Nachie Marsham has joined IDW Publishing as publisher. He was previously executive editor at Disney Publishing Worldwide.
Heather Gold has been promoted to editor for classics and ancient world at Yale University Press.
Forthcoming
Pope Francis‘ LET US DREAM will be published by Simon & Schuster on December 1, 2020, in dual English and Spanish editions. The book begins by exploring the COVID crisis and “explains why we must—and how we can—make the world safer, fairer, and healthier for all people now.” It is “the fruit of many exchanges between Pope Francis and his biographer, Austen Ivereigh, in the weeks following the coronavirus lockdown.” The book is the first announced acquisition for consulting publisher Stephen Rubin, who acquired with Eamon Dolan from Rubin’s former Doubleday colleague, William Barry.
Withdrawn
Jordan Marie Green‘s book DANCING WITH FIRE, recently sold to Feiwel and Friends for a planned 2022 publication, was withdrawn by the author. Her novel centers on Pacific Islanders, but Green is white, underscored by a PW deal report featuring her photograph. Agent Moe Ferrara indicated that she is no longer working with Green, after finding out Green “misrepresented herself” several years ago in a DVPit online pitching event, which focuses on diverse and marginalized voices. Ferrara wrote, “I am especially sorry to the Pasifika community and vow to educate myself. I will work harder to be a better voice for all and to one day regain your trust.”
Acquiring editor Emily Settle also apologized, writing, “Anyone who knows me knows I’m committed to championing diverse voices—particularly BIPOC voices—and especially considering that, this was a very bad, tasteless decision on my part. I own that. I have no excuse.”
Picks
Apple Books‘ Best of September includes Simon Stephenson’s Set My Heart to Five, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2020 Fall/Winter sampler and highlighted in our virtual Buzz Panel, and Rosie Danan’s The Roommate, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2020 Romance edition. The rest of the list:
The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante
Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
Punching the Air, by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Everything Beautiful in Its Time, by Jenna Bush Hager
When You Kiss Me, by Bella Andre
A Deadly Eduction, by Naomi Novak
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
The Silver Arrow, by Lev Grossman
What Can I Do?, by Jane Fonda
A Girl Is a Body of Water, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Sid Meier’s Memoir!, by Sid Meier
Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots
To Tell You the Truth, by Gilly MacMillan
Mortmain Hall, by Martin Edwards
We Are Not Free, by Traci Chee