Emilie Polster has joined Little, Brown Children’s as executive director of marketing. She was previously senior director of integrated marketing & operations at Harper Children’s.
At Picador, Andrea Rogoff has been promoted to senior publicist, while Elizabeth Bruce has been promoted to associate editor. In addition, Shannon Donnelly has joined as marketing manager. Previously she was a marketing manager at Dey Street Books.
Min Lee rejoins the Penguin Random House Legal Department as vp, associate general counsel, executive director of privacy.
Former University of California Press editorial director and University Press Books cofounder Sheila Levine, 65, died September 21 from ovarian cancer. During her forty-year career at UC Press until her retirement in 2011, Levine was instrumental in developing distinguished programs in several fields, notably Asian studies, European history, and food studies. She also served as the US editor for the best-selling Planet Earth, published in collaboration with the BBC, and the multivolume Historical Atlas series with Derek Hayes. Levine cofounded University Press Books in 1974 and managed the bookstore for the next 10 years.
In author news, the NYT features Lena Dunham‘s upcoming book tour, “a traveling circus of sorts” offering a “carefully curated cast of artists, along with live music, poetry readings and, naturally, food trucks.” Dunham says: “I found the idea of a traditional author tour, where you go and stand behind the lectern and talk about yourself, I found it a little bit embarrassing, a little blatantly self-promotional and a little boring.” She adds, “I wanted it to have an arts festival feel, which is why we now have all these remarkable, special weirdos who I found on the Internet.”
Another New York newspaper reporter continues to write at length about Authors United, as new writers — including Ursula K. Le Guin, Philip Roth, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul and Milan Kundera — are said to be signing on to the group’s efforts.
In imprint news, the UK’s Faber will start a paper line of Faber Modern Classics, set to launch in April 2015, with 10 titles to start and another 6 planned for June. The line will be overseen by associate fiction publisher Hannah Griffiths. CEO Stephen Page says: “Throughout its 85 year history Faber & Faber’s reputation has been as a publisher or important literary work. This Modern Classics list is a new showcase for these often brave choices, to draw attention to them again for a new generation of readers.”
In distribution news, IPG will distribute Wild Iris Publishing as of October 1, and Garlic Press as of November 1. Trafalgar Square will distribute Far Far Away Books, Pimpernel Press, Legend Times, Spineless Wonders, and Urbane Publications in the US and Canada, and is adding Canadian distribution for Canongate, Atlantic Books and Head of Zeus as of January 1. River North Editions will distribute Otago University Press, Enitharmon Press, Wolask and Wynn Publishers, and Gomer Press as of January 1. Finally, IPG’s Spanish Language distribution arm has added Linkgua and Titiris effective immediately, and Cute Ediciones & Páginas Libros de Magia as of January 1.
On the awards circuit, stay tuned for the PEN Literary Awards, to be announced tonight at the New School.