At Farrar, Straus, longtime senior vice president, director of marketing and publicity Jeff Seroy “has decided to relinquish” those responsibilities as of July 1, publisher Mitzi Angel writes, after almost 25 years. He will become svp, director of special projects, still “handling a select group of key publicity campaigns, working closely with some of FSG’s core authors on forthcoming projects,” as well as acquiring and editing books on the performing arts and spiritual health. Jonathan Galassi, president, said, “Jeff and I have collaborated closely for twenty-five years, and so much of the success of FSG’s list has been due to his shrewd, steady, and genial stewardship. I look forward to continuing to work closely with him moving forward.”
Bess Braswell will join Harlequin as publishing director for YA imprint Inkyard Press, starting May 13. She was previously at Harper Children’s.
James Abbate has been promoted to assistant editor at Kensington.
At Laura Dail Literary Agency, Samantha Fabien has been promoted to literary agent in addition to her role as international rights manager.
In the UK, Wayne Davies will join Welbeck Publishing Group as group publisher, nonfiction beginning next week. He was previously was co-founder and nonfiction publisher at Quercus. Alex Allan joins as interim group publisher, children’s starting today. Allan previously led the publishing team for DK.
In turn, Russell McLean will leave Carlton Books (now owned by Welbeck) to return to Kingfisher, now as publisher, in July. He will target growing sales in the US, and in export and co-edition markets.
Ziad El-Assad will join WH Smith as senior vice president of business development, USA. His responsibilities will include leading WH Smith’s travel retail expansion within the United States. He was previously vice president of business development for airport concessions business NewsLink Group and a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley.
Awards
The NYPL announced the new class of Cullman Center Fellows, including fiction writers Mitchell S. Jackson, Sana Krasikov, Ben Marcus, and Sally Rooney.
Lebanese author Hoda Barakat won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for The Night Mail, which the stories of exiled people in letter form. The prize includes funding for an English translation, and Oneworld in the UK has licensed those rights and will publish in 2020.
Bookselling
Barnes & Noble opens their smallest new store yet today in Fairfax, VA‘s Mosaic District. The 8,600-square-foot store will carry 24,000 titles.