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Michelle Howry joins as editorial director of Little, Brown Spark starting February 23. She was most recently executive editor at Putnam, where her focus on commercial nonfiction.

Current vp, editorial director of Little, Brown Spark Talia Krohn will leave the company on February 20.

Publisher of the line Michael Szczerban will shift his attention entirely to his role as vp, publisher of Voracious, the imprint he founded in 2019.

Separately, Aya Elamroussi joins HBG as director of communications. She most recently served the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, where she led internal and external communications

Aaron Priest, founder and owner of the Aaron Priest Literary Agency announced his retirement.

Senior agent Mitch Hoffman becomes the new owner and president of the agency.

Natalie Rosselli has been promoted to associate agent and will build her own list of clients.

Priest says, “Several years ago, I realized that I wasn’t going to work forever. After founding the agency in 1974 and being proud of the reputation it’s earned, I knew, after fifty years, it was time to pass the torch. I worked with Mitch as an editor and knew that he is forthright, very knowledgeable about the book business and a good and honorable man. He was the right fit to take over the agency.”

John Burnham Schwartz has been promoted to executive editor, after serving as editor at large.

Zuanarda “Z” Causey has been named director of sales, charged with leading national library sales strategy, strengthening customer engagement, and broadening Ingram’s impact across public libraries throughout the United States. Most recently he was sales director at SirsiDynix.

Also joining the growing team are business development managers Michael Erving and Margaret Hansen, inside sales specialist Harley Beckmann, systems integration specialists Teresa Eldred and Austin Wolfe, and technical service specialists Amy Guerrero and Amanda Bimson.

Eamon Dunn has been promoted to associate editor.

Jane McGehee joins as an agent and foreign rights manager. She was most recently as deputy literary scout at Jenny La Plante.

Michael Kaler has been promoted to associate agent.

As part of the deal for Lakeside Book Company to acquire Baker & Taylor’s distribution business, Lakeside’s publishing arm Dover has acquired Paw Prints Publishing as an imprint. Bobbie Bensur has joined as editor at large.