Longtime publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s in the UK Sarah Odedina will become managing director of “an entirely new children’s publishing company” in London as part of Bonnier Publishing. The line will launch in late 2011 or early 2012, focusing on children’s fiction across all age brackets. CEO of Bonnier Publishing Richard Johnson says in the announcement, “Bonnier is committed to grow in the English language and lead the way in quality children’s publishing and we could have wished for no one better than Sarah, one of the UK’s leading children’s publishers, to head this new initiative.” Odedina adds, “I […]
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Julia Cheiffetz has been named editorial director of Amazon’s New York-based publishing imprint under Larry Kirshbaum. He writes: “Julia’s sharp editorial sensibility and devotion to her authors, combined with her passion for new technology, makes her the perfect choice. She offers a unique blend of an entrepreneurial mind-set built upon a strong belief in the bedrock values of traditional literary and commercial publishing.” Cheiffetz, who starts on August 1, was at Harper most recently (which she originally joined as part of the experimental imprint Harper Studio). Andrea Walker will join The Penguin Press as a senior editor on August 1. […]
Remembrance: Clara Heyworth, 28
Verso announced Wednesday on their web site “the tragic loss of Clara Heyworth, marketing manager” after she was hit by a car in Brooklyn early Sunday. They say she never regained consciousness. “The loss to Verso is immeasurable…. While her primary interest was in publicity she had very strong editorial views and intervened forcefully whenever she felt that by taking on an inappropriate manuscript Verso’s standards would be diluted. A young life so meaninglessly and prematurely truncated pains us all, but we will not forget her or her bright-eyed smile that so often lit an entire office.” Heyworth was married […]
Remembrances: Carlisle, Roszak
Editor, novelist and former president of PEN America Henry Coffin Carlisle, Jr., 84, died yesterday in San Francisco of complications from pneumonia. He began his publishing career in New York at Knopf in 1954, editing books under the direction of Blanche Knopf. The author of many novels, along with his wife and frequent co-translator and co-author Olga, he helped organize the publication in the West of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s THE FIRST CIRCLE, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO while the author was still in the USSR. He was elected President of PEN America in 1976. In addition to his wife of sixty years, he […]
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Heather Lazare will join Touchstone as a senior editor on August 1, reporting to editorial director Sally Kim. Lazare is currently editor and publishing manager of Crown Trade Paperbacks. Prior to Crown, she worked at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Brien McDonald has been promoted to BEA’s director of strategic accounts for Book Expo America (BEA). He will be responsible for special projects for business development as well as overseeing all of BEA’s digital initiatives. At Candlewick Press, Sarah Ketchersid has been promoted to executive editor.
People: Rowling on New Projects; Harris Closing Book on Sookie Stackhouse; and More
JK Rowling said in several interviews to coincide with Friday’s opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II film that she has written “quite a lot” of new material and has plans to publish it. (Previously she said she was working simultaneously on a political fairytale for children and a novel for adults.) “I think I always felt I didn’t want to publish again until the last film was out because Potter has been such a huge thing in my life. I’ve been writing hard ever since I finished writing Hallows, so I’ve got a lot of stuff […]