At Macmillan Speakers Bureau, Chloe Volkwein was promoted to lecture agent.
Forthcoming
Knopf will publish TOGETHER IN A SUDDEN STRANGENESS: AMERICA’S POETS RESPOND TO THE PANDEMIC on June 9 in ebook and audio, with a hardcover to follow in November. The book features new, mostly not-yet-published work by 85 poets, solicited and compiled by former New Yorker poetry editor Alice Quinn. “The anthology speaks to this moment of the virus and its repercussions,” says Quinn, “and it will be a marker in the future for the new brand of uncertainty and kinship most of us are feeling so profoundly.”
Bookselling
Joseph-Beth Booksellers is permanently closing one of their two Cincinnati-area locations, the Crestview Hills store in Kentucky. CEO Adam Miller said in a statement, “In response to business changes over the last several weeks due to Covid-19, Joseph-Beth is undertaking some large-scale changes. Unfortunately, this includes permanently closing our Crestview Hills location.”
Distribution
Independent Publishers Group (IPG) is working with Impossible Foods (makers of the Impossible Burger) to distribute the company’s inaugural book, Impossible: The Cookbook (which publishes June 16).
Audio
Diversion Publishing has launched a podcasts division, serializing nonfiction books as episodic audio series, written and hosted by authors. The first of five announced series rolling out over the next two months is Jack McCallum’s The Dream Team Tapes (about the 1992 men’s US Olympic basketball team). It launches May 18 through a partnership with iHeartRadio (with Proctor & Gamble as the sponsor).
Authors are the “primary beneficiaries” of revenue generated by the audio series, which will generate advertising revenue. Diversion also sees the series as “a proven vehicle for selling film and TV rights,” and UTA will represent those rights. Three of the announced series are by clients of Diversion founder and ceo Scott Waxman’s literary agency, and the other two are developed from books on the Diversion Publishing list.
Harper Collins audio imprint Caedmon is releasing a number of classic titles in digital audio for the first time in honor of its 68th anniversary. Titles include Richard Wright’s Black Boy; Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey; Betty Smith’s Joy in the Morning and Maggie-Now; and N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn, as well as Momaday’s new poetry collection. Caitlin Garing, associate publisher of HarperAudio, says, “Caedmon was there at the start of the audiobook format and HarperAudio, in partnership with Harper Perennial, is excited to make sure that it’s here for the boom in digital audiobooks.”