PEOPLE
At Twelve, Publisher Sean Desmond has left the company and will join HarperCollins as VP, executive editor in September. The news came in a memo from HCCB President and Publisher, Suzanne Murphy. EVP, operations at HarperCollins, Larry Nevins, has decided to retire at the end of the year after 22 years at the company. VP, director of publishing for the Clarion Group, Mary Wilcox will leave the company on August 25, after over 20 years at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and then HarperCollins.
At Random House Publishing Group, EVP and executive director of publishing operations Lisa Feuer will retire in December after 22 years at the company. Seema Mahanian joins Pamela Dorman Books as senior editor and reports to Dorman. She was previously at Grand Central. After three decades at Random House, Benjamin Dreyer, VP, executive managing editor and copy chief, will retire in December. Wendy Wolf, VP & associate publisher; Paul Slovak, VP & executive editor; Rick Kot, executive editor, and Ben Petrone, associate director, publicity are set to leave Viking Penguin. Production editor Carol Naughton will retire on December 15 and production manager Ellen Reed will retire on December 1.
Jim Milliot, who has been editorial director of Publishers Weekly since 2014, will be retiring at the end of the year. Jonathan Segura has been named editorial director. David Adams has been appointed reviews director. Andrew Albanese has been promoted to executive editor. Current director for columns and special projects Rachel Deahl has been named director of branded content. As a result of Deahl’s move, current director of special editorial projects Adam Boretz will become senior editor overseeing features as well as author profiles and the Soapbox column.
At Scholastic, President of education solutions Rose Else-Mitchell will leave to pursue other interests. Effective immediately, Beth Polcari becomes president of education solutions. She was previously president of international. CFO Ken Cleary will leave his current role when a successor is named and become president of international.
At Orbit Books, Kayleigh Webb joined as a marketing manager.
Philomena Polefrone has joined ABA as advocacy associate manager. She was previously a bookseller and a lecturer at Columbia University.
At Library Journal, Prepub Alert editor Barbara Hoffert will retire after 37 years.
Hayley Steed will move over to Janklow & Nesbit UK as a literary agent after seven years at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency.
At Doubleday, Director of interior design Maria Carella will retire. She started as an interior designer for Bantam Books. SVP and creative director John Fontana will retire after 23 years as part of the company’s VSO offer.
Peter Turner has joined Hierophant Publishing as VP, associate publisher. He was previously associate publisher for five years at Red Wheel/Weiser (which distributes Hierophant).
Marissa Koors has joined The Curious Minds Agency as a literary agent. She was previously associate editor at Basic Books and Seal Press.
At MIT Press, Brent Oberlin has rejoined the press as CFO. Bill Smith now has an expanded role as director of marketing and sales. Jessica Pellien takes on the newly created role of head of communications.
Beth Colón has joined in the new position of acquisitions editor for Africana Studies at University of Virginia Press. She was previously at UT Austin.
Alan Hirsch has been appointed regional sales director at KNK Software.
Franklin & Siegal Associates have been appointed North American scouts for adult books for Italian publisher Piemme and for Egmont Croatia.
At Sourcebooks, Stefanie Stocke has joined as senior director of human resources.
Nicole Sklitsis joined Blackstone Publishing as a publicist.
At Cornell University, Meagan Levinson joins as editorial director of Three Hills. She was previously at Princeton University Press.
PROMOTIONS
At Viking Penguin, Terezia Cicel has been promoted to senior editor. Nidhi Pugalia has been promoted to editor. Camille Leblanc has been promoted to associate editor, reporting to Allison Lorentzen. Allie Merola has been promoted to associate editor, reporting to Lindsey Schwoeri. Jenn Houghton has been promoted to publishing associate, reporting to Brian Tart. At Penguin Life, Amy Sun has been promoted to senior editor and Nina Rodriguez-Marty has been promoted to editor, both reporting to Meg Leder. Nico Medina has been promoted to VP, director managing editorial & production editorial at Penguin Children’s taking over as Gerard Mancini prepares to retire. Medina will report to Catharine Lynch, who heads the new companywide Bookmaking teams.
At HarperCollins, Liz Velez has been promoted to assistant editor for Harper and Harper Perennial. Ellie Anderson has been promoted to publicist at Morrow Group.
Margaret “Maggie” Cannon has been promoted to publicist, James Patterson, and will direct all of Patterson’s publicity efforts at Little, Brown.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Bezawit Yohannes has been promoted to assistant marketing manager for Aladdin, Boynton Bookworks, Little Simon, Simon Spotlight, Simon Pulse, and Margaret K. McElderry Books. Kimberly Capriola has been promoted as production editor for Simon and Schuster Children’s and Paula Wiseman Books. She was previously a copy editor for Pioneer Valley Books.
Hallie Rich has become editor-in-chief at Library Journal. She was previously chief communications & external relations officer at Cuyahoga County Public Library.
Tori Simpson has been promoted to rights associate at Scholastic.
Julia Steffy has been promoted to assistant project editor at Sourcebooks.
Zhengdao Song has been promoted to SVP, data analytics at Open Road.
Brett Duquette has been promoted to editorial director at Little Bee Books and Yellow Jacket Books.
Ellen Wright has been promoted to publicity director at Orbit.
Cathie Hedrick-Armstrong has been promoted to senior literary agent at The Purcell Agency. Vicky Weber has been promoted to literary agent.
Julia Steffy has been promoted to assistant project editor at the MIT Press.
Kira Weiner has been promoted to associate marketing manager, events at Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull Press.
Chris Baggett was promoted to chief marketing officer at David C. Cook.
DULY NOTED
Adrienne Vaughan, president of Bloomsbury Publishing USA, died on August 3 in a boating accident on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. She was 45. Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury chief executive, called Vaughan’s death a “terrible blow” and “devastating for everyone at Bloomsbury.” A memorial service has not yet been announced.
Wall Street Journal books editor Christopher Carduff, 66, died on August 14 following a recent illness. Before going to the WSJ Carduff had worked in book publishing and had been John Updike’s editor for several years.
EVENTS
August 24 – 27
Fan Expo Canada
Toronto, Canada
August 30 – September 3
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August 30 – September 3
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Moscow, Russia
September 15 – 17
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Edmonton, Canada
September 30 – October 3
Toy Fair
New York, NY
