People
Entangled Publishing has announced that the former CEO of Tinder, Faye Iosotaluno, will assume the new role of president and COO, aiming to “expand beyond publishing into a diversified media platform”. Iosotaluno has also held leadership positions at SoundCloud, Viacom, and Warner Bros.
At Avon Group, Christa Désir joins as VP, editorial director, focusing on key acquisitions, special projects, and new editorial strategies. Désir was most recently VP, editorial director at Bloom Books and Sourcebooks Romance. Within William Morrow, executive editor Rakesh Satyal joins, moving from Harper One, where he will continue to specialize in narrative nonfiction, as well as select fiction.
Little Brown has Kristen Bianco joining as senior publicist. She was previously at Putnam. Tiffani Ren joins as senior marketing manager. She was previously marketing manager at Tin House and Zando.
At Atria, Ebony LaDelle returns as marketing director. She previously worked at Simon & Schuster, but was most recently at Random House as brand marketing director for the Obama publishing properties. Simon Maverick brings on Ashley Fortier as senior editor. She was previously at Tantor Media. Maryam Ahmad has joined as publicist. She was previously at Simon & Schuster Children’s.
Columbia University has appointed Gita Manaktala as Executive Director of Columbia University Press starting September 8th. Manaktala joins Columbia following a distinguished career at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, where she spent more than three decades helping to shape one of the world’s leading academic publishing programs.
At Penguin Random House, Giancarlo Montemayor joins as director of sales, Christian Market, based in Nashville, reporting to Cynthia Lasky. He will serve as lead sales director for the PRH Christian Publishing team and will also provide strategic direction for Christian Market Sales. National accounts manager William Bauers and associate manager Kate Nolan will both report to Montemayor. Lauren Ogden becomes senior developer on the publishing applications team.
At Audible, Larissa Helena has joined as associate director, publisher relations LATAM. She was previously head of content, North America at Yoto.
At Kevin Anderson & Associates, Wes Miller has joined as executive editor. He was most recently at Grand Central.
Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree have Cara Broel joining as publicist. She previously ran the children’s literature blog, The Baby Bookworm.
Abrams has Sara Johnson joining as associate director of digital and social marketing.
At Pushkin Press US, Ben George joins as executive. George was previously at Little Brown.
Within Authors Against Book Bans, Katherine Locke becomes president of the organization’s executive board beginning July 1, succeeding Maggie Tokuda-Hall, the board’s first president. Shaneé Yvette Willis has joined as program and operations manager.
In Agency News…
Neighborhood Literary has promoted Rebecca Podos to managing partner, in addition to their duties as senior literary agent.
At Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, Ann Rose has joined as literary agent. She was previously at The Tobias Literary Agency.
Storm Literary Agency brings on Tali Shammas as an associate agent. Jackie Garcia-Morales joins as associate literary agent and foreign rights agent, looking for kidlit across genres and formats, plus adult nonfiction in STEM and beyond.
WLA Books has Emily Sacks joining as literary agent. She was previously at CAA.
At Curtis Brown, promotions include Lara Anderson to permissions coordinator, Manizeh Karim to social media coordinator, and Emmi Shockley to dramatic rights coordinator.
Katie Reed Literary has Rebecca Lommers joining as junior literary agent.
Within Corvisiero Literary Agency, Bianca Guarrasi has been promoted to associate literary agent (and film/TV literary manager assistant).
Open Road Integrated Media brings on Mark Meneses as business development manager.
At Talcott Notch Literary Services, Tommy Dean has joined as literary agent.
Transatlantic Agency promotes Laura Cameron to senior agent.
At Hardman & Swainson, Nina Leon joins as agent, focusing on romantasy, YA, upmarket, and contemporary romance. Leon was previously at Perez Literary & Entertainment.
Promotions
At OverDrive, Marc DeBevoise has been named CEO, taking over leadership of the company from founder Steve Potash.
Sourcebooks promotes Lynn Sikora to director of international marketing & publicity.
Random House promotes Miriam Khanukaev to associate editor. Within Random House Publishing Group, Michael Hoak is promoted to associate director of marketing and Marni Folkman is promoted to senior publicist, in-market for the Random House, Dial, Hogarth, and Modern Library imprints. Meghan O’Shaughnessy is promoted to senior Publicist and Sabrina Shen is promoted to associate marketing manager, in-market, Random House Worlds. Berkeley promotes Tyler Simon to marketing associate. Harmony, Rodale, and Convergent promotes Derek Reed to VP, editorial director of Harmony and Convergent, bringing the imprints under the same leadership. Rodale VP, editorial director Marnie Cochran will oversee Rodale Lifestyle as well as Rodale Books. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group promotes Kate Hughes to manager, subsidiary and foreign rights. Kensington promotes Stephanie Hinamon to community manager, author engagement.
At Harper Collins Focus, Matt Baugher has been promoted to SVP, associate group publisher. Cider Mill Press and Applesauce Press will move under him with VP, publisher of the imprints John Whalen reporting to Baugher.
At Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree, Sarah Howard Parker has been promoted to senior publicist.
Princeton University Press promotes Annie Miller to editor, art and architecture. She starts the new role following the departure of longtime art and architecture publisher, Michelle Komie.
Duly Noted
Hoopla Digital and Pottermore Publishing have partnered together for “Christmas at Hogwarts”. Hoopla will be providing the iconographic eBook to participating libraries for their readers instantly, with no wait time. This is the first digital version of the book, exclusively available through Hoopla, containing professional narration, sound and visual storytelling elements like pan-and-scan movement. The press statement released today reads “Designed for younger readers, the dynamic iconographic eBook encourages early literacy and family reading during the holiday season.”
The Center for Fiction has awarded Lee Boudreaux with the 2026 Medal for Editorial Excellence. Boudreaux has worked with some of the most celebrated authors in contemporary literature, including Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Percival Everett, Bonnie Garmus, Andrew Sean Greer, Claire Lombardo, Madeline Miller, Maria Reva, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Sunil Yapa. Lee Boudreaux will accept the Medal for Editorial Excellence at The Center for Fiction’s Annual Awards Benefit on Tuesday, December 8, 2026.
The Literary Arts Fund applications are now open for the new innovation project grant program — providing one-time awards ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 to literary arts nonprofits for “new, one-time, and forward-thinking projects [in 2027] that aim to address critical structural challenges that, if improved or solved, would ultimately strengthen literary arts nonprofits’ abilities to serve creative writers.” The fund will award $1 million in innovation grants overall, with applications due by August 17.