Larry Kirshbaum will join the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency as a senior agent starting February 24, the WSJ reported. Scott Waxman says, "He'll be an independent agent building his own list like every agent does. I've always admired Larry and our team is extremely fortunate to have him as a colleague." Kirshbaum was an agent for his own firm, LJK Literary Management, between 2005 and mid-2011. (His former colleagues at that agency reconstituted as the Einstein Thompson Agency when Kirshbaum joined Amazon Publishing in 2011.)
Macmillan vp, director of international sales Judith Sisko will retire after this year's London Book Fair after more than 22 years with the company and 46 years in publishing. Prior to Macmillan, Sisko worked at Henry Holt, WH Smith and Simon & Schuster.
At Clarkson Potter, Jessica Freeman-Slade has been promoted to associate editor, and Camaren Subiyah has been promoted to associate editor at Potter Style.
At FSG, Christopher Richards and Taylor Sperry have both been promoted to assistant editor.
At Macmillan, Elizabeth Rine has been promoted to sales associate, Special Sales.
Stephen Colbert's AMERICA AGAIN won the Spoken Word Grammy award. He declared, "Winning this Grammy proves I am the greatest word-spoker on the planet. Just imagine if I could read!"
Stephen King tweeted an enthusiastic endorsement of CJ Sansom's just-published DOMINION: "That book DOMINION is terrific. And no, this isn't one of those publisher-sponsored blurbs. I just fell in love with it. Nice and long, too."
If you come across a publisher called Kingswell in listings of forthcoming books -- such as Ron Suskind's April memoir, LIFE, ANIMATED -- it's a working title for the modest line of adult books that Disney Publishing Group will continue to issue after selling nearly all of Hyperion to Hachette Book Group. (Disney was first located on Kingswell Avenue in Los Angeles -- before moving to Hyperion Avenue.) Publicity director Seale Ballenger tells us it's "a placeholder name we are currently working with," though they "are considering other names in addition to that one."
