Melanie Cecka will join Knopf Children’s on August 20 as associate publishing director, reporting to Nancy Hinkel. Most recently she was publishing director at Bloomsbury Children’s, and she began her career at Random House, first as an editorial assistant at Villard Books before moving into children’s books.
Random House svp, director, international sales and marketing Cyrus Kheradi will take on the additional duties of director for East Asia business development. He will focus on greater China and the English-speaking markets of Southeast Asia to “identify opportunities for corporate investment, print and digital publishing and licensing agreements, and brand extensions.”
Sonya Cheuse has joined Grand Central as associate director of publicity. Previously she was publicity manager at Viking Penguin.
Rebecca Hunt has joined Harlequin Nonfiction as editor. She was most recently associate editor at Penguin.
After the firing of the director and sole employee at the University of New Orleans Press, a school spokesperson told the local paper, “The UNO Press is not being closed. It is on a brief hiatus, during which time it will be accepting no new manuscripts while the administration reviews the UNO Press’ business plan. The UNO Press plays an important role as a publisher of scholarly and literary books, and we hope it will return to full operation soon. All contracts that have been issued will be honored.”
Activist Kathleen DeBold has been named administrator of the Lambda Literary Awards and will oversee the submissions and judging process. She has been a longtime judge for the awards, and has more than 30 years of non-profit experience including service as executive director of Mautner Project, the National Lesbian Health Organization, interim executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and deputy director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
Brilliance Audio acquisitions editor John Grace has left the company. He can be contacted at john@johnrgrace.com.
What do you listen to while reading the 50 Shades… trilogy? As of August 21, you can put on “Fifty Shades of Grey – The Classical Album,” with 15 tracks of classical music “personally selected by author EL James herself and referenced” in the books, from EMI Classics. The announcement notes that “the books’various references to classical music have spurred sales of the pieces mentioned – even going so far as to cause Spem in Alium, a 16th century motet for 40 voices by Thomas Tallis, to jump to the top of the classical charts in the UK.”