LAT book critic David Ulin is leaving the paper on December 15, among those taking the company’s buyout offer. He writes to LA Observed: “This is an opportunity for me to focus further on my writing, which I have been wanting to do.” The newspaper’s book editor Joy Press left quietly earlier in the year as well (and is working on a book for Atria), and apparently also took a buyout. That seems to leave Carolyn Kellogg as the only staff member focused on books. Rob Kirkpatrick has joined The Stuart Agency as a literary agent, focusing in nonfiction, including […]
International News
People, Etc.
Elizabeth Schaefer will join Del Rey as senior editor on December 14. Previously she was an editor at Scholastic. Lindsay Walter-Greaney has joined Little, Brown Children’s as associate managing editor. She was most recently senior production editor at Scholastic. In Sweden, publisher Lind & Co. and literary agent Carina Brandt at Brandt New Agency have partnered on Stockholm Noir Agency, a new international literary agency focusing on Nordic crime and suspense novels, headed by Jenni Brunn (previously a project coordinator at Lind & Co.) As part of the joint venture, Stockholm Noir will represent Lind & Co.’s list. KF Literary Scouting […]
Balcells Told VF None of The Buyout Offers Was Good Enough
Former FSG editor Paul Elie’s Vanity Fair article ostensibly about the publication history of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE also turns out to be the last published interview given by Carmen Balcells, seven weeks before her death earlier this fall. In it she explains in further detail why the “memorandum of understanding” between Balcells and the Wylie agency fell apart: “Balcells clearly trusted Wylie enough to have taken things that far. So why wasn’t the deal done? Because, Balcells said, she surmised that Wylie anticipated closing the office on the Diagonal in Barcelona and folding the Balcells […]
People: Helen Brann Dies, and More
Literary agent Helen Wetmore Brann, 82, died suddenly on Monday of complications from cancer. In July, Brann “entered into a success plan” with ICM. She started her agency in 1974 — among the first women to open her own agency — after working at the Sterling Lord Agency. Over her career she had represented writers including Julian Barnes, Richard Brautigan, Gerald Clarke, Daniel Yergin, Rod McKuen, Barbara Leaming, Stephen Sondheim, Robert B. Parker and Maya Angelou. A private service will be held at a later date. Donations in her memory can be made to the Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. In other personnel news, Rachel […]
People, Etc.
Doug Foot is retiring from Penguin Random House Canada, where he was evp, chief financial officer. Succeeding him, effective immediately, is chief operating officer Barry Gallant, who will oversee the finance, contracts, and information technology departments while keeping responsibility for publishing and sales operations, as well as warehouse and office administration. Foot, who first joined Random House of Canada in 1993, will staying through March 2016 “to assist with year-end and ongoing projects.” Newly reporting to Gallant are Cheralyn Wheeler, controller; Samantha North, director, contracts; and Ed Brooks, director, I.T. Melanie Britton and Donna Miller and their teams, as well as James Rowan, […]
Corporate: Big Quarto Investors Exit, NGS Closes Fox Deal
The Quarto Group disclosed that two significant shareholders — Harwood Capital and Wellcome Trust — have sold their holdings in the company. As a result, Harwood managing partner Christopher Mills will step down from his position as a non-executive director of the company when a replacement has been appointed. Mills notes in the announcement, “In the three years since Harwood took a hands-on approach to our investment in Quarto with the support of Wellcome and others, the share price has improved by close to 50 percent. The corporate governance of the company is now in accordance with best practice, the management team of Tim Chadwick, Chairman, and Marcus […]