Dan Crissman has joined The Overlook Press as editor, focusing on nonfiction. He was most recently an assistant editor at Hill and Wang.
At Red Wheel Weiser/Conari Press, Julian Segal has been named sales and marketing manager. He was formerly the sales director at Heyday Books. In addition, Pat Rose has been named publicity director, moving from UC Berkeley Extension, where she was media relations manager.
James Salter, 86, is the newest honoree of the Rea Award for the Short Story. Given for lifetime achievement, judges praised him as “the most stylish and grave and exact of writers.”
Calvin Crosby has re-joined Book Passage as director of special projects. He was most recently a bookseller with Books, Inc. and currently serves as a vp of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.
Trailer Park Publishing has promoted Scott Tobin to senior vice president, and he will run the unit as a standalone division of entertainment marketing agency Trailer Park.
Scott Wannberg, dubbed the “poet laureate of Dutton’s” and a key figure in the Los Angeles poetry scene, died at his home in Oregon on August 19 at the age of 58. He had been in poor health for some time. Wannberg’s life and work will be celebrated at Beyond Baroque on Sept. 17 at a barbecue beginning at 3 p.m.
LAT obit
Random House India is launching a speakers’ bureau for “international, influential, corporate and celebrity speakers” in India, South East Asia, China and Hong Kong under the Random House Knowledge banner.
They are working with Red Hot Mirchi Consulting, run by Raga D’silva and Nicola Fenton, part of Global Village Unlimited New Zealand. D’silva will oversee international markets and public programs and Fenton will run the corporate training programs.
Tor/Forge and NASA are joining to create a series of science-based commercial fiction titles under the umbrella NASA inspired Works of Fiction. The idea is to team up authors and NASA experts to boost scientific accuracy in their books and to “raise awareness and inspire the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in line with the President’s Technology Agenda.” Goddard Space Flight Center’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office will host a group of Tor/Forge authors for a two-day workshop in November, where they will interact with NASA experts.