Kierna Mayo has joined Random House as vp and executive editor at One World/Roc Lit 101, reporting to Chris Jackson. She was most recently SVP of content for Interactive One.
At Penguin Random House Canada, Leah Persaud will join the sales team as group sales coordinator, moving over from her position as executive assistant to ceo Kristin Cochrane, and reporting jointly to vice president of sales Charidy Johnston and group sales director Val Gow.
At Kids Can Press, Yasemin Uçar has been promoted to the newly created role of editorial development director. Patricia Ocampo joins as senior editor; she was previously president of IBBY Canada. Barb Kelly joins as senior designer; she was recently a freelance designer at Kids Can Press. Andrew Dupuis becomes book designer; Olga Kidisevic becomes senior production editor; and Anna Bendiy becomes editorial coordinator. Molly Helferty has retired after fifteen as sales director. Sarah Labrie joins the company in the newly created role of sales and marketing director; she was most recently at PRH Canada. Alison Van Ginkel has been promoted to the new role of US and international accounts manager; Alison Lapp to rights and digital accounts manager; and Bianca Rodrigues to sales, marketing, and publicity coordinator. Patricia Esteves has joined as sales associate.
Erin Galloway has been promoted to publicity director at Berkley.
Eden Sugay has joined VIZ Media as publishing sales manager. Previously, she was sales & marketing manager at Chronicle Books.
Kate Gibb has joined Scotland-based independent book distributor BookSource as non-executive director of its board. Gibb is currently chief operating officer at Edinburgh-based Canongate Books and chair of Publishing Scotland.
Imprints
Roxane Gay is launching a new imprint, Roxane Gay Books, at Grove Atlantic. The imprint expects to release three titles a year, “a mix of fiction, nonfiction and memoir, and a focus on underrepresented voices.” Grove executive editor Amy Hundley, who will also work on the imprint, says in the release, “Roxane is one of those writers who is always reading and falling in love with and recommending other writers, and she has a fabulous eye for talent and a boundless energy for looking where others don’t. I can’t wait to see the treasures she will bring us.” Hundley adds, to the NYT, “She’s really interested in queer voices, she’s really interested in feminist voices, she’s really interested in voices on body size.”
Gay plans at least initially to accept submissions from writers without agents, opening to submissions as of July 1. She was represented by her longtime agent, Maria Massie. Grove, which has published Gay’s fiction since An Untamed State in 2014, is also launching a paid, one-year fellowship program, shared between Grove and Gay’s new imprint, “for applicants without access to such jobs through traditional pathways.”