Quirk Books has promoted Brett Cohen to president and Jason Rekulak as publisher, effective immediately. Rekulak has been at the company 13 years, most recently as editor-in-chief, while Cohen has been at Quirk for 12 years. In addition, David Borgenicht will assume the role of owner/CEO of Quirk Productions (the parent company of Quirk Books), with a focus on development partnerships in film, television, and digital media.
Borgenicht said about the double promotion: “Individually, Jason and Brett have brought their passion, ingenuity, and leadership to Quirk. Together, they have been the key players behind our ongoing growth and success. Jason and Brett fully embrace and embody Quirk’s mission to develop the most strikingly unconventional projects and bring them to market in a commercially viable manner. I’m excited to announce these promotions and what that means for the future of Quirk.”
Books-a-Million has nominated former Borders chief financial officer (from 2000 to 2009) Edward Wilhelm to serve as a director of the bookseller.
At Grand Central, Amanda Pritzker has been promoted to assistant director of publicity.
Ryan Chapman has joined the publishing start-up originally known as Brightline — which he now says will operate as Atavist Books, as associate director of marketing. Previously he was marketing director at Penguin Press. “Friends have asked the usual questions: when are the books coming out? Who are the authors? Is there a ping pong table in your office? For now I can only say: you’ll find out soon enough. I can confirm the ping pong.”
Diana Blough will join Random House Publisher Services as Imprint Sales Director with primary responsibility for the children’s publishers among their client group, along with looking after National Geographic Adult and Random House of Canada U.S. distribution.
At S&S Children’s, Matt Adamec has been promoted to senior designer, while Christina Pulles moves up to assistant editor.
JD Wilson has been named director of sales and marketing of the University of Alabama Press. Wilson is currently academic sales manager at Tuttle Publishing.