LaSharah S. Bunting will join the Simon & Schuster imprint as vice president and executive editor, starting May 3, and acquiring nonfiction and fiction. She was most recently director/journalism at John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
At Gallery Books, Molly Gregory, Max Meltzer, and Maggie Loughran have each been promoted to associate editor.
Awards
Carmen Maria Machado‘s In the Dream House won the 2021 Rathbone’s Folio Prize.
Australia’s Stella Prize announced its 2021 shortlist, with the winner to be named April 22:
Fathoms, by Rebecca Giggs
Revenge, by S.L. Lim
The Animals In That Country, by Laura Jean Mckay
Witness, by Louise Milligan
Stone Sky Gold Mountain, by Mirandi Riwoe
The Bass Rock, by Evie Wyld
The Dylan Thomas Prize also announced their shortlist, with the winner to be named May 13:
Alligator and Other Stories, by Dima Alzayat
Kingdomtide, by Rye Curtis
The Death of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emezi
Pew, by Catherine Lacey
Luster, by Raven Leilani
My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Bookselling
As a COVID relief initiative, Penguin Random House will give independent bookstores an extra month to pay their invoices starting May 1. The extra month includes all titles appearing on PRH invoices, including those from DK and Penguin Random House Publisher Services. Jaci Updike, president, sales, Penguin Random House said in the announcement, “We have been listening carefully to what kinds of support will be most helpful to indies in 2021, especially those who have been struggling during the pandemic, and what we hear most consistently is that small businesses need flexibility, and the ability to manage their invoices and split payments in different ways during times of uncertain cash flow.”
Separately, a group of workers from across publishing will observe a Book Workers Day of Solidarity with Amazon workers trying to form a union in Bessemer, Alabama, on March 26. They invite others to join in.
Forthcoming
A new edition of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien featuring paintings, drawings and sketches by the author will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on October 19.