Julia Kardon joins Mary Evans as a foreign rights director and agent. Previously she was an agent at Sterling Lord Literistic.
At Hachette Book Group, Sophie Cottrell has been promoted to svp, corporate communications.
Amanda Englander has joined Clarkson Potter and Potter Style as associate editor. Previously she was an editorial assistant at Grand Central.
At Chronicle Books, Ben Laramie has been promoted to senior industrial designer; April Whitney moves up to senior publicist, Entertainment; and Lisa Tauber has been promoted to associate editor.
Bloomsbury UK’s director of trade marketing and publicity Katie Bond has “taken voluntary redundancy and [is] looking forward to the next adventure” after 14 years with the company. Her position is being eliminated as part of a restructuring, with the department to be overseen by group sales and marketing director Kathleen Farrar.
Barnes & Noble announced the winners of the 2013 Discover Great New Writers Awards, presented Wednesday afternoon in a private ceremony. Anthony Marra won the fiction prize for his debut novel A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA (Hogarth), while Justin St. Germain took the nonfiction category for his memoir SON OF A GUN (Random House).
George Saunders won the Story Prize for THE TENTH OF DECEMBER (Random House).
The Amazon.ca First Novel Award announced its finalists, including Kenneth Bonert’s THE LION SEEKER. (Bonert was a 2013 Fall/Winter Buzz Book; Marra was featuring in our 2013 Spring/Summer Buzz Book.)
In distribution news, India-based feminist publishing house Zubaan Books has paired with Diversion Books for worldwide ebook distribution of their full English-language list, starting with the 45 titles this week.
Fordham University Press editorial director Helen Tartar died in a car accident. Press director Fred Nachbaur writes: “Helen was one of the most passionate and dedicated editors in the academic publishing community…. I was in awe of her tireless commitment to enhancing scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and her ability to attract a devout group of authors impressed with her adept editorial skills and intellectual conversations.”