Jenny Chen will join Ballantine Bantam Dell as a senior editor on November 16, reporting to Jennifer Hershey. She was at Crooked Lane Books..
At Hachette Nashville, Sean McGowan has joined as editor, acquiring for Center Street, Faith Words, and Worthy. India Hunter has joined as associate editor, acquiring for Faith Words and Worthy.
At Brower Literary & Management, Aimee Ashcraft has been promoted to literary agent and Anna Atoria to associate subrights agent.
Zoila Peña has been promoted to assistant manager of customer service for all Workman Publishing imprints.
Imprints
goop Press will try again, this time through Rodale Books. The magazine started a modest book line in 2015 with Grand Central, publishing two books by Gwyneth Paltrow, two collections by goop editors, and another four health/lifestyle titles.
The new version plans “two or three new books per year by prominent experts and emerging leaders with distinct voices and compelling perspectives on physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational well-being.” They’ll start with Intuitive Fasting by Dr. Will Cole in February, 2021; a relationship book by Terry Real; and a healthy eating guide and cookbook by Maya Feller.
In the UK, the estate of Francis Bacon has agreed to launch Cheerio, a book imprint publishing through Profile Books and film production company creating work inspired by the artist. Agent Claire Conville and author Harriet Vyner run Cheerio: “We aim to commission innovative books and films that confound received ideas, open the door to new perceptions and that we believe will intrigue, disturb and thrill audiences, old and new, very much in the spirit of Francis Bacon.
Forthcoming
Bill O’Reilly‘s KILLING THE MOB, the tenth book in the killing series, publishes next May, this time from St. Martin’s — moving over within Macmillan from Holt. (The publisher who brought O’Reilly to Holt — Steve Rubin — and his editor there — Gillian Blake — have both left.) George Witte is editing for St. Martin’s, which has already published paperback editions of the series.
Awards
Souvankham Thammavongsa won Canada’s Giller Prize for her debut short story collection, How To Pronounce Knife (Little, Brown/McClelland & Stewart).
The $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize announced its longlist.
Best Of
The LA Times‘ published its best books of the year list, with twenty fiction and nonfiction titles:
Fiction
The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
Luster, by Reven Leilani
The Old Drift, by Namwali Serpell
The Story of a Goat, by Perumal Murugan
Bestiary, by K-Ming Chang
Jack, by Marilynne Robinson
Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante
Red Pill, by Hari Kunzru
Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Nonfiction
Conditional Citizens, by Laila Lalami
Intimations, by Zadie Smith
Unforgetting, by Robert Lovato
Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump
Uncanny Valley, by Anna Weiner
The Undocumented Americans, by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Figure It Out, by Wayne Koestenbaum
A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
Memorial Drive, by Natasha Tretheway