Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham wrote to staff that executive editor David Hirshey “has decided to relocate to Los Angeles where his daughter is pursuing a career as a TV writer and is soon to be married.” He will leave the publisher on June 17 after nearly 18 years with the company. Burnham notes, “We wish David the very best for his new life in California. We also thank him for all his many contributions to Harper.”
In other personnel news, Amazon’s country manager for China Doug Gurr will return to the UK to take over as head of the company’s business there in late May, when Christopher North departs to become ceo of Shutterfly. Gurr join Amazon in the UK in 2011 as vp of their hardlines division, after serving as an executive at supermarket chain Asda.
At Abrams, Paul Colarusso has been promoted to associate director of marketing, adult books, while Kate Lesko moves up to associate marketing manager. In addition, Meredith Clark recently joined Abrams as managing editor for Noterie, & calendars. Clark was most recently a project manager at Johnson & Johnson. Finally, Garrett McGrath recently joined as associate editor, adult books. Previously he was an editorial assistant at Little, Brown.
Awards
The James Beard Foundation presented their annual book, broadcast and journalism awards, including prizes in over a dozen cookbook categories. Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook’s Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking won “book of the year” and J. Kenji López-Alt’s The Food Lab received the award for general cooking.
Cathleen Richardson Bailey has been named the first recipient of the Charlotte Sheedy Fellowship at The MacDowell Colony — created to support one writer each year “whose work represents populations across racial and cultural boundaries.”
Announcements
Kobo is expanding into Turkey, partnering with the country’s largest book and media retailer D&R. Their localized ebookstore offers 15,000 Turkish-language ebooks, as part of Kobo’s global catalog of 4.7 million titles.