PEOPLE
At Grand Central, Colin Dickerman will join as VP, Editorial Director, Nonfiction on January 19. Most recently he was Executive Editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
As part of the Frankfurt Book Fair’s restructuring, the New York office will close at the end of 2020. As a result, VP, English-Language Markets Thomas Minkus will leave the company, along with Riky Stock, VP; Michelle Claussen, Key Account Manager; and Raquel Plitt, Project Manager. and. Publishing Perspectives will continue under Hannah Johnson and Porter Anderson.
Deputy Director Jordan Smith will serve as Interim Executive Director of the National Book Foundation after Lisa Lucas departs on December 18 to become SVP, Publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books.
Cameron Ackroyd joins Macmillan as SVP, Trade Finance. He was most recently Director of Business Operations at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Lucy Del Priore, School & Library Marketing Director, has left Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and can be contacted at lucydelpriore123@gmail.com.
Senior Editor Lauren Rosemary Hook will serve as Interim Executive Director of The Feminist Press.
At Gibbs Smith, Hanna Otero has been named Publisher, Trade. Before joining the company, she was Publisher at Lonely Planet Kids.
Emily Bell joins the newly-formed Zando as Head of Editorial, beginning January 4. She was previously Executive Editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Director of FSG Originals.
Ken Brooks has departed his position as Chief Content Officer at Wiley and resumed his consulting practice at Treadwell Media.
At Reed Exhibitions, Director of Global Business Development & Sales Kuo-Yu Liang has left that position and can be reached at kuoyuliang@gmail.com.
In advance of the sale of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade division, Rock Wolff, Senior Executive Editor, has accepted a voluntary buyout.
Ibrahim Ahmad will join Viking as Executive Editor on January 11. He was previously Editorial Director at Akashic Books. At Knopf, John Freeman will join as Executive Editor on March 15; he was most recently Executive Editor of Lit Hub and is the founder of the literary journal Freeman’s.
Daniel Halpern, most recently Editor-at-Large at Ecco, where he was President and Publisher until September, will depart the company on December 31. At Thomas Nelson, Clark Christian joins as Senior Marketing Director; he had been Product Marketing Manager at PESI. Katherine Jacobs, formerly Senior Editor at Roaring Brook Press, joins Zonderkidz as Senior Acquisitions Editor.
At Abrams, Kathleen Spinelli, formerly Head of Custom & Proprietary Publishing at Quarto, joins as Director, International Sales, while Elizabeth Frew, formerly National Account Manager at Candlewick Press, joins as National Accounts Sales Director, Mass Merchandisers.
Daniel Berkowitz joins Open Road Integrated Media as Director of Audience Monetization. Previously he was Digital Director for Writers House.
Jack W. Perry joins Astra Publishing House as Director of Sales and Analytics. Perry was previously VP, Director of Retail Sales for Highlights for Children.
At Farcountry Press, Erin Turner, formerly Editorial Director at Rowman & Littlefield’s TwoDot Books and Pineapple Press, joins as Director of Publications. Sarah Gebhardt joins as Customer Service Manager.
At Steerforth Press, Anthony LoSasso joins as Publicity Director. He was formerly Associate Marketing and Publicity Manager at Sterling Publishing.
Katie Zanecchia, most recently Director of National Outreach at PEN America, joins BookClub as Director of Author Outreach and can be contacted at katie@bookclub.com.
At Kickstarter, Oriana Leckert rejoins as Director of Publishing and Comics Outreach.
Diane Mangan has left her position as Director of Category Management at Follett School Solutions and can be contacted at diane.mangan@gmail.com.
Jessica Sindler, formerly Senior Editor at Dey Street Books, joins Kevin Anderson & Associates as Executive Editor.
At Algonquin Books, Chuck Adams is leaving his position as Executive Editor and will continue on as Editor-at-Large.
At the University of North Carolina Press, Publicity Director Gina Mahalek is retiring after twenty years. Peter L. Perez, most recently Publications and Communications Director at University of California Press, will join in January as Director of Public Relations and Communications, and Sonya Bonczek, formerly Publicity Manager at Harvard University Press, joins as Director of Publicity.
In agency news…Cecilia Lyra, formerly Associate Literary Agent at The Rights Factory, has joined P.S. Literary Agency as Literary Agent. At The Bindery Agency, Trinity McFadden, formerly Senior Manager of Public Relations at Zondervan Books, joins as Literary Agent, while John Blase joins as Associate Literary Agent. Jade Wong-Baxter joins Francis Goldin Literary Agency as Associate Agent; she had previously been Junior Agent at Massie & McQuilkin. Rachelle Gardner, lately Literary Agent at Books & Such Literary Management, is launching Gardner Literary, a full-service agency “representing diverse authors at the crossroads of faith and culture.” And Literary Agent Jennifer Udden has left New Leaf Literary & Media to do freelance editing.
Kelsey Nolan joins Ze Books and Unnamed Press as Publicity and Marketing Manager. Previously she worked as Events Programming Manager for The Los Angeles Times.
At Tin House, Publicity Manager Molly Templeton has departed as of December 2.
Poet Willie Perdomo joins The Common as Interviews Editor.
At The New York Times Magazine, Ismail Muhammad, previously Reviews Editor at The Believer, joins as Story Editor.
Selena James joins Little A and Amazon Original Stories as Stories Editor. Previously she was Executive Editor at Kensington Publishing Corporation.
At Sourcebooks, Jenny Granath joins as Logistics Coordinator and BrocheAroe Fabian joins as Marketing Consultant.
PROMOTIONS
Dan Schwartz is now CFO, Trade & Shared Services at Macmillan, while Clare O’Rourke becomes EVP, Finance & Accounting. Molly Ellis moves up to VP, Executive Director of Publicity for Macmillan Children’s, while Mary Van Akin becomes Director of Publicity and Kelsey Marrujo becomes Publicity Manager. Danielle Prielipp is now Assistant Director of Marketing at St. Martin’s. Also at that imprint, Michael Criscitelli becomes Senior Art Director, Creative Services Group; Erik Platt becomes Associate Director of Digital Advertising Operations, Creative Services Group; and Dylan Helstien becomes Associate Manager, Advertising Operations, Creative Services Group. Sarah Bonamino has moved up to Publicist. At Tom Doherty Associates, Ruoxi Chen has been promoted to Editor and Becky Yeager has been promoted to Manager, Ad Promo and Marketing. Lydia Zoells is now Assistant Editor at MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Samantha Zukergood becomes Assistant Marketing Manager at Flatiron Books.
At Penguin Random House, Robin Sutton has been promoted to SVP, Human Resources, leading the company’s HR teams in its Maryland, Indiana, and Nevada operations centers. Sue Driskell becomes SVP, Director of Inventory Management; Vince Annonreno becomes SVP of Distribution and Facility for Westminster and Hampstead, MD; Alison Martin becomes SVP, Customer Service and Customer Support and Analytics; and Valerie Van Delft is now SVP, Logistics and Stock Control. Kelsey Manning has become Associate Director of Marketing, Consumer Marketing, and John Bohman has been promoted to SVP, Sales and Customer Operations. Kirk Bleemer is now SVP, Director of Production, Strategy Operations and Vendor Management. Additionally, Annysa Polanco has been promoted to Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Elsewhere in the company: At Penguin Children’s, Shanta Newlin is now SVP, Executive Director, Publicity & Corporate Communications. At Penguin Young Readers, Alex Garber becomes Senior Director of Digital Marketing. At Knopf Doubleday, a new marketing operations group has formed to support the individual imprint teams. As a result, Lauren Weber is now Director of Marketing, Doubleday, and Jess Deitcher is Director of Marketing, Vintage Anchor. Judy Jacoby becomes VP and Director of the marketing operations team, while Laura Crisp becomes Executive Director of Marketing Operations; Christine Hung becomes Executive Director of Audience Development; and Beth Meister becomes VP and Executive Director of Sales Management & Planning.
Kate Johnson becomes SVP of Direct for HarperCollins Christian Publishing and Harper Focus. Jerri Helms moves up to become VP, Digital Marketing and Analytics for those imprints. At HarperCollins Children’s Books, Valerie Wong is now Digital Marketing Manager; Lisa Calcasola is now Teen Marketing Coordinator; Emily Zhu is now Digital Marketing Coordinator; and Molly Fehr becomes Senior Designer.
Peter Blackstock is now VP, Deputy Publisher at Grove Atlantic. Amy Hundley has been promoted to VP, Executive Editor, while continuing on in her role as Director of Subsidiary Rights.
At Klutz, Netta Rabin becomes VP, Publisher & Head of Product Development and Hannah Rogge becomes Executive Director, Product Development. Ben Gartenberg and Maya Marlette move up to Associate Editor, Scholastic Press, while Jess Harold has been promoted to Assistant Editor for Scholastic Press and Orchard Books.
Margot Wallace becomes Executive Editor of Vox Publishing Imprints at Library Ideas.
In agency news…Chiara Panzeri and Madeline Froyd have both been promoted to International Rights Agent at Folio Literary Management. At Fuse Literary, Michelle Richter has been promoted to Senior Agent. Caroline Eisenmann is now Senior Agent at Frances Goldin Literary Agency.
At Amazon Publishing, Lindsay Bragg has been promoted to Senior Marketing Manager.
Marie Oishi has been promoted to Senior Managing Editor at Abrams Children’s.
At Verso Books, Natascha Elena Uhlmann is now Senior Marketing and Publicity Specialist.
Stephanie Nichols is now Sales & Publicity Specialist at McFarland.
At Holiday House, Sally Morgridge becomes Senior Editor.
Lacey Trautwein has been promoted to Development Officer at Sarabande Books.
Cindy Kim has been promoted to Associate Editor at Little Simon.
At Beacon Press, Maya Fernandez has become Associate Editor.
At Sourcebooks Fire, Jackie Douglass becomes Marketing Associate.
Jason Lin is now Associate Designer at Candlewick Press.
At Ulysses Press, Tyanni Niles moves up to Digital Marketing Coordinator.
DULY NOTED
University of New Mexico Press is launching High Road Books, which will release its first three titles in March 2021.
Histria Books is launching a new imprint called Prende Publishing, Distribution will be managed in the UK and Europe by Gazelle Book Services.
Red Wheel/Weiser opened Red Wheel Audio this week. The division will publish approximately fifteen titles a year, with Dreamscape Media partnering for production and distribution.
Effective July 1, 2021, Penguin Random House Publisher Services will sell and distribute both frontlist and backlist across all sales channels for Seven Seas Entertainment worldwide.
Macmillan now handles distribution for ed-tech company Encantos. The two companies will also jointly develop titles based on existing Encantos products, including Canticos, the bilingual preschool brand; Tiny Travelers, the children’s geography brand; and Skeletitos, a line inspired by Day of the Dead celebrations.
Effective January 1, Tokyopop will expand its English-language trade distribution through IPG, including retail and mass merchant accounts. It will continue to partner with Diamond Comics to work directly with comic book retailers and expand its offerings within the direct market comic books channel.
In Canada, the University of Minnesota Press (UMP) is now distributed by University of Toronto Press Distribution (UTP Distribution). Previously UMP was distributed by the Chicago Distribution Center (CDC), which continues to manage distribution in the US.
Maria B. Campbell has assumed US scouting responsibilities for Norway’s Gyldendal Norsk.
The International Publishers Association (IPA) confirmed Bodour Al Qasami as President-Elect. Al Qasami is the founder of the Kalimat Group in the UAE. Karine Pansa, owner of Girassol Brasil Edicoes, is Vice President-Elect.
Joy Harjo has been appointed to as second term as US Poet Laureate, the second person in seventy-seven years to do so.
