Independent Publishers Group announced a number of promotions: Alex Granato was promoted to editorial & subrights associate; Kristen Noon to senior A/R associate; Sam Ofman to senior publicist; Emily Parenti to content marketing coordinator; Stefani Szenda to marketing associate; Anna Torres to publisher development coordinator; Ethan Walles to A/P manager; Josh Williams to senior AQ editor; Clarissa Young to AQ Coordinator; and Jen Young to special sales rep. At their distribution center, Oskar Nogueda was promoted to print center supervisor and Mario Montenegro to replenishment coordinator.
Gary Thompson has been promoted to director at Dead Reckoning.
London’s Sunday Times had reported that poet Imtiaz Dharker was expected to be named the UK’s poet laureate — but the Guardian follows with Dharker declining to be considered: “I had to weigh the privacy I need to write poems against the demands of a public role. The poems won.”
Progressive Christian author of books including Faith Unraveled, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, Searching for Sunday and Inspired, Rachel Held Evans, 37, died Saturday at a Nashville hospital from brain swelling. Her husband Dan wrote on her website, “Rachel’s presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her.” Evans had sold two additional books to Harper One in January, and her agent Rachelle Gardner tells us, “We will have news at a later time about Rachel’s yet-to-be-published work.”
In a statement, Gardner recalls, “Rachel’s strong mind and her bravery in calling out injustice captured me from our first correspondence in 2008. I signed her for representation quickly after reading her book proposal for Evolving in Monkey Town, with a strong sense that this was a game changer…. Her commitment to speaking her truth has changed the lives of countless Christians who may have otherwise walked away from faith, and her generosity in sharing her platform has given rise to dozens of authors who are publishing today thanks to Rachel’s leadership. This is a tremendous loss to the publishing community, and I will miss her dearly as both as a client and a treasured friend.”
Awards
Patti Smith’s Just Kids is the 2019 pick for the One Book, One New York book club.