Haley Swanson has joined Harper and Harper Wave as assistant editor. She was an editorial assistant at Viking.
KF Literary Scouting has been appointed YA and children’s scout for Record in Brazil and Urano in Spain and Latin America.
Imprints
Penguin Random House UK is launching a new imprint with English rapper Stormzy called #Merky Books. The imprint will be a partnership with William Heinemann, and publish two to three titles a year across fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The first title will be Stormzy’s own book Rise Up, planned for this November. Susan Sandon, managing director of Cornerstone at Penguin Random House UK, said: “Stormzy is an artist who has achieved an extraordinary level of success on his own terms, and created a new model in music for others to follow. #Merky Books is a channel for another of his passions, and an initiative that we hope will have a similar impact on the book world: helping to open up publishing for a new generation of writers and readers. We are all extremely proud to be working with him and the team on such an exciting and important venture.”
Harassment Files
James Dashner posted on Twitter that he is working on his first new project since he was dropped by agent Michael Bourret and publisher Penguin Random House in February following misconduct allegations. He wrote, “I’m writing a book from scratch, with no input or guidance from agents or editors or publishers. First time in 15 years I’ve done this. It’s spectacularly fun and invigorating. I hope something special comes out of this…”