Penguin Random House Australia conducted “a review of our structure ” and found they “no longer require the role of publishing director-Penguin Random House Literary” (comprising Hamish Hamilton, Vintage, Knopf, Viking and Penguin). As a result, Penguin veteran Ben Ball has left the company. The team for the Literary division (created last year) will now report to group publishing director Nikki Christer. Fairfax Media reports that “the immediate departure of Ball has created shockwaves in the Australian literary community, with authors, colleagues, booksellers and agents left in disbelief.” Four-time Miles Franklin Award winner Tim Winton said he was “deeply wounded by this decision and bewildered by its timing. A publisher of Ben’s stature is so rare in Australia and his departure diminishes the company, the trade and the culture.”
At Workman Publishing, SarahMay Harel has been promoted to assistant manager, web operations and eCommerce. Grace Rambo joins as digital and web operations assistant. Previously, she was an intern at The Experiment.
Mary Anne Thompson Associates has been appointed US book scout for Lira Books in Hungary, Laguna Publishing in Serbia, and Beijing Xiron Books in China.
Tom Wolfe, 88, died on Monday in a Manhattan hospital. He was the author of nine books of nonfiction, including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Right Stuff, as well as the novels The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, and others.