Holly Harris will join Simon & Schuster UK as publishing director, non-fiction, adult publishing division, starting July 6. She is currently editorial and media development director at Penguin Random House UK children’s division. Crooked Lane has a multi-year agreement with Dreamscape Media for production and distribution of audiobooks. Relief Poets & Writers has created a COVID-19 Relief Fund to “provide emergency assistance to writers having difficulty meeting their basic needs.” They will provide grants of up to $1,000 to approximately 80 writers in April. The board allocated $50,000, which has been supplemented by gifts from supporters including Michael Piestch […]
Awards
People, Etc.
At Viking/Penguin Books, Rebecca Marsh has been promoted to associate director of publicity. Shelby Meizlik has joined as executive publicist. Tricia Lawrence has been promoted to senior agent at Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Awards The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced recipients for its highest honors for excellence in the arts, including two of last year’s Pulitzer-winning authors. Richard Powers will receive the William Dean Howells Medal for THE OVERSTORY. The prize is “given every five years for the most distinguished American work of fiction published during that time.” Yale professor David Blight, author of six books on slavery, […]
People, Etc.
Drew Reed will move to Sony Pictures as evp of literary affairs, starting May 1. He has served in a similar role at Fox for 17 years. Jake Bauman continues as vp of literary development, and will report to Reed. Patricia “Patty” M. Wong, city librarian at Santa Monica Public Library, was elected as president-elect of the American Library Association. She will serve as president-elect for one year before taking over as president at the 2021 ALA Annual Conference. At Scribe UK, Sarah Braybrooke has been promoted to publisher and managing director and Molly Slight to editorial director. Both will […]
Briefs: Forthcoming Books, Postponed Pulitzers
Forthcoming Paolo Giordano‘s HOW CONTAGION WORKS will be published in the US on April 14, as an ebook from Bloomsbury and in audio from Penguin Random House Audio. An essay on the coronavirus pandemic that explains how disease spreads and how our interconnectedness will save us is reported to have been shared over 4 million times in Italy, with publication planned in 25 countries around the world. (Rights originate from MalaTesta Literary Agency in Milan.) In the UK, Nosy Crow posted a free digital book on Monday, CORONAVIRUS: A Book for Children, including artwork by illustrator of The Gruffalo Axel […]
People, Etc.
Andrea DeWerd has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as senior marketing director, overseeing general interest, lifestyle, and culinary titles. She was most recently as senior director of marketing for Random House Christian and Crown Forum. James Akinaka has been promoted to digital marketing coordinator at Penguin Children’s. Selihah White has joined Melville House as a publicist. White was publicity assistant at Penguin Press. PEN America president Jennifer Egan discusses her own experience with a suspected case of coronavirus and how the pandemic is affecting writers on the organization’s podcast. Picks Oprah Winfrey chose Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (out today […]
May Indie Next List
The ABA named its Indie Next List for May, but publication of a number of the titles, including No. 1 pick Ottessa Moshfegh’s Death In Her Hands, has been postponed . Here are the titles from the list still publishing on schedule: The Book of Longings, by Sue Monk Kidd The Paris Hours, by Alex George Hollywood Park, by Mikel Jollett All Adults Here, by Emma Straub Simon the Fiddler, by Paulette Jiles The Knockout Queen, by Rufi Thorpe The Book of V., by Anna Solomon Sea Wife, by Amity Gaige Network Effect, by Martha Wells The Fixed Stars, by Molly Wizenberg Pretty Things, by Janelle Brown A Children’s Bible, by […]