Sam Im has been promoted to director, digital strategy & business development at Random House Children’s.
Adrienne Szpyrka has been promoted to editor at Sky Pony Press.
Rachel Zugschwert has joined Sparkhouse Family as director of marketing. Previously, she was marketing manager at Consortium.
In Amazon‘s continuing rollout of staffed “pickup locations” on college campuses, the company announced an agreement to open a facility at the University of Texas at Austin in summer 2016. (In January, they announced new locations for the University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley.
Obituary
Former literary agent Ginger Barber, 80, died peacefully at home on February 19. She founded the Virginia Barber Literary Agency in 1974, where her many well-known clients included Nobel Laureate Alice Munro. She sold the agency to William Morris in 2001. A memorial service will be held in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday, March 12.
Distribution
David C Cook sold its Canadian distribution division to the unit’s executive director Greg Tombs and financial director Hardy Willms, effective February 29. They will continue to distribute David C Cook’s products there. Separately, David C Cook Distribution Canada has acquired Augsburg Fortress’s Canadian distribution as well and will merge it into their operations to create what they call “the largest Protestant church resource distribution firm in Canada.”
Awards
Author of more than two dozen books, former chief rabbi of the UK’s United Hebrew Congregations Jonathan Sacks was awarded the $1.5 million Templeton Prize. His latest, Not In God’s Name, was published in October 2015.
Finally, Parragon and Wild & Wolf’s new cfo is Gavin Jones, correcting his last name.