Liz Stein has been promoted to executive editor for William Morrow.
At Dutton/Plume, Natalie Church has been promoted to marketing manager and Caroline Payne to assistant marketing manager. Stephanie Kelly becomes senior editor for Dutton, and Cassidy Sachs associate editor.
At Catapult, Megha Majumdar has been promoted to senior editor, and Kendall Storey has been promoted to editor & foreign rights manager.
Hana Park has been promoted to assistant editor at Simon & Schuster.
Tricja Okuniewska has been promoted to assistant editor at Putnam.
Tom Marquet has been promoted to managing editor, digital, at Random House Children’s, and Bess Schelper Sampson has been promoted to copy editor.
Samantha Fabien has joined Root Literary as literary agent. She was previously international rights manager and literary agent at Laura Dail Literary Agency.
Jamie Cowen takes over as managing director of The Ampersand Agency, handling the day-to-day running of the company, succeeding founder Peter Buckman. Buckman becomes chairman and will maintain his list of clients as well as “playing an active role in the company’s business.”
At Highlights, Saúl Jimenez joins in the newly created role of senior director of creative. He was previously creative director of Justice. Hadi Teleb joins in the newly created role of vice president of business operations & strategic planning. Teleb previously consulted for Highlights. Kent Rademaker has been promoted to vice president of brand marketing; Jay Gaughan to vice president of 3rd party ecommerce; and Marie O’Neill to senior director of creative position on the editorial and product teams.
David Wilk has launched Livewriters.com, a podcasting website that curates a broad selection of podcasts for readers, authors and publishers, along with other resources to come.
Picks
Jenna Bush Hager chose Mateo Askaripour‘s Black Buck as her January Read With Jenna title.
Good Morning America chose The Push by Ashley Audrain as its monthly book club pick.
Barnes & Noble chose Julia Claiborne Johnson‘s Better Luck Next Time as its January National Book Club pick.
Awards
The UK’s Costa Book Awards were announced:
First Novel: Love After Love, by Ingrid Persaud
Novel Award: The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story, by Monique Roffey
Biography: The Louder I Will Sing, by Lee Lawrence
Poetry: The Historians, by Eavan Boland
Children’s: Voyage of the Sparrowhawk, by Natasha Farrant
Bookselling
Chevalier Books in Los Angeles will move to a new, larger location across the street from the old space. The store’s lease expired at the end of the year. Longtime general manager Liz Newstat died in December. The staff writes on Facebook, “As we close our current location and begin another chapter in our new home…we will carry Liz’s spirit with us. Hopefully she won’t hate it too much.”
Controversies
There is controversy brewing over the publication and promotion of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Or rather, there was a year ago, which New York Magazine now reports all over again as if it were new — with a little bit of blind-quoted innuendo added in. One bit of news: The paperback edition of American Dirt will follow Cummins’ editor Amy Einhorn to Holt, where she took over as president and publisher in 2019, and Holt will publish Cummins’ next book as well.