National Book Network president Rich Freese has left the company. His last day was Friday, April 8. President of NBN parent company Rowman & Littlefield Jed Lyons told us over the weekend that Freese’s departure was “very amicable” and the result of NBN’s announcement back in January that they would reduce their number of distribution clients. “We’ve been talking about it for weeks,” Lyons explained. “Since Rich’s principal role was in working on new business development, it didn’t make sense for him and the company to continue working together.” Lyons said there will be no additional changes to NBN’s executive team.
LBF director Alastair Burtenshaw has been promoted to director of all of Reed Exhibitions’ book fairs, including Book Expo America as well as the Paris, Tokyo and Sao Paulo book fairs.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has partnered with Perseus for a new all-global digital publishing initiative, Wharton Digital Press. Shannon Berning will be its executive editor; previously she was director of product development at Kaplan Publishing.
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At Atria, Sarah Cantin has been promoted to associate editor and Kate Cetrulo moves up to assistant editor.
At Granta Books, both Bella Lacey and Michal Shavit have been promoted to senior editor.
Anthony Doerr has won the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for his story “The Deep.”
Novelist and journalist L.J. Davis, 70, died Wednesday in his Brooklyn home. The cause of death had not yet been determined. Davis’s 1971 novel A MEANINGFUL LIFE was reissued in 2009 by NYRB Classics.
NYT Obit
Craig Thomas, whose 1977 novel FIREFOX helped launch the techno-thriller genre, died last week of complications from acute myeloid leukemia. He was 69 years old.
BBC Obit
Esther Kramer, founder of The Remarkable Book Shop in Wesport, CT and its owner for 32 years until the store’s 1994 closing, died April 2 at the age of 93.
WestportNow Obit