Jen Long has been promoted to vice president, deputy publisher of the Gallery Books Group, reporting to Jen Bergstrom.
Sareena Kamath will join Zando as associate editor on March 29, reporting to Emily Bell. She was most recently assistant editor at Mulholland Books. Caolinn Douglas will join as executive coordinator and assistant editor on March 29, reporting to Molly Stern and Emily Bell. She was most recently at Bookouture in the UK.
Sarah Lyn Rogers has been promoted to associate editor at Soft Skull Press.
At Simon & Schuster, Kaiya Muniz has been promoted to national account manager for Barnes & Noble, children’s sales for the distribution client team. Amy Rohn has been promoted to sales coordinator.
At Penguin Random House Canada, Lauren O’Farrell becomes online and digital sales representative. Sophie Paas-Lang joins Penguin Random House Canada Children’s as designer. Anna MacDiarmid joins Doubleday Canada in the contract role of editor. Oluwatosin Ogede joins the IT team in the contract role of IT service desk analyst.
Stefanie Brody has been promoted to assistant director of publicity at Portfolio. Marisol Salaman has been promoted to senior publicist at Portfolio and Sentinel.
At St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Chris Scheina has been promoted to assistant director, subsidiary rights; Kirsi Balazs to assistant manager of marketing and sales operations; Alexis Neuville to assistant marketing manager; and Mac Nicholas to marketing coordinator.
Jean-Claude Brizard, president and ceo of education nonprofit Digital Promise, is joining HMH’s board of directors. Chairman of the board Larry Fish said, “With his extensive experience in the K-12 space and as a former educator, we look forward to the valuable perspective Jean-Claude will bring to HMH’s strategy and success.”
Emily Stokes is the next editor of The Paris Review, succeeding Emily Nemens, who announced earlier in March that she would be stepping down to concentrate on her own writing. Stokes has been senior editor at The New Yorker since 2018, and has also worked as an editor at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and the Financial Times. She will be the sixth editor in the history of the magazine. Publisher Mona Simpson said in the announcement, “Emily will honor the Review’s tradition of discovery. I believe she’ll publish distinctive work in a distinctive way, with courage, subtlety, and style.”
Imprints
Welbeck Publishing is launching Mountain Leopard Press in April, a new imprint that will focus “on translated literature in the main but will include a very few outstanding authors writing in English from around the world.” Christopher MacLehose will lead the imprint as publisher; he was previously founder and publisher of The MacLehose Press at Quercus. Rebecca Strong joins as senior editor; she was previously worked as an independent agent.
Controversies
Catalan translator Victor Obiols, who was set to translate Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem The Hill We Climb for Barcelona-based publisher Univers, has been removed from the assignment. Obiols told Agence France-Presse, “They have told me that I am not suitable to translate it. They did not question my abilities, but they were looking for a different profile, which had to be a woman, young, activist and preferably Black.” Obiol’s removal follows a similar situation in Holland, where Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld declined to translate the work for Meulenhoff after critics called for a Black translator.
In the UK, Roman Abramovich filed a defamation suit against Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People, and Harper UK. He alleges, “The book contains a number of false and defamatory statements about me, including about my purchase, and the activities, of Chelsea Football Club…. It has become clear that the false allegations in this book are having a damaging effect, not only on my personal reputation, but also in respect of the activities of Chelsea Football Club.” Harper UK says it “will robustly defend the claim and the right to report on matters of considerable public interest.”
Awards
The Windham-Campbell Prize announced the new recipients of grants of $165,000 each:
Vivian Gornick (United States) – nonfiction
Kate Briggs (United Kingdom/Netherlands) – nonfiction
Dionne Brand (Canada/Trinidad and Tobago) – fiction
Renee Gladman (United States) – fiction
Canisia Lubrin (Saint Lucia/Canada) – poetry
Natalie Scenters-Zapico (United States) – poetry
Nathan Alan Davis (United States) – drama
Michael R. Jackson (United States) – drama
The Audio Publishers Association held its 26th Audie Awards Monday night, presenting honors in 25 categories. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor (Bloomsbury), won Audio Book of the Year. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte (HarperAudio), received the 2021 Young Adult Audie Award. See the fill list of winners here.
The Publishing Triangle Awards announced their 2020 finalists, with winners to be names on May 12. Poet Cheryl Clarke receives the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award; Robert Fieseler wins Betty Berzon the Emerging Writer Award; and editor William Johnson receives the Leadership Award.