The National Endowment of the Humanities announced the ten winners of this year’s National Humanities Medal, including authors Annie Dillard, Jhumpa Lahiri, Larry McMurtry, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, and Alice Waters. The winners will receive their honors at the September 10 ceremony at the White House. Separately, Stephen King and Tobias Wolff are among the recipients of the National Medal of Arts, also presented at next week’s ceremony. At Chronicle, Taylor Norman has been promoted to associate editor, children’s. Carolyn Bull will join the Little, Brown Children’s design department as junior designer for licensed books. Previously she was a design intern at […]
International News
People, Etc.
At Chronicle, Laura Lee Mattingly has been promoted to senior editor, while Sarah Billingsley moves up to senior editor, food & drink. Brendan Coyne has joined the Pennsylvania State University Press as director of sales and marketing. He was formerly associate sales director at Johns Hopkins University Press. Penguin Random House UK group UK sales director Garry Prior is retiring at the end of the year, after 35 years with associated companies. Co-founder and former chief technology officer of The Book Depository Emad Eldeen Elakehal will launch ibiidi.com, a global international bookselling website selling titles in multiple language and focusing […]
Hachette Book Group Consolidates Full US Distribution of Hachette UK
In a logical if perhaps overdue more, Hachette Book Group has announced that as of January 2016 they will handle full sales and distribution for Hachette UK titles in the United States. HBG has represented some Hachette UK lines — such as Octopus Books — for many years, and recently added others, like the Asterix line, in early 2015, along with acquired lines such Quercus, which was purchased by Hachette UK in mid-2014. And HBG has handled most Hachette UK titles in Canada since 2010. But other Hachette UK titles remained with Trafalgar Square for US distribution. HBG says that Hachette […]
Another Weak Year for Faber; A Weak RCS Waits A Little Longer to Close Mondadori Deal
UK independent publisher Faber has reported a second consecutive year of poor results. Reporting on a delayed basis — the latest figures are for the 12 months ending March 2015 — sales fell 1.8 percent to £15.9 million and the company recorded a significant operating loss of £813,000. That loss includes a “substantial one-off restructuring cost.” The company eliminated eight jobs in March. In the prior year, sales had fallen 18 percent to £16.26 million, and earnings went from more than £2 million to just below even. CEO Stephen Page tells The Bookseller, “Our view is that we have to be careful about what we publish […]
Briefs
Liz Esman has joined Crown as senior publicist, Crown, Hogarth, Broadway Books and Tim Duggan Books. Previously she was a publicist at HarperCollins. In addition, Morgan Carattini has been promoted to publishing manager for Crown, Archetype, Hogarth, Broadway Books, Tim Duggan Books, and Three Rivers Press. The Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin has acquired Kazuo Ishiguro‘s archive for a reported $1.1 million. Among the unpublished works included in the archive are an early pulp western, as well as a short novel called To Remember a Summer By. Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S […]
New Leadership for Harper India
CEO of Harper India P.M. Sukumar “has decided to leave the company to pursue other interests,” the parent company announced. “A replacement will be named in the coming weeks” they said, and “Sukumar will be involved in the transition of the business.” In other transitions, Harper India will report to Harper UK ceo Charlie Redmayne going forward. HarperCollins ceo Brian Murray says in the statement, “Sukumar has contributed substantially to HarperCollins India, leading a dynamic trade business over the last several years and adding the increasingly important Collins Education publishing program in 2013. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors.” Sukumar […]