Rich Thomas will join HarperCollins Children’s as vice president and publishing director, reporting to Kate Jackson. He was most recently associate publisher and editorial director for Disney Publishing Worldwide. At HarperCollins Children’s, he will lead the Festival, I Can Read, and licensing programs.
Jane Starr Literary Scouts has been appointed US scout for Vigmostad & Bjoerke in Norway.
Awards
Granta has announced its Best of Young American Novelists list, released with a special issue every ten years. The list includes 21 names selected this year by Patrick deWitt, A.M. Homes, Kelly Link, Ben Marcus and Granta’s editor and publisher Sigrid Rausing. Among the winners are novelists with multiple books out, including Lauren Groff, Ben Lerner, and Jesse Ball, as well as a number of authors with recent debuts, including Emma Cline, Yaa Gyasi, and Garth Risk Hallberg. The accompanying issue of the magazine will be published May 4.
In Australia, Marija Pericic’s novel The Lost Pages won the Vogel’s Literary Award.
Nathaniel Philbrick won the George Washington Prize for Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution (Viking). The $50,000 prize honors the year’s best book on the nation’s founding era.
A Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan won the $50,000 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Seven editors and agents from the U.S. and Canada have been named Zev Birger Jerusalem International Book Fair Fellows and will participate in special programs and seminars at the 28th biennial Jerusalem International Book Fair, June 11-15:
Anna deVries, Picador/Macmillan
Erin Edmison, Edmison Harper Literary Scouting
Noah Eaker, Random House
Alexander Littlefield, HoughtonMifflinHarcourt
Marleen Seegers, 2 Seas Literary Agency
Melanie Tortoroli, Viking/Penguin
Janie Yoon, House of Anansi Press