Jill Smith has been appointed director of the Denver Publishing Institute, effective January 1, 2015. Smith has worked at the Institute since 2003 and is currently co-director. She succeeds Joyce Meskis, who is retiring as director after seven years (though she will keep her responsibilities at Tattered Cover Bookstore.) Rayhane Sanders will join Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as Agent, effective January 1, continuing to build her list of upmarket and literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Most recently she was an agent at WSK Management and before that she assisted Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor. At Little, Brown, Fiona Brown has been […]
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Daniel Handler Apologizes via Twitter
After declining media requests for comment about his controversial remarks at the National Book Awards gala, Daniel Handler posted a modest apology on Twitter around noon on Thursday: “My job at last night’s National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson…and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry.” By early Friday morning Handler expanded that to a bigger admission: “My remarks on Wednesday night at #NBAwards were monstrously inappropriate and yes, racist.” He added, “It would be heartbreaking for the #NBAwards conversation […]
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Meredith McGinnis will join Norton’s trade department on December 3 in the newly-created position of director of marketing, responsible for creating strategy, determining priorities and procedures, and overseeing all aspects of marketing initiatives, both traditional and digital, for the entire trade list. She was most recently director of marketing at Harmony and Clarkson Potter and has almost two decades of experience in book publishing. McGinnis will report to Norton president Drake McFeely. Jo Lusby has been promoted to managing director, Penguin Random House North Asia, after nine years as managing director for Penguin China. Lusby reports to Gabrielle Coyne and will work alongside Cyrus Kheradi, […]
Klay, Osnos Top National Book Award Winners
As in previous years, the move towards added visibility and greater recognition resulted in a mixture of expected and surprise National Book Award winners Wednesday night. Phil Klay won the fiction prize for his debut short story collection REDEPLOYMENT, something of a surprise (most especially for the author, who only prepared a speech upon his wife’s urging.) “I spent 13 months in Iraq working with an exceptional group of Marines… and I came back not knowing what to think,” Klay said. “For me, writing this book…I can’t think of a more important conversation to be having. War is too strange […]
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Erin Stein will join Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group as publisher of a new, yet-to-be-named new imprint on December 1, reporting to Jon Yaged. Her imprint will focus on branded publishing and new content creation, as well as acquiring original commercial fiction and picture books. Previously she was editorial director of branded, licensed, and media tie-in publishing for Little, Brown Children’s. “MCPG has enjoyed fabulous growth over the past several years, and we are always exploring new ways to accelerate our growth. Erin’s phenomenal track record with licensed publishing and new content creation makes her the perfect fit for us. I could not be […]
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Promotions At Workman After moving up to ceo of Workman Publishing five months ago and relocating to New York in October, Dan Reynolds has announced a number of promotions and new assignments, part of his work to shape how “we could all work together in a way that was most productive, efficient, inspiring, collegial, and conducive to growth.” While some of the changes are “global, with the goal of lifting all the imprints…others are designed to strengthen and grow Workman’s core book business.” David Schiller has been promoted to group creative director, acting as Workman’s “in-house creative agency” and reporting to Reynolds. […]