Former ceo of Atlantic Books Toby Mundy has established his own literary agency, Toby Mundy Associates. He will use Ed Victor Ltd.’s service operation Bedford Square Literary Management for “turn-key back-office service.” TMA is the first client for the new service.
Amazon cfo since 2002 Thomas Szkutak will retire from the company in June 2015. Brian Olsavsky, vp of finance for the company’s global consumer business, will take over.
Olga Massov has joined Phaidon in New York as project editor, food, reporting to Emily Takoudes.
Melanie DeNardo has joined Little, Brown Children’s as publicity director. Previously she was deputy director of publicity at Henry Holt. In addition, Hallie Patterson has been promoted to publicity manager.
Daniel Wikey has been promoted to associate marketing manager for Ten Speed Press, Watson-Guptill, and Amphoto Books.
Managing director of Penguin China Jo Lusby received a China Book Award for Special Contribution at the Beijing International Book Fair. The award recognizes sinologists, translators, writers, and publishers who have made great strides introducing Chinese culture to the world.
Edmison/Harper Literary Scouting has been appointed North American scout for Gallimard in France and Hanser in Germany.
In awards news, the National Book Foundation will give out its 2014 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Kyle Zimmer, co-founder, president, and ceo of FirstBook.
The Center for Fiction announced the shortlist for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize:
The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld (Harper)
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson (Ecco)
The Great Glass Sea by Josh Weil (Grove Press)
The Invention of Exile by Vanessa Manko (The Penguin Press)
Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique (Riverhead)
The Land of Steady Habits by Ted Thompson (Little, Brown)
We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas (Simon & Schuster)
The winner will be announced at the Center for Fiction’s annual benefit and awards dinner on December 9.
The 2014 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards have been awarded to Olivia Clare (fiction), Karen Hays (nonfiction), Danielle Jones-Pruett (poetry), T.L. Khleif (fiction), Mara Naselli (nonfiction), and Solmaz Sharif (poetry).