A Public Space editor Brigid Hughes will join Graywolf Press as contributing editor as part of a new collaborative venture between the literary magazine and the publishing house. Graywolf plans to publish two A Public Space books per year, to be chosen and edited by Hughes, with “A Public Space Book” printed on the back cover and in the interior. The inaugural book will be selected in the coming months. “The collaboration is a natural extension of our work with writers in A Public Space—it will be wonderful to stay involved in a piece that starts in our pages as it progresses to a full length-book to be published by Graywolf, one of the great independent presses in the country,” Hughes said in a statement.
Marc Adelman has joined Rodale Books as a contributing editor, where he will be responsible for generating book concepts and developing partnerships with newsmakers and tastemakers to tell their stories in book form. He runs Adelmania Consulting, which specializes in public affairs management and strategic planning for corporations, non-profits and foundations.
Hannah Westland will leave Rogers, Coleridge & White, where she has worked for 9 years, to join Profile Books’ unit Serpent’s Tail as publisher in April. She will report to Daniel Crewe.
Karen Boertsma has joined OwlKids Press as publisher, effective March 5. She was most recently vp, publisher of Kids Can Press.
Owner of That Bookstore In Blytheville Mary Gay Shipley has filed papers to run for a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Earlier this month Shipley told patrons she was putting the bookstore up for sale
This fall, Unieboek/Het Spectrum in the Netherlands will relaunch its former literary imprint Agathon, focusing on nine titles a year, starting with Liza Klaussmann’s Tigers in Red Weather. Diana Gvozden has been appointed publisher of the imprint, while continuing as commissioning editor for Van Holkema & Warendorf.
Random House has noted the death of George Fisher, 60, on February 22. He retired from his position as vp, director, adult mass merchandise sales at Random House in 2008 after 35 years in publishing sales, then serving as evp of book category development for Mercury Retail Services, a News Corp. unit. Random House president of sales, operations and digital Madeline McIntosh wrote to employees, “I have never met anyone in any part of our business more passionate about books, or more devoted to the mission of bringing publishers and customers together. It was a mission at which he was incredibly effective…. The reps, the customers, the publishers, and the authors – he celebrated all of our achievements, encouraged our aspirations, and kept us all focused on the most important goal: bringing books to readers.”
Jan Berenstain, co-creator of The Berenstain Bears, died at age 88 after suffering “a severe stroke” on Friday. The first of over 300 Berenstain Bears titles was published in 1962. (Husband and co-creator Stan Berenstain died in 2005.) “It’s wonderful to do something you love for so many years,” Jan told the AP in 2011. “Not everyone has that.”