ICM Partners promoted Rich Green to head of media rights (which sells book-to-film rights). He joined the agency in 2014. Co-heads of the publishing department Sloan Harris and Esther Newberg and fellow board member Kevin Crotty said in the announcement: “Intellectual property is the lifeblood of media in all formats. With Rich at the helm of our media rights department, we are poised to build on the strength of our publishing department, providing the best opportunities to expand the work of our clients.”
Additionally, Hillary Jacobson, Heather Karpas, and Zoe Sandler have each been promoted to agent in the New York publishing department. Motion picture agent Will Watkins moves over to media rights, and Lia Chan has been promoted to agent in the media rights unit.
At HMH, publisher of Clarion Books Dinah Stevenson will transition to editor-at-large, “to focus all my attention on the books.” The company will not name another person to the publisher position, with svp of HMH Children’s Cat Onder continuing to oversee the imprint.
Amanda Acevedo and Alia Almeida have both been promoted to marketing specialist at HMH Children’s.
At Random House, the marketing department is pursuing “a more dynamic structure to ensure our consumer is at the core of our marketing strategy,” with Leslie Prives promoted to new role of senior director of integrated marketing operations, continuing to report to Sanyu Dillon. She will spearhead a new integrated marketing operations team, whose heads will report to her, including: Annette Melvin, senior director of creative services; Grant Neumann, vice president of copy; Kyle Wilamowski, senior manager of audience development; and Erika Seyfried, assistant director of a new digital campaigns and media planning department. Additionally, Maxwell Minckler has been promoted to director of marketing insights and analytics.
Allison Schuster has been promoted to marketing manager for Ballantine Bantam Dell.
Senior vice president and group controller for Simon & Schuster Dave Upchurch will retire on July 7, after 27 years with the company. Deepak Daswani will succeed him in the role, starting June 5. He joins from Viacom, where he was most recently vice president of technical accounting.
Emma Komlos-Hrobsky, currently editor for Tin House magazine, will expand her role to also become associate editor for Tin House Books.
Beth Lieberman, formerly of NAL, Warner Books, Kensington, and Lieberman Editorial, has joined the Central Conference of American Rabbis Press as executive editor.
Founder of the Fact & Fiction bookstore in Missoula, Montana, Barbara Theroux will retire at the end of June after 40 years of bookselling business. Now owned by the not-for-profit Bookstore at the University of Montana, the store will be run by new manager Mara Panich-Crouch.
Forthcoming
Knopf Children’s will publish a middle-grade book Pakistani American Gold Star father Khizr Khan, THIS IS OUR CONSTITUTION, on November 14, releasing simultaneously with Khan’s memoir from Random House that was announced last November. The book “will extend Khan’s message to young readers, introducing them to the history and contents of the Constitution and Bill of Rights—what these documents say, and why they still matter.”
Awards
Peter Ho Davies won the Chautauqua Prize for The Fortunes.
Hisham Matar was awarded the UK’s revamped Folio Prize for The Return.
The twenty O. Henry Prize Stories for 2017 have been announced.