Publisher of the Red Wheel/Weiser imprints since November 2000 Jan Johnson is stepping aside from day-to-day management responsibilities to become publisher emerita. Johnson says, “I’ve worked in book publishing since 1972, which kind of seems like the dark ages now. There have been so many exciting and unforeseeable changes over the past four decades. I’m looking forward to discovering new ways of doing things and finding new projects to pursue.”
President Michael Kerber “will be taking a more direct role in the publishing program, along with Caroline Pincus and Greg Brandenburgh, associate publishers, who will continue and expand their roles in acquisition and operations.”
Dan Kirschen has been promoted to agent at ICM, where he has worked since 2010.
Elizabeth Bennett will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s on September 19 as executive editor, franchise publishing, based in Boston. She was most recently with Studio Fun (previously known as Reader’s Digest Children’s Books).
Maggie Tokuda-Hall is joining Chronicle Books as marketing manager, children’s on September 24. She was previously Books Inc.’s children’s director of marketing and events for the last four years.
Harper Christian has hired Kathy Armistead, Ph.D. as associate publisher of study resources. She was at Abingdon Press for 14 years, most recently serving as the lead editor for Bible, leadership and theology. She will report to another new hire, John Kramp, when he joins the organization as SVP of the Bible Group on October 1.
Anne Rumberger is joining Verso Books as marketing manager—she was previously at The Experiment, and Seven Stories Press. Rachel Rosenfelt, co-founder and publisher of The New Inquiry, is joining Verso as creative director.
Sophie Hamley will join Hachette Australia on October 20 as nonfiction publisher, focusing on narrative non-fiction including biography, memoir, music and pop culture. She spent the past eight years as a literary agent, most recently with the Cameron Cresswell Agency.