Alexa Pastor has been promoted to editor for Atheneum. Ashley Vanicek has been promoted to PR specialist at Amazon Publishing, supporting Lake Union Publishing and Thomas & Mercer. Mark Weinstein has joined Diversion Books as senior editor. He was previously an executive editor at Rodale Books, Staci Burt has joined Grand Central as publicity manager. She was previously at St. Martin’s. Hannah Zirkler joined the Marianne Schönbach Literary Agency in the Netherlands as literary agent/executive assistant. Forthcoming Kate Atkinson will publish BIG SKY, her first Jackson Brodie novel since 2010 next year in June with Doubleday UK and Transworld.
Personnel
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Alive Literary Agency founder and CEO Rick Christian will step down March 1 after 30 years, and the agency has been sold internally to president Bryan Norman and evp Lisa Jackson. “I am grateful I could spend the bulk of my working years doing what I love with people I adore, realize my dreams, and accomplish the tasks with which I was entrusted,” said Christian. “There is no greater joy than to now pass the baton to such qualified successors.” Christian will work with novelist Karen Kingsbury and her son Tyler Russell and consult with the agency for three years […]
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Margaux Weisman has joined Penguin as editor, moving over from Vintage/Anchor where she was editor. Mora Couch has been promoted to associate editor at Holiday House. Lion Forge Comics has eliminated 12 positions, including editor Greg Tumbarello, Bleeding Cool reported. In line with the positioning of other publisher layoffs recently, the company says they fired people to fuel their future: “We are restructuring from the top down, and across departments to ensure that our organization’s size and structure remains in line with our sales, as well as providing support for future increase in title output.” They note: “Lion Forge has experienced a […]
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Naomi Gibbs has been promoted to senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Richard Rhorer has been promoted to vp and deputy publisher of the Simon & Schuster Publishing Group. At Westwood Creative Artists, Meg Wheeler has been promoted to associate agent, representing writers of literary and commercial fiction as well as non-fiction. She will continue to assist Bruce Westwood and act as rights associate under WCA’s international rights director Carolyn Forde. Forthcoming An early galley for Leslie Jamison‘s collection of essays Make It Scream, Make It Burn — named for this 2013 essay in the Oxford American, and publishing in October 2019 […]
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James Jayo has joined Penguin as senior editor. Previously, he was at Sterling. Two longtime Penguin Random House sales executives will retire soon. VP, group sales director, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Janet Cooke will leave at the end of the year, and Christopher Dufault is being promoted to that position. SVP, director of adult hardcover sales, Penguin Publishing Group John Lawton is retiring in the spring (having worked for Penguin since 1996), and vp, group sales director Lauren Monaco will expand her oversight to all of the division’s imprints. Additionally, Cynthia Lasky is formally named svp, group sales director for the newly-combined […]
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At Doubleday, Margo Shickmanter has been promoted to editor. Tara Feehan will join Harper Children’s as vp, finance and administration, moving over from the operations & technology finance team, and reporting to Suzanne Murphy. Feehan succeeds Randy Rosema who will retire in January. Shari Black has joined Harper Christian as senior director of marketing for the specialty publishing division. She previously worked in account sales and marketing for Warner Bros. Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, and Walmart. At Workman Publishing, Constance Edmonds has been promoted to promotion coordinator across all imprints. Ashley McPhee joins as promotion coordinator for the Workman imprint. She was previous a […]