Beth Harrison is joining the National Book Foundation as deputy director. She comes from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, where she was assistant executive director for development and external relations. Previously she served for 11 years at the Academy of American Poets, most recently as interim executive director. Michael Eisenberg has been promoted to vice president, associate publisher for the Highlights Retail Group. Melanie Iglesias Perez, Loan Le, and Haley Weaver have each been promoted to assistant editor at Atria Books. Distribution Ampersand will represent Self-Counsel Press in Canada, from Alberta to Eastern Canada.
Personnel
People: Senior to Leave Critic Role, Bill Clinton at NBF Dinner, and More
NYT book critic Jennifer Senior “has decided to leave” her position in December, moving to a long-form journalism role at the paper. Pamela Paul and Radhika Jones write in their announcement: “Hired as a critic of nonfiction books, Jennifer proved an omnivore across genres, bringing attention to new voices in fiction and covering subjects ranging from the art of dying to the life of truckers to the obsessions of Richard Nixon.” She will “continue to contribute reviews to the Book Review, as she has for many years.” The paper “will now begin our search for a new nonfiction critic.” President […]
Briefs: Cooke and McDermid Merge, and More
HarperCollins celebrated their 200th anniversary one more time with drinks on the floor of the Frankfurt Book Fair towards the end of the business day, with ceo Brian Murray honoring “how resilient HarperCollins has been, and how resilient the publishing industry has been.” In a nod to yesterday’s remark by Andrew Wylie, Murray remarked, “Even though we may be bewildering to some people, I think at HarperCollins, we know that we know what we are doing.” Canada’s The Cooke Agency and The McDermid Agency have emerged to form CookeMcDermid. The new company will be owned in equal parts by McDermid owners […]
People: Nguyen and Ward Win MacArthur Grants, and More
The latest class of 24 MacArthur Fellows was named, and they include novelist and critic Viet Thanh Nguyen, 46, and novelist and memoirist Jesmyn Ward, 40. Also winning grants were playwright Annie Baker, 36, who won the Pulitzer in 2014 for “The Flick,” and NYT Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, 41. Hannah-Jones’s first book The Problem We All Live With is forthcoming from One World in 2019. Another winner, artist and geographer Trevor Paglen, 43, has also published a number of books. At Atria, Stephanie Mendoza has been promoted to senior publicist and Rachel Brenner has been promoted to associate publicist. Ingram announced […]
People, Etc.
At The Bright Agency, Anne Moore Armstrong has been promoted to senior trade agent and James Burns has been promoted to managing agent. Editor and translator Elianna Kan has joined Regal Hoffmann & Associates as an affiliate agent, with a focus on representing Spanish-language titles. William Morris Endeavor will represent Dutch publisher Lebowski‘s titles in crime/suspense, true crime, and grounded sci-fi, for publishing rights outside of Holland as well as film and TV. Ellen Kokontis has been promoted to associate art director for Albert Whitman. Awards Richard Thaler, of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, was awarded the Nobel Prize […]
People, Etc.
Following Kazuo Ishiguro‘s Nobel win, Knopf will reprint 200,00 copies of his assorted backlist, all with reprinted jackets bearing the Nobel seal. A poster was created for bookstores as well, with more promotional efforts on the way shortly. Julie Ertl is joining Vintage and Anchor as a senior publicist, starting October 9. She was most recently with Little, Brown. At Simon & Schuster, Stuart Roberts has been promoted to associate editor and Zachary Knoll has been promoted to assistant editor. Lara Jones has been promoted to assistant editor at Emily Bestler Books. At Touchstone, Shida Carr has been promoted to associate director of publicity […]