Rivka Holler has been promoted to marketing coordinator for Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s.
Senior agent Elizabeth Bennett becomes partner at the Transatlantic Agency.
Catherine Cho has launched the new agency Paper Literary. She was at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency.
Forthcoming
Colin Kaepernick‘s publishing company announced their first title — but it’s still not his memoir. (That was due last year, after a deal with Harper One in 2016 and another reported deal with One World in late 2017 also did not result in a published memoir.) Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future without Policing & Prisons is an anthology edited by Kaepernick, first published as a digital collection with Medium in 2020.
Imprints
Harper Focus has a new gift book imprint, Harper Celebrate, for celebratory, seasonal and lifestyle books. Michael Aulisio moves over the Harper Christian’s children’s and gift division to serve as vp and publisher, with the first titles expected in fall 2022. The line is looking to acquire “projects such as daily readers, lifestyle books, journals, photography-driven books, literary graphic novels, hospitality, home decorating, organization, and crafting; poetry, personal time management, and mindfulness; and occasion-focused titles such as holiday celebrations, graduation, and gifts for special persons.”
Picks
LeVar Burton has a book club in association with start-up social reading platform Fable. His first three picks are Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin; Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler; and The Fire This Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward.
Remembering
It was a year ago today that Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy died of a heart attack. Her successor Jonathan Karp wrote to staff today, “Rarely does a day go by that I don’t think of Carolyn and the standard of excellence that she set. She was an extraordinary leader, a stalwart champion of our books, an astute businessperson, and a teacher whose ideas and passions will live on in many of us for the rest of our careers….
“I hope that today you will join me in carrying on her legacy by doing as she did every day: bringing that little bit of extra when sharing your enthusiasm for our books with your colleagues and others in our industry; constantly thinking about the ways in which we can improve what we do; being kind and helpful to your co-workers; and if you have a good idea, an issue, or a problem, speaking up!” The company’s annual contribution to BINC is being made this year in Carolyn’s honor.
Contests
Gallery Books launched a Books Like Us First Novel Contest, to “facilitate accessibility to underrepresented writers and celebrate the diversity of readers across the United States.” Entrants are invited to submit 25 pages of an “inclusive, entertaining, and ground-breaking” manuscript. The winner will be offered a $50,000 book deal with Gallery Books. In future seasons, the award will rotate between Simon & Schuster imprints.