Tina Bennett has left William Morris Endeavor to form a new agency, Bennett Literary, in collaboration with ICM Partners, which will provide subrights, business affairs, and contract management services to the new venture.
Min Lee will join Hachette Book Group on March 2 as senior vice president and general counsel, reporting to Michael Pietsch and joining HBG’s executive management board. Lee was previously was senior vice president, associate general counsel and global head of compliance Penguin Random House. She succeeds Carol Ross, who will retire from HBG in June.
Meghan Houser will join Flatiron Books as senior editor on January 13. She is currently at Crown.
Rosie Mahorter will join Bloomsbury as senior publicist on January 8. She was senior publicist at Scribner.
Christa Desir has joined Sourcebooks as associate editor.
Lexy Cassola has been promoted to assistant editor at Dutton.
Caitlin O’Shaughnessy has been promoted to executive director of marketing and brand strategy at Holt. She will oversee the marketing department in addition to working on brand strategy and promotion for Holt, Metropolitan, and Andy Cohen Books.
At Chronicle, Beth Weber has been promoted to director of managing editorial.
The National Book Critics Circle elected or re-elected nine board members, with Jacob Appel, Megan Labrise, Connie Ogle, and Richard Santos all joining the board for the first time.
Franklin & Siegal Associates has been named US literary scout for the Planeta Group in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese.
Awards
The Costa Award category winners were named:
Middle England by Jonathan Coe (Novel)
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (First Novel)
The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather (Biography)
Flèche by Mary Jean Chan (Poetry)
Asha & the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan (Chicken House)
Picks: One Moore, from the NYTBR
The NYT Book Review has launched a new monthly column — Group Text — written by Elisabeth Egan, designed to help book clubs. It will “focus on the kinds of propulsive, thought-provoking books worthy of discussion,” starting this month with Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, already selected by the Good Morning America Book Club as well. “Each month, Egan will highlight a new release (mostly fiction, though she’ll make the occasional foray into nonfiction). Her review will be accompanied by discussion questions and a list of recommendations for further reading. Egan says, “What I’m looking for are books that straddle the line between literary and commercial…. Books that pass my couch test — meaning I sit there reading for so long, I have to flip the cushions to hide the indentation of my body. (It’s an old couch!)”
Harassment Files
In the wake of an accusation of statutory rape against French author Gabriel Matzneff by publisher Vanessa Springora in her new book Le Consentement (Consent), Gallimard is withdrawing all of Matzneff’s books. They have published him since 1990, most recently releasing his book The Lover at the Arsenal in November. The publisher said in an announcement, “The exceptional measure which we have taken is justified to make sure the suffering that Vanessa Springora recounts in her book is heard.” The French culture minister is reported to have ended Matzneff’s special pension as well.
Bookselling
Short Stories Bookshop & Community Hub in New Jersey will close on or before March 31 after 6 years in business.
Suzanne Droppert has sold Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, WA to children’s book author Suzanne Selfors.
Former Blue Bicycle Books employee Benjamin Adams will open the 500-square-foot Odd Bird Books in the historic Arcade Mall in Columbia, SC “in the coming weeks.”
Audio
Actor Ben Miles will narrate the audiobook for the latest installment of Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series, The Mirror & the Light. Miles played Thomas Cromwell in the stage adaptation of Wolf Hall. Holt released the jacket for the US edition as well.