Hannah Carmack has joined Sourcebooks as events marketing specialist, while Ashlyn Keil has joined as author marketing associate. Misty Vernon has joined the digital marketing team as UX designer.
Kelly Van Sant joins Red Sofa Literary as of May 1. She was previously an agent at D4EO.
Alessandra Bastagli has left her position as editorial director of Nation Books.
At Holiday House, Raina Putter has joined as a managing editor. She previously worked at the Ingram Content Group as a client relations manager, and held positions at Random House Children’s, Hyperion Children’s, and Harlequin Books. Judy Varon will join as production manager starting May 1. She currently works part-time in production at the company, and previously worked at Hachette Book Group, Quad Graphics, and Bantam Doubleday Dell.
Founder John Blake and managing director Rosie Virgo are leaving John Blake Publishing, following the sale of the company to Bonnier Publishing in 2016. Kelly Ellis has been promoted to publishing director and will run the John Blake Publishing list, reporting to Ben Dunn, while continuing to acquire for Blink.
Rita Dove will serve as poetry editor for the New York Times Magazine, starting in June, selecting a new poem for each week’s publication. “I’m thrilled by the notion of introducing poems from new or forthcoming books,” said Dove.
The crisis at the Swedish Academy continues to worsen, as the organization indicated a seventh member wants to step down: “The Swedish Academy wants to inform that Sara Stridsberg told the academy on April 27 that she wishes to leave her duties as a member.” Stridsberg is said to have strongly supported former permanent secretary Sara Danius, who was trying to expel Katarina Frostenson (who later resigned). That leaves the 18-member body with only 10 active participants. Additional, Reuters notes “the financial crimes unit of the Swedish police said on Friday it had begun an investigation into the Swedish Academy.”
Awards
The James Beard Foundation presented their book awards across 13 categories on Friday night, with Michael Twitty‘s THE COOKING GENE: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South winning cookbook of the year honors, along with taking the prize in the writing category.