Lonely Planet recently announced a number of promotions and new hires. Leslie Davisson has been promoted to director, trade channel marketing and national accounts, while Gerilyn Attebery moves up to senior design manager and Rana Freedman has been promoted to senior manager, consumer marketing and communications. Jennifer Pentes has joined as production lead overseeing the new US-based Client Solutions delivery team. Previously she was assistant director, creative services and marketing, at Sundance Institute. Rachel Berg has been named content producer, previously principal of editorial & promotional content at Travelocity. Finally, Clare Chadwick has moved from Lonely Planet’s Melbourne office to the Oakland office as UI designer.
Jared Bland will join Toronto’s Globe & Mail newspaper as books editor. Previously he was fiction and poetry editor at House of Anansi Press. In addition, Lisan Jutras has been appointed deputy editor for the section.
The PEN World Voices festival, scheduled for April 29-May 5, announced its roster of authors and a preliminary program schedule, centered around a theme of bravery. Among the more than 100 participating writers are Vaddey Ratner, Charles Simic, Tea Obreht, Aleksandr Hemon, Fran Lebowitz, and Jamaica Kincaid.
After admitting last year that a second edition of World Book Night in Germany was “a bit unclear” because of funding “complications,” WBN officials now acknowledge that the German initiative will take the year off. WBN chief executive Julia Kingsford tells the Bookseller that “obviously it is sad not to have Germany involved this year, but it is a difficult time economically for everyone and we have to respect their own situation. We are still talking to other prospective partners internationally and we are hopeful of additional partners for 2014, but the global economic outlook is complicated, particularly for the industry, and it doesn’t necessarily lead to an easy funding situation for anyone.”
A federal court in Boston awarded Patricia Cornwell $50.9 million in damages in the conclusion of a lawsuit filed in 2009 against her former money manager Evan Snapper and his firm Anchin, Block and Achin, accused of siphoning off millions of dollars from Cornwell and fraudulently writing checks on her behalf. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Cornwell said the civil suit has “just been harrowing, but we felt we needed to do the right thing, we needed to fight.” The civil trial took place over the past seven weeks (which included Cornwell’s testimony) . As part of a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Judge George O’Toole “will decide whether Anchin violated consumer protection laws, which would allow him to perhaps even triple the jury’s verdict.” Snapper told the paper he was “very disappointed” with the verdict and Anchin released a statement saying “for more than 90 years, the professionals at Anchin have built a reputation for honesty and integrity. The firm will endure despite today’s outcome.”