Keith Wallman has joined Diversion Books as senior editor. He was most recently senior editor at Lyons Press.
At Crown Publishing Group, Liz Wetzel has been promoted to publicity manager for Crown, Hogarth, Tim Duggan Books, and Broadway Books. Maya Lane moves up to associate publicist for Crown Archetype, Three Rivers Press, and Harmony.
Director of English PEN Jo Glanville will step down as in July, moving on to an honorary visiting fellowship at the Giessen University in Germany.
Author Alix Ohlin will become chair of the University of British Columbia’s creative writing program as of January 1, 2018. She has been an English professor at Lafayette College and taught at McGill University as the Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence for 2016-17. It’s the largest creative writing program in Canada, with 35 faculty and 5,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses.
Awards
Jose Eduardo Agualusa‘s A General Theory of Oblivion won the €100,000 International Dublin Literary Prize.
Peter Paret won the $100,000 Pritzker Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military writing.
Melanie Mah won Canada’s $75,000 Trillium Book Award for her debut novel The Sweetest One (Cormorant Books).
While it lasts, the National Endowment for the Arts has approved Poets & Writers, Inc. for an Art Works award of $75,000. The grant will support publication of six issues of their magazine, along with the development of new online content and improvements to their Directory of Poets and Writers. The NEA announced recipients of a total of $84 million in protected fiscal 2017 grants, with $1.3 million going specifically to 63 literature grants. $75,000 grants, the largest awarded, also went to the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, the Academy of American Poets, and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
Bookselling
Joe’s Place Bookstore in Greenville, SC will reopen in its new location on July 1. The new three-story space in a renovated 1920s house includes a new and used bookstore, coffee shop, and wine bar.