At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Sarah Creech has been promoted to associate art director for Simon Pulse and Tiara Iandiorio has been promoted to junior designer for Aladdin. Heather Palisi has joined as senior designer for Aladdin and Simon Pulse; she was most recently senior designer at Penguin Random House. Jess LaGreca has joined as art coordinator.
Kaitlyn Kennedy has joined Sourcebooks as director of marketing. She was previously publicity manager at Harper Collins.
At National Geographic Kids, Becky Baines has been promoted to vice president and editorial director; Kate Hale moves up to executive editor; Sally Abbey becomes director of editorial operations; Ariane Szu-Tu has been promoted to editor; Kathryn Williams moves up to associate editor; Michaela Weglinski become assistant editor; and Erica Green, formerly vice president and editorial director, will be leaving May 2.
Katy O’Donnell has been promoted to senior editor at Nation Books.
Senior agent and partner at The Blair Partnership Zoe King is leaving after seven years and will join AM Heath on June 18, focusing on representing commercial nonfiction.
At Viking and Penguin Books, Rebecca Marsh has been promoted to assistant director of publicity; Chris Smith moves up to senior publicist; and Brianna Linden is now publicist.
At Scott Manning & Associates, Abigail Welhouse has been promoted to publicity manager.
John Barber has been promoted to editor-in-chief at comic company IDW Publishing. He was group editor of Hasbro properties at IDW. Anita Frazier has joined the company as senior vice president of sales and marketing.
Ranked
Penguin Random House has taken the No. 1 spot for the first time in Forbes magazine’s rankings of America’s Best Midsize Employers (meaning companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees). The rankings are based on a survey, in which employees rate their own employer, and recommend companies outside of their own field. Last year PRH was No. 33 on the Forbes list. The No. 2 company is New Balance.
Forbes writes: “The company is celebrated by its workforce for being an employer that values freedom…. This culture of empowerment—coupled with unique benefits like a sabbatical program, student loan repayment assistance and, yes, free books—helps turn entry-level hires into lifetime employees.”
Bookselling
Co-owner and store manager of the Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA Dana Brigham will retire at the end of May, though she will remain an advisor and a member of the store’s board. Co-owners since 2015 and currently assistant managers Lisa Gozashti and Peter Win will take over as co-manager. Controller Tim Huggins will move up to chief financial officer.
Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan joined with two accountants to purchase the building in Coral Gables, FL that houses the chain’s flagship bookstore. The purchase price was $15 million, financed by a $9.6 million mortgage, and Kaplan owns 25 percent of the property.
Awards
Kevin J. Hayes won the $50,000 George Washington Prize for George Washington: A Life in Books.
Mark O’Connell was awarded the £30,000 Wellcome Book Prize for his debut To Be a Machine: Adventures among cyborgs, utopians, hackers and the futurists solving the modest problem of death.