Hafizah Geter joins Janklow & Nesbit today as an agent. She was most recently editor at Amazon Publishing’s Little A and Topple Books.
Julia Judge has been promoted to senior publicist at Verso Books.
Rachel Vega-DeCesario has joined the New Press as assistant editor. She was previously editorial assistant at Black Dog and Leventhal.
Hannah Strassburger has joined Sourcebooks as designer.
Obituaries
Longtime Grove Atlantic board member and executive editor Joan Bingham, 85, died on Saturday. She helped create Grove Atlantic through the merger of Grove Weidenfeld and Atlantic Monthly Press in 1993 and served on the board for the last 27 years. Publisher Morgan Entrekin said, “Everyone in the Grove family is deeply saddened by the news of Joan’s passing. She was a beloved colleague, dear friend, and stalwart partner. Grove Atlantic would not exist without her original commitment and her continued support over almost three decades. We offer our condolences to Clara and her family, and our gratitude for everything Joan contributed to Grove for so many years. Joan may be gone but Grove will carry on as an independent literary publisher as I know she wanted.” Another longtime foundational investor in the company Ann Getty, died last month.
Fred Klein, 97, a former book promotion senior executive at Bantam Books, died October 22 at age 97. A representative for Penguin Random House writes, “For two decades with the mass-market publisher he led the creation and execution of the marketing effort for hundreds of America’s biggest bestsellers, including Valley of the Dolls and Future Shock.” He later became an executive editor at Bantam executive editor, focusing on thrillers and movie tie-ins, and retired in 1990.
Roxanne Conrad, 57, who published thriller, science fiction, and young adult books under the name Rachel Caine, died of cancer on November 1. The family is making arrangements for a virtual memorial service and with more details TBA.
Imprints
Former executive at Igloobooks and Sterling Publishing Jeremy Nurnberg is launching Little Genius Books, publishing books for children starting in spring 2021. Their range of board books, picture books, activity books, nonfiction, novelty, and more will be distributed by Simon & Schuster.