At Macmillan, Nora Flaherty has been promoted to the expanded role of vp, client publisher sales and distribution. She will oversee the entire third-party distribution area including sales, operations, business development and distribution.
Diana Gill will join Tor/Forge as executive editor. Previously she was executive editor at Berkley’s Ace and Roc imprints. Amy Sefton has also been named designer in the ad/promo department. Previously she was an in-house graphic designer and illustrator for BuzzFeed. In addition, the division announced a number of recent editorial promotions. At Tor, Liz Gorinsky and Miriam Weinberg are both promoted to senior editor; Jennifer Gunnels and Diana Pho move up to editor; Christopher Morgan is promoted to junior associate editor; and Melissa Singer moves up to manager, editorial operations. At Forge, Bess Cozby has been promoted to editor, while Elayne Becker moves up to junior associate editor. Finally, at Tor Teen, Whitney Ross has been promoted to senior editor, and Amy Stapp moves up to editor.
Elena Giovinazzo has been promoted to senior agent at Pippin Properties.
Adrienne Brodeur has been promoted to executive director of Aspen Words (formerly the Aspen Writers Foundation), the literary program of the Aspen Institute.
Mark Budde will join Lerner Universal Corporation as evp of operations on August 15. Most recently vp of operations at Miratec Systems, he has more than 25 years of experience in the printing and publishing industries.
Obituaries
Former Wiley ceo Stephen Smith, 61, died on July 10 of urological cancer. Smith retired from his position last year, and was first diagnosed shortly after taking over as the publisher’s chief executive in 2011. Mark Allin, who succeeded Smith as ceo, comments: “Steve fought bravely against cancer, never allowing the disease to dampen his natural spirit, energy and vitality. Steve was diagnosed at the very beginning of his tenure as ceo but worked with passion and commitment to make Wiley stronger for the future. He was a mentor to many of us, a leader for all of us and an inspiration to each of us.”
James Alan McPherson, 72, who was the first African-American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1978 for his collection Elbow Room, died Wednesday of respiratory failure and other complications. McPherson was a MacArthur Fellow and a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and spent many years as a professor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.