Nick Amphlett has been promoted to associate editor at William Morrow.
Kendra Newton has been promoted to marketing director for Dey Street Books.
Eugenia Pakalik has joined Chronicle Books as director of trade sales (she was director of sales and operations and distributions services for Norton). Becca Hunt has joined as senior editor of entertainment (she was a senior editor for Harper Design), and Marie Oishi has been promoted to managing editor for food and lifestyle.
Michael Strother will join Little, Brown Children’s as editor on June 26. Most recently, he was an editor at Harlequin Teen.
Giovanni Dutto will join Harper Italy as commercial director, starting August 1. Dutto will report to Laura Donnini and be responsible for commercial development, including operations and marketing, as well as sales in trade channels. Previously, he was marketing and operations director at Mondadori Libri.
Ulrich Zimmermann has joined Bastei Luebbe in Germany as chief financial officer.
Beth Staples has been promoted to editor for Lookout Books and senior editor for the Ecotone magazine, both products of the Publishing Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Publishers Weekly reports that children’s graphic novel publisher Papercutz laid off two staff members prior to Book Expo, including the vp of marketing.
Chicago Review Press has acquired the 11 titles in the Bright Ideas for Learning children’s art resource series, originally published by Bright Ring Publishing, effective July 1. IPG will continue to distribute the titles, now under the Chicago Review Press imprint, with publisher Cynthia Sherry overseeing.
In a Sourcebooks contest, bookseller Tubby and Coo’s in New Orleans, LA received the most votes as bookstore most likely to “Survive the Blackout,” and White Birch Books in Conway, NH ran the most creative campaign with videos of staff “surviving.” Both stores won a $2,000 prize, supporting the release of Marc Elsberg’s Blackout earlier in June.
The Frankfurt Book Fair announced that Wajdi Mouawad, currently director of the Theatre national de la Colline in Paris, is expected as literary speaker at the opening of the fair in October, when France will be the “guest of honor.” The country’s extensive presentation on the fairgrounds is called “a three-dimensional Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art that allows visitors to experience the great range of French-language literature.”