head of Diversity Strategy at Morgan Stanley.
Adrienne Vaughan joins Bloomsbury USA as Chief Operating Officer. Most recently she was SVP at Trustbridge Partners. Prior to that, she was Director and Deputy Publisher for Disney Book Group and Director of Finance for Oxford University Press.
Ray Bard, Founder of Bard Press, is retiring as Publisher. Todd Satterstein will move up to that position and the company will move its base of operations to Portland, OR, where Satterstein lives.
At Ave Maria Press, Tom Grady has retired as Publisher and Editor. He joined the press in 2005.
Playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar has been named President of PEN America, beginning on December 2 and succeeding novelist Jennifer Egan. He has served on the board for five years.
Andrea Wollitz, formerly Subsidiary Rights Manager at National Geographic, has joined Recorded Books as Director of Children’s Publishing and can be reached at awollitz@recordedbooks.com.
At Seven Stories Press, Claire Kelley joins as Director of Library and Academic Marketing. She was previously Director of Marketing & Publicity for Roost Books at Shambhala Publications.
Margaret Wolfson has joined Lerner Publishing Group as Human Resources Director.
In agency news…Nicole Tourtelot joins The Gernert Company as Senior Agent, moving over from her previous position as Agent at DeFiore and Company. Patrice Caldwell, formerly Literary Agent at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, joins New Leaf Literary & Media as Literary Agent. Natascha Morris joins The Tobias Literary Agency as Literary Agent. She was previously Literary Agent at Bookends. Also joining Tobias is Stefanie Rossitto, Literary Agent and Foreign Rights Manager. Darlene Chan, who formerly ran the book PR firm Darlene Chan PR, joins The Linda Chester Agency as Agent. And at Transatlantic Agency, Devon Halliday joins as Literary Agent, a position she previously held at Susanna Lea Associates.
At Andrews McMeel, Betty Wong joins as Executive Editor. She is the owner of West Chelsea Editorial and was previously Senior Editor and Brand Lead, Special Interest Media, at Time Inc.
PROMOTIONS
Sanyu Dillon is now Chief Marketing Officer at Penguin Random House, where Renee Kelly becomes Senior Editor. At Doubleday, Kristine Puopolo has been promoted to VP, Editorial Director, Nonfiction, while Margo Shickmanter has become Senior Editor and Carolyn Williams becomes Associate Editor. Georgia Bodnar becomes Senior Editor at Viking Penguin.
Monique Patterson has been promoted to the new position of VP, Editorial Director, Acquisition Outreach at St. Martin’s Publishing Group. At Roaring Brook Press, Mekisha Telfer has been promoted to Editor. At St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Mara Delgado-Sanchez moves up to Assistant Editor, while Rachel Bas becomes Assistant Editor at Tom Doherty Associates. Also at Tom Doherty, Amy Sefton is now AdPromo Senior Designer and Makenna Sidle is now AdPromo Coordinator.
At Amistad, Tracy Sherrod has been promoted to VP and Editorial Director. At Carina Press, Kerri Buckley becomes Executive Editor and Stephanie Doig becomes Editor. Emily Ohanjanians has been promoted to Editor at Mira Books.
Kristine Brogno is now Associate VP of Design at Callisto Media.
At Simon & Schuster, Amanda Armstrong-Frank has been promoted to the new role of Workplace Culture and Diversity Initiatives.
Parneshia Jones has been promoted to Director of Northwestern University Press, effective September 21.
In agency news, Veronica Park has been promoted to Agent at Fuse Literary.
At Catapult, Gabrielle Bellot has been promoted to Head Instructor of Classes and Staff Contributing Editor for the magazine.
DULY NOTED
Abrams has acquired Cameron + Company, the Petaluma-based family-owned publisher known for books with a focus on photography, art, food and wine, regional interest, and children’s books. Its imprints include Cameron Books, Cameron Kids, and Cameron Studio, its book packaging and design division. The company publishes 25-30 titles a year. Cameron + Company will operate as a separate division of Abrams, which will handle all aspects of sales, distribution, production, foreign rights, human resources, IT, and business operations.
Bookshop.com will enter UK trade in November. Wholesaler Gardners will handle fulfillment.
Jan Weitendorf von Hacht, CEO of W-1 Media Group in Germany, and Cassie Hanjian, most recently Senior Literary Agent at DeFiore and Company, have formed West Wind Literary Scouting, a full-service international literary scouting firm. West Wind will scout for all W-1 imprints in Germany, including adult imprints Arche and Atrium Verlag, YA imprint Arctis, and children’s imprints WooW Books, Atrium Children’s Books, and Von Hacht Publishing.
Actor Norman Reedus has an agreement with Blackstone Publishing for an imprint called bigbaldhead, which will publish his own Unknown Man series of books as well as “a selective list of works by distinct, diverse, and provocative voices.” The imprint will launch in fall 2021.
The American Booksellers Association board has added Black booksellers Jake Cumsky-Whitlock, of Solid State Books in Washington, DC, and Melanie Knight, of Books Inc. in San Francisco, CA. They will serve until the next election in April 2021, at which point they will be eligible for election to full three-year terms.
