At Grand Central, Wes Miller has been promoted to executive editor, and Seema Mahanian to senior editor, Rachael Kelly and Carmel Shaka each become assistant editor, and Kirsiah McNamara becomes assistant editor and digital & paperback coordinator. Albert Tang becomes vice president, creative director. Andy Dodds has been promoted to publicity director and Kamrun Nesa to senior publicist. Joseph Benincase becomes assistant director, marketing and Morgan Swift associate marketing manager. At Forever, Estelle Hallick has been promoted to associate director, marketing & publicity, and Sam Brody to assistant editor.
Robert Messenger will join Simon & Schuster as senior editor, starting March 1, where he will “acquire books with an emphasis on conservative points of view that deepen and provide context for our political and cultural debates.” He was most recently executive editor of the Weekly Standard.
At Public Affairs, Anupama Roy-Chaudhury has been promoted to assistant editor, and Miguel Cervantes to marketing manager.
Peter Steinberg has joined Fletcher & Company as literary agent. He was most recently at YRG Partners and Foundry. (All three Foundry agents who initially joined YRG Partners in September have now moved to other agencies.)
Publications
Astra Publishing House is launching an international literary magazine called Astra Quarterly “by the end of 2021” with the website planned for this fall. Nadja Spiegelman will lead the magazine as editor in chief; she was previously online editor of the Paris Review. Spiegelman said, “There is an incredible wealth of new literature being written around the world, but to cut through the noise, it must be championed and promoted. I am delighted to join the Astra team in its deep desire to uphold voices across borders. The new generation of readers—from New York to Lagos, Paris to Shanghai, Mexico City to Berlin—has more in common with one another than ever before.”
Forthcoming
Paul McCartney‘s THE LYRICS, “a self-portrait in 154 songs,” edited and introduced by Paul Muldoon, will be published by Liveright on November 2.
Awards
The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation have named the shortlists for the 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Prizes. Winners will be announced on March 24.
The Authors Guild Foundation has partnered with the new Carol Shields Prize for Fiction to help administer the prize’s charitable efforts in the US — which will include grants and mentorships, in service f their goal to “acknowledge, celebrate, and support a broad-range of women writers, including those who are marginalized or under-represented.”
Distribution
World Book will use Baker & Taylor Publisher Services for warehousing and fulfillment as of March 1.
Comic book and graphic novel publisher Artists Writers & Artisans Studios will be distributed by Simon & Schuster starting March 1.