Mary McCue has been promoted to director of publicity at Random House Children’s.
At Holiday House, Emily Mannon has been promoted to marketing coordinator. Emily Campisano has been promoted to associate publicist.
The Association of American University Presses has formally changed its name to the Association of University Presses (AUPresses). Executive Director Peter Berkery comments in the announcement, “Updating our name is simultaneously a return to roots and a flowering outwards, embracing what makes our members so essential to scholarly, civic, and cultural life.”
In the UK, The Good Agency, a literary agency founded by Julia Kingsford and editor of The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla, has been awarded £581,542 from the National Lottery-funded Ambition for Excellence program, to support three years of activity. The new agency intends to “identify, nurture and promote…exceptional” author who identify as black and minority ethnic, working class, disabled or LGBTQ.
Update
Spiegel & Grau, publisher of Avedon: Something Personal by Norma Stevens and Steven Aronson, commented on Thursday afternoon on the call from the Avedon Foundation that they cease publication of the book due to “alleged factual inaccuracies.” They said “we will examine the claimed inaccuracies and make any appropriate corrections in future printings.”
At the same time, however, the statement declares: “Avedon himself, in his last will, appointed Norma Stevens as the founding director of his Foundation, thereby entrusting his legacy to her. The book is an important and meaningful account by the person who was in a privileged position to observe and know Richard Avedon as well as anybody else and to reflect on him. Furthermore, the book is not a traditional biography. As the flap copy says, the book is ‘equal parts memoir, biography, and oral history.’ It consists in large measure of impressions—those of his close friend and business partner Norma Stevens, as well as those of over a hundred other people who knew him well and contributed their own memories and impressions. The story she tells recounts the tales he told her in the almost thirty years she worked alongside him.”
Harassment Files
WNYC fired talk-show host Leonard Lopate, along with Jonathan Schwartz, following a two week suspension. WNYC spokesperson Jennifer Houlihan Roussel said in a statement, “These investigations found that each individual had violated our standards for providing an inclusive, appropriate, and respectful work environment.” Lopate told WNYC the decision was “unjust” and he was “really sad and totally shocked.”
WNYC reports filed their own investigative report, separate from the station’s official statement, asserting that “WNYC News has learned of four individuals who have complained to management about Lopate in 2017.” That program will be called Midday on WNYC for now and “feature a variety of hosts interviewing newsmakers, writers and artists” in a “similar” format.
Holiday Notes
We’ll be stepping back, but not stepping away completely, while you enjoy your holiday break. Publishers Lunch Deluxe will return at least once late next week to stay on top of things and to share still more year-end round-ups, and there will be one more weekly deal round-up on the way — but the daily deals mail will become less daily, based on submissions. News will be posted to lunch.publishersmarketplace.com as merited; deals will still be posted as received, though it will take us a little longer; and our Automat tracks news headlines from hundreds of sources automatically, all the time.
If you have not loaded our handy News App to your mobile device, try it now — go to m.publishersmarketplace.com — as an easy way of scanning anything new at the site.
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