Harper Collins ANZ ceo James Kellow is stepping down after eight years in the role. Kellow joined the company in 2008 as sales director. Jim Demetriou will succeed him on March 3. He is currently group sales and marketing director at Allen & Unwin.
Harper Collins UK ceo Charlie Redmayne said of Kellow: “James is one of the most experienced people in the industry and I would like to thank him for the significant contribution he has made to the company and I wish him every success with his future plans.” He said of Demetriou, “Jim is widely respected across the industry and has an in-depth understanding of our business and the ANZ market. I am very pleased that he is returning to Harper Collins as CEO ANZ and I have complete confidence that he will expertly lead our operation in Australia and New Zealand and drive future growth.”
Kim Gray will join Simon & Schuster in the newly created position of vp, distribution client sales on February 3, leading the distribution client sales group that was established in December. Gray was most recently vp, director of trade sales & marketing at Reader’s Digest.
Mulholland Books/Little, Brown editor Emily Giglierano is leaving on January 31 to pursue other opportunities, including freelance editing.
Monet Stevens has joined Magination Press as assistant marketing manager. She was previously at Learning Without Tears.
Controversies
Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston cancelled its February 3 event for AMERICAN DIRT. Blue Willow owners wrote on their website, “After much consideration and discussion with the book’s publisher, our event with Jeanine Cummins has been cancelled. It was our hope to have a deep and meaningful conversation with her about the topics in American Dirt. Over the last several days, it became clear to us that we could not deliver the event we had envisioned.” A second event in Houston, on February and hosted by Conversations From A Page, remains on the tour schedule — as do five over events between now and then.
Separately, Donald Trump declared John Bolton’s manuscript for THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED as covering material “All Classified National Security.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the National Security Council told Politico the manuscript is still undergoing “pre-publication review” and said that “no White House personnel outside NSC have reviewed the manuscript.”
Awards
The PEN America Literary Awards announced their 2020 shortlists in a number of categories. The nominees for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award ($75,000) are:
The Undying, by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus)
Deaf Republic, by Ilya Kaminsky (Graywolf)
Where Reasons End, by Yiyun Li (Random House)
The World Doesn’t Require You, by Rion Amilcar Scott (Liveright)
Rusty Brown, by Chris Ware (Pantheon Graphic Library)
Up for the PEN/Hemingway Award For Debut Fiction:
Stay and Fight, by Madeline ffitch (Farrar, Straus)
99 Nights in Logar, by Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)
Big Familia, by Tomas Moniz (Acre Books)
The Travelers, by Regina Porter (Hogarth)
A Prayer for Travelers, by Ruchika Tomar (Riverhead)
In the UK, the overall Costa Award was given to biography winner THE VOLUNTEER: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather.
Imprints
A little over a year ago three experienced UK publishing execs and former colleagues at Bonnier Publishing launched a new book publisher called Blake Freeman Johnson — promising “an original cyber publishing concept” and an “entirely web based” company. The next day they announced a new name, Soho Friday Media. And now John Blake (founder of John Blake Publishing, sold to Bonnier in 2016), Derek Freeman (former co-owner and ceo of Octopus, and then executive chairman of Bonnier Publishing), and Richard Johnson (ceo of Bonnier Publishing from 2009 through March 2018) admit the company is no more.
Instead, Blake on his own is starting a nonfiction publisher, Ad Lib, which will share resources and publishing in partnership with Palazzo Editions. He tells the Bookseller, “Richard just got very busy and really didn’t have the time to devote to the company and without him it wouldn’t work.” Palazzo’s Jon Rippon is also leading the investor group funding Ad Lib.