People, Etc. - Publishers Lunch

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s, Margaret Raymo has been promoted to senior editorial director of Versify and BFYR. Emilia Rhodes becomes editorial director of Etch and BFYR. Erika Turner moves up to senior editor at Versify. Chris Krones has been promoted to editor. Gabriella Abbate and Elizabeth Agyemang each become editorial associate. Tara Shanahan has been promoted to associate director of publicity and Anna Ravenelle to publicity associate.

Matt Holt has joined BenBella as editor in chief of a new Matt Holt Books imprint. He was previously senior vice president and executive publisher at Wiley.

Kaitlin Loss has joined Macmillan Children’s as assistant manager, subsidiary rights. She was previously rights associate at Harper Collins Children’s.

Emmy Nordstrom Higdon has joined The Rights Factory as assistant agent. They were previously with Books Beyond Binaries, a member of the planning team for the Festival of Literary Diversity, and are in the final stages of completing their PhD.

Obituaries
Former vp, director of subsidiary rights at Simon & Schuster for 35 years, Marcella Berger died on Monday night. She retired from S&S in 2011, and “during her long career, she made friends around the world and always kept in touch with them.” In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Arc Mid-Hudson Foundation. Visitation is on March 20 and the funeral mass is in the morning on March 21, with details here. UPDATE: The Church has cancelled the mass, and the wake is being limited to family only.

Awards
The Lukas Prize Project Awards announced winners:

Work-In-Progress Award
Bartow J. Elmore, Seed Money (Norton)
Shahan Mufti, American Caliph (FSG)

Book Prize
Alex Kotlowitz, An American Summer (Nan A. Talese)

History Prize
Kerri K. Greenidge, Black Radical (Liveright)