People, Etc.

Membership and marketing officer at the American Booksellers Association Meg Smith “has decided to stop working full time” following the 2019 Winter Institute in January, after almost 20 years with the organization. CEO Oren Teicher says, “Meg has become a friend to all of us, and her unstinting support of the independent bookstore community is legendary. It will be hard to imagine ABA without her.”

Transatlantic Agency partner and senior agent Marie Campbell is retiring, but will remain on as an advisor to the agency. A former editor, in-house rights manager, and instructor at Ryerson University’s Publishing Program, she has worked in publishing for over 30 years.

Former Quarto chief executive Marcus Leaver will join mental health publisher Trigger as chairman on December 1.

Alexis Banyon has joined Harper Children’s in the newly created role of director, marketing, reporting to Nellie Kurtzman. She was most recently with Disney Publishing.

James Hadley Billington, 89, who served as 13th Librarian of Congress from 1987 to 2015, died in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

Open Casting Call
Lee Child told the BBC that “ultimately the readers are right” and Tom Cruise is too small to play Jack Reacher. “So what I’ve decided to do is: there won’t be any more movies with Tom Cruise. Instead we’re going to take it to Netflix or something like that. Long-form streaming television, with a completely new actor. And I want all those readers who were upset about Tom Cruise to help me out – participate in choosing the right actor for the TV series. We’re rebooting and starting over and we’re going to try and find the perfect guy.”

Awards
In the UK, the Costa Book Awards announced its shortlists in five categories including:

First Novel
Pieces of Me, by Natalie Hart (Legend Press)
An Unremarkable Body, by Elisa Lodato (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (Sourcebooks/Raven Books)
Meet Me at the Museum, by Anne Youngson (Flatiron/Doubleday)

Novel
The Silence of the Girls, by Pat Barker (Doubleday/Hamish Hamilton)
The Italian Teacher, by Tom Rachman (Viking/riverrun)
Normal People, by Sally Rooney (Hogarth/Faber & Faber)
From a Low and Quiet Sea, by Donal Ryan (Penguin/Doubleday)

Best of
The Minneapolis Star Tribune released its 60 title list of the best books of the year. The fiction titles:

Clock Dance, by Ann Tyler
Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata
Dear Mrs. Bird, by AJ Pearce
A Ladder to the Sky, by John Boyn
The Last Stories, by William Trevor
Love, by Hanne Orstavik
A Lucky Man, by Jamel Brinkley
The Only Story, by Julian Barnes
There There, by Tommy Orange
Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan