Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for the New York Times, is stepping down from that position after 38 years. She says she is “moving on to focus on longer pieces about politics and culture, though I will always love and write about books.” (Vanity Fair indicates she is among those taking a voluntary buyout from the paper, which the NYT neglects to include in their own reporting.) Kakutani joined the books desk in 1983, and in 1998 she won a Pulitzer “for her passionate, intelligent writing on books and contemporary literature.” As editor Pamela Paul and editorial director Radhika Jones say […]
Archives for July 2017
People, Etc.
At Sourcebooks, Stephanie Lewis has been promoted to business data manager; Drew French has been promoted to sales data associate. Nick Lindsay has been promoted to director of journals and open access for MIT Press. Sarah Baline will join Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press as events coordinator starting August 14. Most recently, she was events coordinator for East City Books in Washington, D.C. At Random House Children’s, Shay Brown has been promoted to production coordinator and Alice Rahaeuser has been promoted to production supervisor. At Ingram Content Group: Tricia Racke Bengel has joined as library sales and services manager for Ingram Library Services (she was […]
Whitehead and Roy Among the Booker Longlisted
The Booker Prize announce their longlist for this year’s award, and less than a year after Paul Beatty became the first American to win the award, four more Americans are in contention, led by Colson Whitehead’s National Book Award and Pulitzer-winning The Underground Railroad, along with: Paul Auster, 4 3 2 1 (Holt/Faber & Faber) Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves (Grove/Weidenfeld & Nicolson) George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House/Bloomsbury) The longlist also features Booker winner Arundhati Roy, in contention again for The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness (Knopf; Hamish Hamilton), and previous nominees Sebastian Barry for Days Without End (Penguin/Faber & Faber); Mohsin Hamid for Exit West (Riverhead/Hamish Hamilton); […]
People, Etc.
At Scholastic Trade, Megan Peace has been promoted to associate editor. Mara Lander has joined as senior marketing director for licensed publishing and brand management. She was previously executive director for licensing and brand management for Little, Brown Children’s. Sarah Jacobson has joined Scholastic as assistant production editor. Most recently, she was freelancing at Scholastic and has held previous positions at Melville House and Kennebec Publishing. Carolyn Bull has joined as designer for licensed publishing. She was previously junior designer at Little, Brown Children’s. Marian Brown will join Henry Holt as a publicist at large. Previously, she was executive publicist for Blue Rider Press. At Little, Brown Children’s, Anna […]
August Library Reads, and More
Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin tops August’s Library Reads list. Also on the list is Leah Weiss’s If The Creek Don’t Rise, featured in our August Buzz Books Monthly sampler, available for download now on Amazon, iBooks, and NetGalley. The rest of the list includes: Glass Houses, by Louise Penny How To Find Love In a Bookshop, by Veronica Henry Reincarnation Blues, by Michael Poore, Morningstar, by Ann Hood The Address, by Fiona Davis Emma In The Night, Wendy Walker The Burning Girl, by Claire Messud, The Clockwork Dynasty, Daniel Wilson In other recommendations, Stephen King tweeted this endorsement on Monday, of MY ABSOLUTE DARLING, by Gabriel Tallent: “This […]
Activist Investor Is Sure Someone (Else) Should Take Barnes & Noble Private
Another activist investor, Sandell Capital Management, has looked at Barnes & Noble’s beaten down share price and become convinced that with some agitation a private buyer will come forward. The campaign is happening via press release, with Sandell publishing its letter to the BN board asking the company to hire an investment banker to go find someone willing to take the bookseller private. They are convinced a private buyer would like to pay $12 a share or more (or about $900 million), after BKS shares dipped below $7 a share during yesterday’s trading. The immediate effect is that the stock […]