People Round-Up, Early April 2023

PEOPLE

At Open Road Integrated Media, Robert Zaffiris has been named CFO/COO, succeeding Charles Gallagher. Zaffiris was previously DFO/COO, Consumer and Technology Group at HarperCollins.

ReedPop President Lance Festerman is leaving the company. He was a former director of BookExpo America and New York Comic Con.

At Macmillan, joins as VP of Strategy and Investments. Kleopatra Benyam, formerly Senior Director of Finance at Ralph Lauren, joins as Director of Finance. Cassie Gutman joins as Senior Production Editor; she had worked previously as Senior Production Editor at Sourcebooks. Sunanda Movva joins as Senior Business Analyst. Eric Chapman, formerly Senior Front-End Engineer at Wellthy, joins as Principal Front-End Engineer. Katy DiRienzo, formerly Production Coordinator at Penguin Publishing Group, joins as Reprint Production Manager. Sierra Moon joins as Junior Analyst.

Leigh Butler, SVP, and Hal Fassenden, VP, Director of Subsidiary Rights, are retiring from Penguin Publishing Group after forty-five and thirty-six years, respectively. Jane O’Connor, VP and Editor-at-Large at Grosset & Dunlap, is retiring this month after thirty-three years with Penguin. Rachel Klayman is stepping down as VP and Executive Editor at Crown Publishers.

Christopher M. Finan, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), is retiring this summer. A search for his successor is underway.

At Hachette Book Group, Carolyn Pittis joins as Director, Enterprise Transformation. She was most recently VP, Operations at Sterling Publishing.

At Ecco, Cordelia Calvert joins as Director of Publicity. Previously she was Publicity Director at Liveright. Danielle Dieterich, lately Editor at Putnam, joins William Morrow as Senior Editor. Kalie Barnes-Young joins Morrow as Assistant Marketing Manager.

Leigh Haber joins Zibby Media as Strategic Advisor. She was formerly Editorial Director of Oprah’s Book Club and Books Editor for O Magazine.

Adam Philips, previously Director of Marketing at Dynamite Entertainment, joins AWA Studios as Director of Sales and Trade Marketing.

Laurie Rosatone joins Guilford Press as Editor-in-Chief, succeeding co-founder Seymour Weingarten. Most recently she was Division Director of Curriculum, Digital Media, and Communications at the Smithsonian Science Education Center.

At Monkfish Publishing, author and publishing veteran Jon M. Sweeney will join as Partner and Associate Publisher on May 1.

In agency news…Jana Hanson, formerly Agent at Metamorphosis Literary Agency, joins D4EO Literary Agency as Agent. Allison Devereux joins Trellis Literary Management as Agent; she was previously Agent and Foreign Rights Director at the Cheney Agency.

At Kevin Anderson & Associates, Linda Alila joins as Senior Editor. Previously she was Editor at HarperCollins Leadership.

Gabrielle Minassian joins Insight Editions as Senior Marketing Analyst. Previously she was Senior Data Analyst at Callisto Media. John Schork, previously Senior Public Relations Manager at Unity, joins as Publicity Manager.

At Scholastic, Lora Wanta, formerly Operations Coordinator at WorldStrides, joins as Trade Digital Workflow Associate.

Anna Goolsby joins Dreamscape Media as Content Marketing Specialist.

At Baker & Taylor Publishing Services, Jerry Carrillo Ortiz joins as Sales Rep for publishers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

April Roberts joins Chronicle as Associate Publicist, and Jonah Thedorff joins as Sales Coordinator.

At Pixel+Ink, Lindsay Warren, previously Assistant Editor at Candlewick, joins as Assistant Editor.

Jessica Ogg joins Sourcebooks as Senior Royalties Accounting Manager.

At ReaderLink Distribution Services, Olivia Manning joins as Omni Sales Support Coordinator; Lauren Dykier, as Sales Coordinator; Godwin Izekor, as Lead Database Administrator; and Jason Brickett, as Supply Planner 1.

Writer Becca Rothfield joins the Washington Post as Book Critic on April 10. Sophia Nguyen joins the paper’s Book World vertical as News and Features Writer, moving over from the national politics desk, where she was Features Editor.

At Granta, writer and editor Thomas Meaney will start as Editor in mid-April.

Writer Elliott Holt has joined The Yale Review as Deputy Editor.

At Ploughshares, Ellen Duffer is leaving her position as Managing Editor and Blog Editor and can be contacted at ellenduffer@gmail.com.

At The New York Times, Neima Jahromi joins as Preview Editor on April 17. H was previously Fact Checker at The New Yorker.

PROMOTIONS

Anne Marie Tallberg has been promoted to SVP, Publishing Director at St. Martin’s Paperbacks and St. Martin’s Griffin. At Macmillan, Jeff LaSala moves up to Senior Production Editor. At Macmillan Audio, Matt DeMazza is promoted to Executive Managing Editor, Claire Beyette has been promoted to Associate Manager, Marketing, and Abigail Starr has been promoted to Senior Manager, Design. At St. Martin’s Press, Danielle (Fiorella) Christopher becomes Senior Art Director; Katie Bassel, Assistant Director of Publicity; and Allison Ziegler and Michelle Cashman, both Assistant Director, Marketing. Meghan Harrington moves up to Publicity Manager. Witt Phillips moves up to Senior Rights Manager. Janetta Dancer becomes Assistant Studio Director, and Olya Kirilyuk becomes Designer. Hannah Phillips and Sallie Lotz both move up to Editor, and Brigitte Dale, Kelly Stone, and Christina Lopez move up to Assistant Editor. At Tor Publishing Group, Michelle Foytek is now Associate Director of Publishing Operations; Alex Cameron, Associate Director of Publishing Strategy; Isa Caban, Assistant Director of Marketing; Andrew King, Assistant Marketing Manager; and Yvonne Ye, Ad/Promo Coordinator. At Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Hillary Tisman has been promoted to Director, Marketing; Thomas Colligan, to Associate Art Director; Caitlin Cataffo, to Associate Marketing Manager; Rose Sheehan, to Publicist; Scott Auerbach, to Senior Managing Editor; Rebecca Caine, to Senior Managing Editor, Picador; and Ben Brooks, Lianna Culp, and Tara Sharma, each to Assistant Editor. At Wednesday Books, Mara Delgado-Sanchez is now Associate Editor and Vanessa Aguirre is now Assistant Editor. At Henry Holt & Co., Conor Mintzer is promoted to Senior Manager, Publishing Operations and Anita Sheih and Lori Kusatzky both become Assistant Editor. At Flatiron, Claire McLaughlin becomes Publicity Manager; Louis Grilli, Associate Manager, Publicity Operations; and Kukuwa Ashun, Assistant Editor.

In the children’s division…Chantal Gersh has been promoted to Senior Publicist at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, where Jordan Winch moves up to Assistant Manager, Subsidiary Rights; Kathy Wielgosz moves up to Senior Production Editor; Naomi Silverio becomes Associate Designer; and Aurora Parlagreco is now Art Director. At Feiwel and Friends, Anna Roberto becomes Executive Editor and Foyinsi Adegbonmire has been promoted to Editor. At First Second, Kirk Benshoff has been promoted to Creative Director, while Sunny Lee moves up to Associate Art Director and Samia Fakih becomes Assistant Editor. At Roaring Brook, Emily Feinberg is now Executive Editor and Nicolás Ore-Giron is now Assistant Editor. And at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, both Brian Geffen and Kate Farrell have been promoted to Executive Editor.

Peter Hubbard has been promoted to VP, Publisher of Mariner Books, and Carrie Thornton has been promoted to VP, Publisher of Dey Street Books. At Morrow Group, Anwesha Basu and Heidi Richter both become Executive Director of Publicity. Eliza Rosenberry is now Director of Publicity. Tavia Kowalchuk moves up to Executive Director of Marketing; DJ DeSmyter moves up to Director of Marketing. Kelly Cronin has been promoted to Senior Publicist, while Deanna Bailey becomes Marketing Associate and Taylor Turkington becomes Marketing Coordinator. At HarperCollins, Rachel Levenberg is now Director of Adult Mass Merch Sales. At Harlequin, Pam Osti moves up to Senior Channel Marketing Manager. At Harper, David Howe has been promoted to Assistant Editor.

At Penguin Random House, Manuel Sansigre has been named Deputy Chief Financial Officer and EVP, Global Mergers and Acquisitions and Carlos Pérez has been named VP, Worldwide Reporting & Planning. At Random House Studio, Maria Modugno becomes VP, Executive Director. At Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Austin O’Malley is promoted to Director of Ebook Production, while Marisa Melendez and Zachary Lutz each move up to Production Manager. Anna Knighton is promoted to Senior Manager. At Doubleday, Cara Reilly becomes Editor and Ana Espinoza and Johanna Zwirner both become Assistant Editor. Sarah Thegeby has been promoted to Publicity Manager at Dutton. At Penguin Press, Helen Rouner moves up to Assistant Editor. Cheryl Eissing is now Editor at Flamingo Books/Penguin Young Readers. At Rise x Penguin Workshop, Nicole Fox moves up to Editor.

At Hachette Book Group, Martha Bucci has been named VP, Chain Sales, Grand Central Publishing Liaison, and Shawn Foster moves up to VP, Children’s Sales/Children’s Liaison. Matt Hooban moves up to Senior Director, Communications and Engagement, while Medina Cekovic becomes Marketing Manager. Elizabeth Blue Guess has been promoted to Senior Director, Author Brands. Tishana Knight moves up to Senior National Account Manager/Sales First Print Coordinator; Allie Stewart becomes National Accounts Coordinator, Children’s Sales; Claire Gamble becomes Senior National Account Manager; and Rick Garnett becomes National Account Manager. Laura Fernandez has been promoted to Senior Client Services Manager. Jaisa Pinnock moves up to Coordinator, Special Markets. Hannah Koerner is now Associate Manager, Subrights for Little, Brown Children’s; Francesca Begos becomes Assistant Manager, Subrights; and Caitlyn Budnick becomes Assistant Manager, Subrights for Perseus. Lillian Sun is now Production Director, Children’s and Black Dog & Leventhal. Susan Eberhart moves up to Frontlist Senior Production Associate and Barbara Scanlon moves up to Backlist Senior Production Associate. In finance, Lisa Gallagher becomes Executive Director of Royalties & Taxation, while Tim Demers becomes Manager, National Accounts, Customer Financial Services and McKenzie Copland is now Senior Financial Analyst. Helen Lee becomes Payroll Manager; Jeff Gaita becomes Senior Staff Accountant; and Liana Stillman moves up to Senior A/R Reconciler, Customer Financial Services. Erin Cain has been promoted to Senior Digital Production Associate. Bridget Vellturo has been promoted to Digital Operations Manager. In IT, Nick Rourke moves up to Director, Publishing Products and both Dan Fingerman and John Schulz move up to Manager, Publishing Products. Harini Munikrishnan has been promoted to Senior Product Analyst. Jason Moon is now Senior Infrastructure Engineer. Rory Sullivan has been promoted to Instructional Designer. Additionally, Melissa Veronesi is now Executive Production Editor and Yasmin Mathew is now Managing Editor.

Elsewhere in the company…Cat Hoort is now Senior Marketing Director at Hachette Nashville. At Grand Central Publishing, Tiffany Porcelli moves up to Associate Marketing Director, Staci Burt moves up to Associate Publicity Director, and Alli Rosenthal becomes Publicist. Taylor Parker-Means is now Junior Marketing Designer. At Hachette Go, Lauren Rosenthal is promoted to Publicity Manager and Niyati Patel is promoted to Assistant Editor; Ashley Kiedrowski becomes Marketing Manager for Hachette Go and Hachette Books. At Forever, Dana Cuadrado is now Associate Marketing and Publicity Manager and Junessa Viloria becomes Senior Editor. And Katie Campbell moves up to Assistant Editor within the educational resources team of Workman Kids.

Colin Rolfe moves up to Director of Design, Production, and Administration at Monkfish Publishing, where he has been added to the ownership structure. Anne McGrath becomes Literary Editor and takes on an equity interest in the company.

Angela Corpus has been promoted to Associate Director of Marketing and Publicity at the Quarto Group.

At Abrams, Ayana Albert moves up to SVP, People, while Wendy Cebellos becomes Executive Director, Sales & Operations and Eric Klopfer becomes Editorial Director, Entertainment. Talia Behrend-Wilcox is promoted to Associate Director, Subsidiary Rights. Andrew Gibeley has been promoted to Senior Publicist. Sarah Masterson Hally becomes Senior Production Manager. Heather Allen is now Senior Contracts Associate. Jay Salton moves up to Sales Coordinator, Special Sales. Soyolmaa Lkhagvadorj is now Editor and Asha Simon, Assistant Editor. In the children’s division, Courtney Code has been promoted to Senior Editor; Trish McNamara O’Neill, to Associate Director, Digital & Social Media Marketing; and Megan Evans, to Marketing Manager.

At Chronicle, Brittany McInerney has been promoted to Associate Editorial Director in the entertainment publishing group. Cecilia Santini and Lucy Medrich both move up to Managing Editor. Maddy Wong is now Associate Project Editor. Claire Gilhuly is now Associate Editor. Lauren Chin has been promoted to Senior Designer, Brand, and Ryan Cunningham has been promoted to Brand Photographer. Vanessa Navarrete has been promoted to Senior Client Account Manager. AiLing Tjan becomes Accounting Manager, Aysha Martinez becomes Royalty Manager, and Bebe Barrow becomes Compliance Manager.

In agency news…Lauren Bieker is promoted to VP at FinePrint Literary Management, where Zach Honey moves up to Associate Agent. Brianna Zimmerman is now Senior Scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates. Miriam Gordis and Sara Vitale have both been promoted to Scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates. At SBR Media, Kim Tatum becomes Agent. At Stonesong, Kim Lindman has been promoted to Literary Agent and Social Media Coordinator.

At Dreamscape Media, Lorna Henry moves up to Director, Strategic Partnerships. Karen Swenar becomes Art Director; Neil Harrington, Senior Designer; and Jessica Lakatos, Designer. Michael Jones is now Senior Audio Engineer. Megan Smith moves up to Marketing Specialist.

Chelsey Moler Ford has been promoted to Senior Production Editor at Sourcebooks, while Keri Haddrill moves up to Senior Sales Coordinator. Lin Miceli is now Production Manager, Backlist. Ashley Holstrom is now Ebook Production Coordinator. Hannah DiPietro becomes Senior Designer. Cana Clark is now Marketing Associate. And April Wills moves up to Publishing Operations Manager, Sourcebooks Kids.

At Quirk Books, Elissa Flanigan is now Senior Designer; Kate Brown, Senior Sales Manager; and Rebecca Gyllenhaal, Associate Editor.

Alison Tarnofsky becomes Marketing Manager, Trade at Holiday House, Peachtree, and Pixel+Ink.

At ReaderLink Distribution Services, Destiny Abuzir has been promoted to Human Resources Specialist.

Serena Knudson moves up to Marketing Associate at IPG.

At The New York Times, MJ Franklin is now Previous Editor and Emily Eakin is now Senior Editor.

DULY NOTED

London Book Fair has changed its 2024 dates following the announcement that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair would be occuring less than a week before the originally-scheduled fair. BCBF is April 8-11, 2024, and LBF will now be held March 12-24, 2024.

Hachette Book Group will exclusively distribute frontlist and backlist trade titles for Callaway Arts and Entertainment to all channels, effective July 1.

Plumleaf Press is now distributed by University of Toronto Press Distribution.

Abrams is separating their ComicsArts imprints into a separate division, alongside the adult and children’s groups. The new division will continue to publish graphic novels and expand to publish manga and international titles. The first titles will launch in fall 2024.

Arcadia Publishing has acquired Applewood Books, a publisher specializing in “reissuing original versions of historical books” with a catalog of some 2,500 titles. Arcadia had previously purchased Applewood’s Commonwealth Editions imprint in 2021.

New York University has launched a new international executive education program, the NYU Advanced Publishing Institute. Designed for mid- to senior-level book professionals, the course is modeled on the Yale Publishing Course, which ran from 2010 to 2019. The initial cohort will attend from January 8 to 12, 2024.

EVENTS

March 30-April 9
Bangkok International Book Fair
Bangkok, Thailand

April 6-9
Norwescon
SeaTac, WA

April 12-16
Quebec International Book Fair
Quebec City, QC

April 15
San Antonio Book Fair
San Antonio, TX

April 18-20
London Book Fair
London, UK

April 19-23
Texas Library Association Conference
Austin, TX

April 21-23
Livre Paris
Paris, France

April 21-24
Unbound Book Festival
Columbia, MO

April 22
The Self-Publishing Conference
Leicester, UK

April 22-23
L.A. Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles, CA

April 27-May 15
Buenos Aires Book Fair
Buenos Aires, Argentina