Editorial director of Bloomsbury Children’s UK Emma Matthewson will join Hot Key Books at a date “to be confirmed” as editor-at-large for their recently launched fiction line for 9- to 19 year-olds. Matthewson has been at Bloomsbury for the 15 years; the move reunites her with Sarah Odedina, who was publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s before moving to Bonnier to start up Hot Key Books.
At Basic Books, TJ Kelleher has been promoted to senior executive editor, Tisse Takagi and Alex Littlefield move up to editor, and Katy O’Donnell has been promoted to assistant editor.
Bloomsbury cfo Robert Marsh, who came to the company with Continuum following that acquisition, is moving to Rowman and Littlefield as evp of finance and operations.
Yassine Belkacemi has joined Dystel & Goderich Literary Management as project manager for their ebook program.
On the World Book Night US’s board of directors, Grove Atlantic’s Elisabeth Schmitz will take Morgan Entrekin’s seat, and Michael Pietsch of Hachette Book Group will take over from Entrekin as chairman. Suzanne Herz of Doubleday is taking Madeline McIntosh’s seat.
Liz Gately has been hired to scout for Lumen/Skolska Knjiga in Croatia.
In awards news, Junot Díaz and Dinaw Mengestu (both Riverhead authors) are among the 23 new MacArthur Foundation fellows.
Calvin Trillin won the Thurber Prize for American Humor for his book, Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff.
The Giller Prize announced their shortlist of five Monday, including Alix Ohlin, Will Ferguson, and Kim Thuy. The winner will be announced on October 30. On the rights front, favorite Ferguson’s 419 and journalist Russell Wangersky’s WHIRL AWAY are the two titles for which we cannot find an announced US publisher.
And the Governor General’s Literary Award announced the finalists in a number of categories, with Vincent Lam, Linda Spalding, and Robert Hough among the fiction nominees. There, Carrie Snyder’s THE JULIET STORIES seems to be the one nominee without an announced US publisher.