Objections to Jeanine Cummins’ novel AMERICAN DIRT continue to reverberate as the author is in the midst of an extensive national tour. Publisher Flatiron Books cancelled her scheduled Monday night appearance at Warwick’s in La Jolla, CA, which had been listed as “full,” and Tuesday night’s event to be held by Vroman’s. Warwick’s indicated the publisher’s decision was “due to safety concerns.” Events at two other California booksellers are still on the schedule for later this week. Separately, Sunday’s offsite event in conjunction with Left Bank Books in St. Louis, MO was cancelled by the store, following “posts on social […]
Authors
Cummins Addresses AMERICAN DIRT Controversy at Winter Institute
A small, heavily overflowing room greeted AMERICAN DIRT author Jeanine Cummins at Winter Institute 15 in Baltimore on Wednesday for a charged, emotional and timely session originally envisioned as Creating Conversations Around American Dirt. Booksellers in the audience brought both palpable support but also raw and candid questions to the session, and Cummins responded in kind with thoughtful and emotional responses. As bookseller Javier Ramirez from Madison Street Books in Chicago noted in introducing Cummins, long before the Oprah pick and other attention — and controversy — AMERICAN DIRT had received “more Indie Next recommendations than any book in recent […]
People, Etc.
At Random House Children’s, Jennifer Baker has joined as a managing editor. She was previously production editor for Teachers College Press. Jinna Shin has been promoted to assistant art director; Bob Bianchini to senior designer; April Ward to senior art director; Nicole de las Heras to senior art director; Tracy Tyler to senior executive art director; Roberta Ludlow to executive art director; and Alison Kolani to executive director, copyediting. Sara Birmingham has been promoted to associate editor at Ecco. Ben LeRoy has joined Crooked Lane Books as senior acquisitions editor focusing on crime fiction. He was previously founder and publisher of […]
People, Etc.
Zareen Jaffery will join Kokila as executive editor on January 13. She was previously executive editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s. Rachel Beck has joined Liza Dawson Associates as agent. She was previously an agent with Holloway Literary. Emily Duval has been promoted to manager, library marketing at Random House Children’s. Natalie Capogrossi has joined Random House Children’s as assistant manager, school marketing. She was previously a teacher and intern at Writer’s House. At, Princeton Architectural Press, Jessica Tackett has been promoted to marketing manager; Parker Menzimer has been promoted to production editor; Stephanie Holstein has been promoted to associate […]
People: Kachka to Become LA Times Books Editor, and More
New York magazine and Vulture writer and books editor Boris Kachka is leaving his position to become books editor at the Los Angeles Times. The LAT said in an announcement, “We’re pleased to announce that Boris Kachka is joining The Times as books editor. Boris comes to us from New York magazine, where has been books editor for the last few years, and a writer and editor for two decades…In recent years he has substantially expanded the magazine’s book coverage across all of its verticals, overseeing excerpts, stories on new authors and titles, publishing news, and more.” Julia Turner, deputy […]
People, Etc.
Sharon Shell has joined Independent Publishers Group as director of library & education sales. She was previously director of implementation, sales operations at Scholastic. Daniel O’Connor has been promoted to senior sales manager at Bloomsbury. Jacqui Lipton has founded Raven Quill Literary Agency, representing authors of books for children and young adults. Lipton is an attorney and a law professor, and author of Law & Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers. For people who want to stop by and pay their respects, there will be a viewing of Sonny Mehta on Friday, January 3, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM […]