People 10/30

Brent Howard has been named executive editor for history (trade and academic books) based in the New York office. Howard was formerly executive editor at Penguin Random House.

Morgan Jones has been promoted to senior editor for politics.

VP and publisher at Knopf Children’s Melanie Nolan will leave the company on November 30, and Crown Children’s editor at large Phoebe Yeh will leave at the end of the year, PW reports.

Anna Skrabacz has been promoted to marketing director. 

Luiza De Campos Mello Grijns has been promoted to associate publicist/assistant editor.

Blake West has joined as developer on the IT team, reporting to Abhishek Mirajkar. He was previously at PerfectServe.

Word Bookstore’s two locations in Brooklyn and Jersey City, NJ are for sale by owners Christine and Vincent Onorati, in advance of their move out of the country next year, Shelf Awareness reports. According to Christine, the stores hit record sales in 2025 and are up 25 percent year-to-date in 2026.

“It’s a wonderful time to take them over,” Christine said.