Two editors at Pocket, including editorial director Maggie Crawford, and an editorial assistant at Simon Spotlight Entertainment were laid off last week, the Observer reports. At Little Brown UK, David Shelley has been promoted to the new position of deputy publisher. French-language bookstore Librairie de France will close at the end of September after 74 years in business at New York’s Rockefeller Center. The store faced a tripling of its rent.NYDN
Personnel
People: Sheila Lukins, 66, Dies of Brain Cancer
Lukins, the co-author of the Silver Palate Cookbooks and longtime food editor at Parade died Sunday after a brief battle with brain cancer.ParadeLAT obit
People: Munro Leaves Giller to Others
Recent Man Booker International Prize winner and two-time Giller winner Alice Munro, 78, has withdrawn her just-released story collection TOO MUCH HAPPINESS from consideration for the 2009 Giller prize. Publisher Douglas Gibson says: “Her reason is that she has won twice and would like to leave the field to younger writers. In my role as greedy publisher I pointed out that the Giller Prize produces so much publicity, that even to be nominated for it is tremendous publicity. But her mind is made up on this. Alice preferred to withdraw from the competition.”Globe and Mail
People and Announcements
Clara Heyworth has joined Verso Publishing as Marketing Manager. Previously she was at Melville House as its Publicist, and started her career at Verso UK’s offices. Will Powers, design and production manager for Minnesota Historical Society Press, died on August 25 of a heart attack. He was 63.PW obit University Presses in the UK (with the exception of Cambridge and Oxford) have joined forces to create a formal association through which they can cut costs, share skills and lobby the government.The Bookseller The longlist for the Guardian First Book Award includes debut works by Rief Larsen, Samantha Harvey and Ali […]
People
At Random House Publishing Group, Kristen Fassler has been named Deputy Director, Marketing, reporting to Sanyu Dillon, and Carolyn Schwartz has been appointed VP, Director of Ad/Promo, reporting to Stacey Witcraft. Both begin their positions on September 3. David Inman has been appointed sales and marketing director of Quarto UK, reporting to Ken Fund. Previously he was international sales director for the Octopus Group. J.P. Hunting has joined HarperCollins UK as key account manager for children’s sales. Previously he was the children’s book buyer for Borders UK.
People and Announcements
Rowland White has joined Orion to set up a new imprint, as yet untitled, which will publish 12 books per year beginning in 2011. Previously he was at Penguin/Michael Joseph, where he was the publishing director for non-fiction. Kate Gunning has been named key accounts manager for independents for Random House, effective September 7. Previously she was head buyer at Foyles. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick has won the Book of the Year award from the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. The SoCal Independent Booksellers Association has announced the shortlists for its annual awards in several categories, including fiction, […]