The inaugural winner of the $50,000 Simpson Family Literary Prize — honoring “a writer who has earned a distinguished reputation and the approbation and gratitude of readers” — is T. Geronimo Johnson, “at the relatively middle stage of a burgeoning career.” Author most recently of The World to Come: Stories Jim Shepard won the 2016 Rea Award for the Short Story, cited for his “prodigious research” into history and science and “X-ray vision of the soul.” The National Book Foundation gave their Innovations In Reading prize to Barbershop Books, a community-based literacy program that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops, founded in 2013 by Alvin […]
Authors
Authors: No Ivanka Promotion, Another Patterson Gift, and More
In January Portfolio postponed the release of Ivanka Trump‘s Women Who Work from March to May to make it easier for her to promote the book, to “accommodate these momentous changes in Ivanka’s life and give her time to settle her children into their new home, schools and city.” Now that she has also settled into an official White House position, however, she will not promote the book at all: “Out of an abundance of caution and to avoid the appearance of using my official role to promote the book, I will not publicize the book through a promotional tour […]
Briefs: Ferguson to Holiday House, Grisham on Tour, and More
Margaret Ferguson will join Holiday House Publishing in May as publisher of a Margaret Ferguson Books imprint, reporting to editor-in-chief Mary Cash. It’s the first time Holiday House has created an eponymous imprint. Ferguson was publisher of a Margaret Ferguson Books at Farrar, Straus Children’s. Ferguson says in the announcement, “This is a wonderful and unique opportunity for me to be involved with a small publishing house that is on the move and expanding their publishing program in interesting ways.” Chris Kepner has launched The Kepner Agency, after nine years with Victoria Sanders & Associates as an agent and director of international […]
People, Etc.
By a narrow margin of 69 votes, consultant and president of non-profit Information New Wave Loida Garcia-Febo was elected president-elect of the American Library Association. She will serve as president-elect for one year before taking over as president at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Emma Berry has been promoted to editor at Crown. Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has been meeting with prospective literary agents, the Hollywood Reporter notes, “to discuss a book that is envisioned as a reflection on how her personal and professional lives collided during the campaign.” Clinton is said to have blessed the project. The New York Public […]
People, Etc.
At Penguin Press, William Heyward and Christopher Richards have both been promoted to editor. Laura Crockett has been promoted to associate agent at TriadaUS. At Sourcebooks, Kelly Lawler has being promoted to associate creative director, as Brittany Vibbert moves up to art director. Duquesne University is determined to close its well-regarded press after 90 years of operations, having rejected a budget proposal that would have trimmed the press’s operating deficit by two-thirds. The Association of America University Presses persists in trying to rally support for the press, and joins others in contrasting the low-six-figure deficit at the press with the “unveiling of plans to invest […]
People, Awards, Etc.
At National Geographic, Lisa Thomas has been promoted to publisher and editorial director of adult books, reporting to editorial director of National Geographic Partners Susan Goldberg and evp of consumer products and experiences Rosa Zeegers. Crown Publishing Group has realigned its marketing department in New York into separate teams. Julie Cepler has been promoted to vp, director of marketing, adding oversight for Crown, Hogarth, Tim Duggan Books, and Broadway in addition to her continuing efforts for Crown Archetype and Three Rivers Press, still reporting to Donna Passannante. Associate marketing director Lisa Erickson takes on additional day-to-day management responsibilities and will report […]