Erica Silverman, formerly a Senior VP at William Morris and ICM, has joined Trident Media Group as a literary agent.
Adam Korn has joined DeFiore and Company as an agent after a short stint at Vigliano Associates. He had been an editor at Harper, Crown and Random House.
Zoe Shacham has joined the Nancy Yost Literary Agency as director of foreign rights, and Natanya Wheeler has joined the company as an agent.
Myrsini Stephanides joins the Carol Mann Agency, focusing on pop culture, music, humor, popular science, narrative nonfiction, and memoir, as well as offbeat literary, graphic, and YA fiction. She has spent ten years as a nonfiction editor and book packager of illustrated books.
Quirks Books editorial director Jason Rekulak has been promoted to associate publisher and creative director. He has been with the company since 2000.
Norton assistant editor Lucas Wittmann is joining the Daily Beast as books editor, taking over the slot vacated by Alexis Gelber.
In the UK, Century editor Oliver Johnson is moving over to Hodder & Stoughton as associate publisher.
PW reports that Sara Nelson will join O The Oprah Magazine as books director next week.
Independent Book Publishers Association has named Florrie Binford Kichler to the new position of president. She was chairman of the board from 2006 to 2009, and will “build strategic partnerships and expand programs and services.” Current board president Carlene Sippola will take the new title of chairman.
Quartet Press, the start-up ebook romance publisher that recently attracted Don Linn as a partner and executive, is closing before it started “for a variety of reasons large and small” according to the company blog. “we hope you will not see our company’s disbanding as an indication that any of us doubt the viability of digital publishing. Far to the contrary — if nothing else, we have learned that the future of digital publishing, while overwhelmingly complex, will be bright indeed, and we will each be working toward that bright future via our individual efforts.”
And in Britain Marion Boyars, one of “most adventurous independent publishers,” is winding down operations after over 40 years of publishing. Their fall 2009 list will be their last, and thirty-eight backlist titles have been sold to Penguin UK, including titles by Heinrich Boll, Shel Silverstein, Elif Shafak, and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Penguin’s Adam Freudenheim tells the Guardian “this is a wonderful list, and I’m glad we’re able to publish so many in Penguin … I feel really excited about it – it’s a great opportunity for us. It’s sad for Catheryn and Marion Boyars, but they had a good run.” The rest of the backlist, including a number of drama and social science titles, is available for sale.
Owner Catheryn Kilgarriff (daughter of Marion Boyars), says, “I didn’t go bust but I would have, maybe by March. As an independent with no backers, we don’t have any resources, so I owe it to my family to stay in the black.”
Tor is adding a separate Tor.com imprint, launching with David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s anthology, Year’s Best Fantasy 9, available now as a print-on-demand book.