At Random House Children’s, Jennifer Baker has joined as a managing editor. She was previously production editor for Teachers College Press. Jinna Shin has been promoted to assistant art director; Bob Bianchini to senior designer; April Ward to senior art director; Nicole de las Heras to senior art director; Tracy Tyler to senior executive art director; Roberta Ludlow to executive art director; and Alison Kolani to executive director, copyediting. Sara Birmingham has been promoted to associate editor at Ecco. Ben LeRoy has joined Crooked Lane Books as senior acquisitions editor focusing on crime fiction. He was previously founder and publisher of […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
People, Etc.
Rachel Fershleiser will join Counterpoint Press/Catapult/Soft Skull in early February as associate publisher, executive marketing director. She was senior director of marketing at Knopf. Also in February, Alyson Forbes will join the company as associate publisher, head of sales. She was vp, executive director of marketing strategy at Hachette Book Group. Emma Brodie will join Little, Brown’s Voracious on January 29 as executive editor, reporting to Michael Szczerban. She was previously senior editor for the Morrow Gift line at William Morrow. At Sourcebooks, Meg Gibbons has been promoted to senior editor, Simple Truths. At Doubleday, Nora Grubb and Cara Reilly have […]
People, Etc.
Nancy Brennan will join Candlewick as executive art director, starting January 16. She has worked at Viking Children’s for 18 years. Katherine Wessbecher has joined the Bradford Literary Agency as literary agent. Previously, she was associate editor at Putnam Children’s. At Severn House, owned by Canongate, publisher Kate Lyall Grant has joined the company’s board. Ten Speed Press executive editor Lisa Westmoreland has “embarked on a new adventure” and is no longer at the company. Jason Reynolds will succeed Jacqueline Woodson as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for the next two years, announced jointly by The Library of Congress, […]
Briefs
Film/TV Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, through their company Escapist Fare, have signed a multi-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios. That deal starts with a limited series adaptation of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for Showtime, but includes a number of other projects in development. Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman will executive produce Kavalier & Clay, and Paramount Television will produce (since Paramount Pictures owns the film/TV rights). Initiatives This year James Patterson will give holiday gifts totaling over $200,000 to Barnes & Noble booksellers around the country as well, in addition to his annual holiday bonuses […]
People, Etc.
Marianne Velmans, publishing director at Doubleday UK, will retire in April, after 31 years with the imprint. She will be succeeded by Kirsty Dunseath who joined as publishing director in March. Transworld manager director Larry Finlay told The Bookseller, “Not only is Marianne a wonderful editor and publisher but she is also a lovely, warm, supportive person. It has been a huge pleasure to work with her for so long. She is smart, dedicated, and a fabulous champion both of her authors and her colleagues. So many have benefitted from her wisdom and care over the years. We will all […]
Briefs: Highsmith’s Diaries, and More
Canadian literary agent and chief operating officer of Macmillan Canada from 1982 through 1989 Arnold Gosewich, 85, died on October 20 in Toronto. He was 85. A book presenting excerpts from the late Patricia Highsmith‘s extensive diaries will be published by Liveright in 2021, providing “a glimpse into the life of a literary figure” who “was a secretive, often prickly woman who remained a cipher even to her friends and lovers, and a trailblazer who wrote one of the first mainstream novels depicting two women in love.” The pages are drawn from 56 spiral-bound notebooks, comprising 8,000 pages, found by […]