Rachel Fershleiser will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the newly created role of executive director, audience development and engagement on June 20, reporting to Adriana Rizzo. Most recently she was director, publishing outreach at Tumblr.
Jonathan Nowell has joined Trillium Partners firm as a senior adviser, working “to originate and execute M&A and fund raising mandates in the publishing sector.” Nowell was ceo and president at Nielsen Book. He says in the announcement, “Having observed and participated actively in the evolution of the publishing industry for over three decades, I can see significant further scope for M&A activity and the potential for new business models to make their mark.” Trillium’s book publishing clients have included Hachette UK.
Faith Black Ross has joined Crooked Lane as acquisitions editor. Previously she was an editor at Severn House and before then, editor at Berkley.
Windy Dorresteyn has joined Ten Speed Press in the new role of director of marketing strategy, reporting to publishing director Hannah Rahill.
Obituaries
Longtime book editor Ann LaFarge, 83, died May 27 after a three-year battle with cancer. Her daughter Annik has posted a photo album with remembrances from friends.
Celebrity biographer Wendy Leigh died on Sunday in London. The NY Post says she “apparently committed suicide.”
Forthcoming
Norton announced that Michael Lewis‘s The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds, will be published on December 6. The book looks at the collaboration between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, which brought Kahneman the Nobel prize in economics in 2002, “showing the ways in which the mind errs, systematically, when forced to make judgments about uncertain situations.” Their work gave rise to behavioral economics and has had broad impact in other fields.
Awards
One by Sarah Crossan has won The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize.
Distribution
Penguin Random House Publisher Services announced a multi-year extension of its sales and distribution agreement with Charlesbridge.
Relocating
Facing a rent increase, the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn is closing at the end of June. The retail operation will move into a new location about a third of the size and a few blocks away this summer, with a new name. The powerHouse publishing offices are also relocating, to a different space at 55 Washington Street.
Restructuring
UK-based publisher Boydell & Brewer has changed its corporate structure to an employee ownership trust after 45 years in private ownership. The company has also signed a new UK distribution agreement with Wiley, effective immediately.