Ibrahim Ahmad will join Viking as executive editor starting January 11, reporting to Andrea Schulz. He was previously editorial director at Akashic Books, where he worked for two decades. Selena James has joined Amazon Publishing as senior editor for Little A and Amazon Original Stories. She was previously at Kensington. Stephanie Purcell will join Bloomsbury UK as group rights director, reporting to Kathleen Farrar. She has been rights director at Simon & Schuster UK. Clark Christian has been hired as marketing director for the Thomas Nelson Bible group. Most recently he worked in product marketing for healthcare education company, PESI. Layoffs […]
New Imprints
People, Etc.
Annysa Polanco has been promoted to director, diversity, equity & inclusion at Penguin Random House. In the coming year, the company will add “more fully-dedicated positions” in diversity, equity & inclusions roles across the divisions, including a new “board-level DE&I leadership position” that will report directly to PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh. Polanco will report to that new executive once the role is filled. Michael DeFazio had been promoted to vice president & executive director, production planning, analytics, and paper purchasing, Penguin Random House. Film/TV Production outfit The Mazur Kaplan Company — run by bookseller Mitchell Kaplan and producer Paula […]
People, Etc.
Alison Rich has been promoted to the newly created role of senior vice president, author development, Penguin Random House, reporting to Nina von Moltke. She “will take the lead in helping us push further with the author brand development work.” Rich continues to oversee licensing-business development for the adult divisions, the Out of Print merchandising group, and the Author Portal, which will “look to build functionality and programming.” Newly reporting to her is vp, executive director PRH Speakers Bureau Tiffany Tomlin. Laura Eckes has been promoted to senior designer for Simon & Schuster Children’s and Paula Wiseman Books. At Atheneum, […]
People, Etc.
Jenny Chen will join Ballantine Bantam Dell as a senior editor on November 16, reporting to Jennifer Hershey. She was at Crooked Lane Books.. At Hachette Nashville, Sean McGowan has joined as editor, acquiring for Center Street, Faith Words, and Worthy. India Hunter has joined as associate editor, acquiring for Faith Words and Worthy. At Brower Literary & Management, Aimee Ashcraft has been promoted to literary agent and Anna Atoria to associate subrights agent. Zoila Peña has been promoted to assistant manager of customer service for all Workman Publishing imprints. Imprints goop Press will try again, this time through Rodale Books. The magazine […]
People, Etc.: A New Penguin Random House Español Division, and More
Penguin Random House is creating a new Penguin Random House Español division as of January 1 that will bring together Miami-based Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial USA with the New York-based Vintage Español, announced Monday by PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh. Silvia Matute will serve as president of the new division, out of Miami, continuing to report to Roberto Banchik at Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial. Vintage Español team members will remain based in New York and report to Matute effective immediately, and Vintage Español publishing director Cristobal Pera will “move on…later in the new year” after advising throughout the […]
Molly Stern Launches New Publisher, Zando
Two years after she was dismissed from her position as svp, publisher of Crown in a reorganization after it was merged into the Random House Publishing Group, Molly Stern has formally announced her new independent publishing company, Zando (named for her sons, Zach and Oscar). The company is backed by “a significant start-up investment” from Sister, the studio founded in 2019 by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone. Those three all sit on Zando’s board of directors, along with Matthew Lieber of Gimlet, and producer David Benioff. Murdoch says “Molly and Sister have a huge passion for new voices” […]