Lorin Stein will once again edit books for Farrar, Straus, as editor-at-large — while continuing to work full-time as editor of the Paris Review, which he joined in 2010 after 12 years at FSG. The plan is for Stein to edit four to eight books, by such authors as Ben Lerner, Richard Price, Lydia Davis, and Donald Antrim. “I’m delighted to have a foot in the book business and to work on longer projects with writers and colleagues I admire so much,” Stein said in the announcement. “My commitment to The Paris Review, and for scouting out what is best and most original in short fiction, essays, and poetry, remains stronger than ever.”
At Ten Speed Press, Kaitlin Ketchum has been promoted to editor.
Cathy Felgar joined the Columbia University Press as director of editing, design, and production on September 14. She was publishing operations director at HarperCollins, after a number of years at Cambridge University Press.
Jonathan Blitzer writes in The New Yorker on the late Carmen Balcells, “the woman behind Latin America’s literary boom.” He notes, “Her protectiveness was maternal, but the goading was something different, the hawkish certitude of a visionary businesswoman.”
Awards
Author of Between the World and Me and Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates, poet and novelist Ben Lerner, poet Ellen Bryan Voigt, and creator and star of Hamilton: the Musical (based on Ron Chernow’s book) Lin-Manuel Miranda are among the new class of 24 MacArthur Foundation fellows.
The Thurber Prize for American Humor was awarded to Julie Schumacher for her novel Dear Committee Members (Doubleday).
The October Pennie’s Pick at Costco is Brian Payton‘s The Wind Is Not A River.
Distribution
Plata Publishing will now be distributed digitally by Constellation Books, extending the company’s longstanding print distribution partnership with Perseus Distribution.
New Feature
NetGalley has added “wish granting” — so that when people “wish” for digital galleys they are not authorized to formally “request,” publishers can grant wishes and provide galley access to randomly-selected members.