The literary director of Albert Bonniers Forlag in Sweden Jonas Axelsson has elected to step down, effective immediately. Associate publishing director of Bonnier Group’s trade publishing division Jesper Monthan will take over on aa temporary basis while a search is conducted. Axelsson has also resigned from his other responsibilities within the Bonnier Group, including leading the Bonnier Group Agency.
Frank Berrios has been promoted to editor for the Random House Children’s and Golden Books licensed publishing group, where Courtney Carbone has moved up to assistant editor.
The Costa Awards shortlists were announced across five categories. Booker winner Hilary Mantel is now favored to become the first person to win both prizes. Also nominated for the fiction honor are: Stephen May’s Life! Death! Prizes!; James Meek’s The Heart Broke In; and Joff Winterhart’s Days of the Bagnold Summer.
Competing for the first novel award are:
J W Ironmonger, The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder
Jess Richards, Snake Ropes
Francesca Segal, The Innocents
Benjamin Wood, The Bellwether Revivals
The Goddard Riverside Book Fair Gala honoring Michael Jacobs, postponed due to Hurricane Sandy, has been rescheduled for Thursday, January 31, 2013.
A collection of seven unpublished works from Kurt Vonnegut is being issued by Amazon Publishing as a Kindle serial (exclusively in ebook form), titled SUCKER’S PORTFOLIO. (The site says the program lets you “enjoy reading as the author creates the story.”) The first story was published Thursday; the final installment in the collection will be published on January 2.
In Canada, D&M Publishers has received a 45-day extension to file a proposal to creditors. now due January 4. The deadline for offers from purchasers or investors is November 25.