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People, Etc.:

September 19, 2011
By Michael Cader

At this morning’s BISG annual meeting, the organization confirmed that vice chair Ken Michaels is now serving as co-chair of the organization’s board, alongside Dominique Raccah, who will step down from her position in a year. (Raccah took over as sole chair of the board last November when co-chair Andrew Weber left Random House.)

Little, Brown, John Parsley has been promoted to executive editor. He joined the company in the fall of 2007.

David Moldawer has joined Amazon Publishing as senior editor for the New York-based trade group, run by Larry Kirshbaum. Previously he was a senior editor at McGraw-Hill.

At Holt, Melanie DeNardo has been promoted to assistant director of publicity for Holt, Metropolitan and Times Books. She joined Holt in April 2009.

Random House Canada’s longtime digital guru Lisa Charters has resigned (she was technically svp, director, digital) to join Kids Can Press as vp, brands, new media and new channel revenue. As RH Canada president Brad Martin notes in his memo, “There can be no doubt that Lisa has made a huge contribution to our digital presence and business…. She helped to spread knowledge and excitement for digital initiatives throughout the company, and her enthusiasm and understanding for all things digital have certainly led to our positioning as market leader.”

At the Barnes & Noble shareholders meeting on October 28, board vice chairman Steve Riggio will not stand for re-election. He will “continue as an employee of the company under his current employment agreement” after his board term expires, though.

CEO William Lynch is newly nominated to serve as director. The board is set to shrink by one seat, since Margaret Monaco, a director since 1995, is not nominated for re-election either.

Internationally, in the UK, Michelle Signore will join Transworld as editorial director on October 17. She has spent the past 12 years at John Blake, most recently as editor-in-chief.

Bonnier Books ceo Maria Curman will step down at the end of the year after a decade at her position. She will be succeeded by two executives: Hartmut Jedicke, current chief executive of Bonnier’s German publishing business and soon-to-be board chair for Bonnier Publishing UK; and Jacob Dalborg, who will oversee the company’s Finnish and Norwegian publishing operations in addition to its Swedish publishing house. Curman will remain on Bonnier’s main board of directors, and said in a statement: “I’ve had a fantastic time at Bonnier, where I’ve had the opportunity to develop Bonnier’s book operations in both domestic and international markets.”

Tekno Books senior editor John Helfers is departing the company after 16 years to pursue freelance writing and editing opportunities. His last day is October 1.

Business publisher start-up Bibliomotion has hired the Teri Tobias Agency to represent rights to their titles outside of North America.

Poets Kay Ryan and A.E. Stallings, journalist Peter Hessler and historian Jacob Soll are among the 22 newly-named 2011 MacArthur Fellows, receiving $500,000 over a period of 5 years.
Full List

In other announcements, Turkey will the “market focus” country at the London Book Fair in 2013. General Director of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Onur Bilge Kula says in the announcement: “The London Book Fair will be a good stage in which Turkish literature and publishing sector can show their strength, creativity and dynamism to help increase their market share in the English speaking world.” They will also use the fair to promote their TEDA translation project said to have “subsidized almost 1,000 publishers, including some British publishers, around the world. We hope that more British publishers will apply to be part of the TEDA Project in the run-up and during LBF 2013 Market Focus Turkey.”

Finally, there’s an oddity to share. Having logged about a dozen college campus tours in the last six months, I can assure you that one of stock elements is to point out a building (usually, but not always, a dining hall) and insist that it was part of the inspiration for the depiction of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. But Oxford University has gone a step further, and is launching a line of licensed furniture. The Telegraph, which has seen the style guide being provided to prospective licensees, says that a refectory table in The Oxford Collection is described as a “Harry Potter-style dining table.” The paper adds, in tour-worthy style, “many of the scenes set in the Great Hall of Hogwarts in the blockbuster wizarding franchise were filmed in Christ Church’s dining hall.” But if Oxford is using Potter to market their products, they can expect to hear shortly from the loyal order of Cease & Desist (or at least Warner Bros.).

Filed Under: Authors, Awards, Book Fairs, Finance, Free, International News, Legal, Personnel

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