The Booker Prize announced their shortlist, with the winner to be named October 13 [Update: The correct awards date is October 25]. Two Americans — Paul Beatty for his NBCC-winning novel and Ottessa Moshfegh for her PEN/Hemingway debut winner — are in contention in a field that includes no previous Booker winners. (Deborah Levy was shortlisted in 2012 for Swimming Home.) Since the longlist, Norton has picked up US rights to Madeleine Thien’s novel, and will publish on October 11. Graeme Macrae Burnet will continue to draw attention after garnering a nomination for a crime thriller, and Skyhorse has bumped up the […]
Personnel
AAP CEO Tom Allen to Retire In Early 2017
The Association of American Publishers announced that ceo Tom Allen will retire from his post “in early 2017.” Allen has run the organization since April 2009. He says in a statement: “It has been a privilege to lead AAP these past seven years and I am proud of all we have accomplished. After twenty years commuting to and from Washington, it’s time for me to return to Maine and dedicate myself to part-time and mostly voluntary activities like environmental conservation, writing and perhaps teaching about Congress and American politics. I look forward to working with the AAP board and management team as we prepare […]
Gibson to Leave Bloomsbury; Loh to Run US Division
Bloomsbury US publishing director George Gibson will leave the company after Thanksgiving as part of a restructuring of Bloomsbury US that moves children’s publishing director Cindy Loh up to the new role of vp, publishing director, consumer publishing, overseeing both adult and children’s publishing. In its latest realignment, Bloomsbury is dividing its business into consumer and non-consumer divisions. The company says that the US business had sales of $52 million last year. Richard Charkin, who is scheduled to step back to working two days a week in 2017, serves as president of Bloomsbury USA “while all these changes are taking place.” Managing […]
People
Jana Branson has joined Clarkson Potter this week as associate director of publicity. Previously she was director of communications at Sequential Brands Group (formerly Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia), and replaces Anna Mintz, who is leaving Clarkson Potter to move back home to Atlanta and make a lifestyle change. In addition, Erica Gelbard has been promoted to executive publicist. Park Literary & Media is now representing foreign and audio rights for Sasquatch Books. Sharon Olds has been named the recipient of the Academy of American Poets’ $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award, deemed “an American master and a national treasure”.
People, Awards, Etc.
Katie Grinch has been promoted to associate director of publicity at Putnam. Morgan Amer will join Chronicle as trade sales coordinator on September 13. She was an assistant manager at Ryland Peters & Small. Author of the Llama Llama children’s books Anna Dewdney, 50, died on Saturday of brain cancer. Forthcoming Scribner will issue a collection of what they call “the last remaining unpublished and uncollected short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald” in April 2017, edited by Anne Margaret Daniel, titled I’D DIE FOR YOU. The promo copy notes that “some of these stories were submitted to major magazines and accepted for publication during Fitzgerald’s lifetime but […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Susan Ruszala has resigned from her position as president of NetGalley after 10 years with the company developing the business, and is exploring both consulting and full-time positions. She can be reached via sruszala@gmail.com. Fran Toolan has taken over day-to-day operations of NetGalley and “will continue to indefinitely.” VP, director of publicity at Simon & Schuster Children’s Jennifer Romanello is leaving on September 15, and will join Emi Battaglia Public Relations as a partner on October 1. (Romanello and Battaglia worked together for 20 years at Warner Books and Grand Central.) S&S Children’s president Jon Anderson writes, “In the two years she has been […]