Two updates to last Friday’s story on changes at Barnes & Noble. Supply chain vp Bob Knowles reports to Jaime Carey, not Joe Gonnella. And to be clear, Barnes & Noble vp, book development Bruce Lubin is leaving on his own accord to work full-time with with his wife on their proprietary publishing company Castle Point Publishing, developing products for the home shopping network. Elsewhere, at Simon & Schuster Children’s, Natalie White has been promoted to director of advertising. At Melville House, Megan Halpern has joined the publisher as publicist, replacing Clara Heyworth, who has left the company. Halpern was […]
Personnel
'Angela's Ashes' Author Frank McCourt, 78, Dies, and More People News
Scribner announced the passing of Frank McCourt on Sunday afternoon, as a result of metastatic melanoma. Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy said, “Frank will be deeply missed, both as an author and as a warm and welcome presence in our lives. He was as skilled at storytelling in person as in print, with the ability to engage his audience through his abundant wit, humility and ability to extract humor and pathos from life’s setbacks and tragedies. He served as an ambassador for both his own books and reading itself, remaining a champion of teachers and an enthusiast for the […]
People and Announcements
Yves Saada is joining Disney Publishing in the new role of vp, digital media. He will be responsible for the general management and strategic oversight of digital media within Disney’s global book group, including management of the fall 2009 launch of Disney Digital Books. Saada has held senior positions at companies including Pokemon USA, Mattel, Microsoft, and BrainPop. English PEN announced the PEN/Pinter Prize, an annual award named for the late playwright Harold Pinter to a British writer or a writer resident in Britain of outstanding literary merit who, in the words of Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech, casts an “unflinching, […]
People and Announcements
Sadly, the UK press is reporting that Frank McCourt‘s battle with skin cancer is near the end, citing a friend who indicates he “has deteriorated dramatically.” McCourt is reported to have been “transferred to a hospice at the weekend.”Belfast Telegraph The Observer reports that VS Naipaul has left longtime agent Gillon Aitken for Aitken’s one-time partner, Andrew Wylie. Wylie writes, “I think Vidia felt that it was, simply, time to move on. I can’t say with any authority what considerations were involved, but I do believe there is work to be done on the foreign rights side, as well as […]
People and Awards
At Grand Central, Celia Johnson has been promoted to associate editor: “We feel she’s a star in the making.” Executive director of Anova Books Roger Huggins will leave the company at the end of July. He says, “having spent over 40 years with Batsford and most recently as Executive Director of Anova Books, I feel it is now time to move on. In the future I hope to become involved in a variety of publishing projects and importantly also to find time to enjoy my many other interests.” Abby Anderson has been named sales and subsidiary rights manager at PublishingWorks. […]
People and Awards
Anova executive director Roger Huggins is to leave the company on July 31 when he intends to become involved in a “variety of publishing projects”. The Strand Magazine announced its Critics Awards on Wednesday night at a private cocktail ceremony in Manhattan. Richard Price won Best Novel for Lush Life and Tom Rob Smith won Best First Novel for Child 44. The Ted Hughes Award, launched by UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy to run over the course of her 10-year-term, will give out £5,000 annually to the poet who has made the “most exciting contribution” to poetry that year.