People Round Up, Early August 2022

PEOPLE

Two years after joining Simon & Schuster as publisher of the adult imprint, SVP Dana Canedy is stepping down to write a sequel to her memoir, A Journal for Jordan. Her sequel, which Simon & Schuster plans to publish in 2024, is currently untitled. Canedy was previously administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.

Diana Miller has been named VP and executive editor at Knopf. At Penguin Random House Publisher Services, Colleen Murphy has been appointed VP and director of national accounts; she was formerly VP of trade sales, speciality mass market, and production development at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. At Random House Children’s Books, Véronique Sweet joins as art director; previously, she was art director and picture book designer at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Also at Random House Children’s Books, Nadia Vertlib, previously product manager at Whitley, has joined as product manager. Dorothy Boyajy, contracts director at Crown, has retired.

Taryn Roeder, formerly senior director of publicity at HarperCollinsWilliam Morrow imprint, has joined Abrams as executive director of publicity for adult books.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Erin Toller joins as senior director of marketing. Jill Hacking joins as associate director of marketing operations and events. At Post Hill Press, Adriana Senior joins as west coast acquiring editor-at-large. 

Rachel Reiss has joined Shelf Awareness as director of marketing. She was  most recently VP, associate publisher for Harlequin Trade Publishers.

Kaitlyn Kennedy, formerly senior account manager at Agency H5, is joining Kaye Publicity, Inc. as publicity director. She can be contacted at kaitlyn@kayepublicity.com.

Tara Lehmann, formerly publicity director at Oni Press, has joined TKO Studios as director of publicity.

Michael Higgins joins Harvard Education Publishing Group as associate director of marketing; he was previously marketing and promotion coordinator at Harvard University Press. 

At Ingram Content Group, Caitlin Kleinschmidt, formerly associate director of national accounts at Workman, joins as senior key accounts sales manager for Lightning Source.

At Zibby Books, Kathleen Harris joins as executive editor. Kristine Anderson joins as trade marketing director; formerly, Kristine was marketing director at Quarto. Megan Ruggiero has joined ZCast as marketing manager.

Emily Taber is joining Basic Books and Seal Press as executive editor. She was previously acquisitions editor at MIT Press. 

At Scholastic, Liz Palumbo joins as senior production editor; she was formerly associate managing editor at Abrams Children’s Books. Cindy Kim, lately associate editor at Little Simon, has joined Scholastic as editor, ages 0–8.

Stephan Moore, formerly marketing manager at Pushkin, has joined Spiegel & Grau as senior marketing manager. Nicole Dewey joins as publishing director. She will continue to run her PR firm Dewey Media Group. 

Julianna Lee Marino has been named education programs manager at the National Book Foundation. Madeleine Shelton has been named awards and honors manager.

At Sourcebooks, India Hunter has joined as production editor. Zach Ramsdell joins as special markets coordinator. Teresa Devanzo joins as national accounts manager. 

Betsy Groban has been appointed book review editor of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She can be contacted at betsy.groban@gmail.com.

Emily King, lately acquisitions editor at Fortress Press, has joined University of Notre Dame Press as senior religion editor. She can be contacted at emilyrbrower@gmail.com.

Stephen Fall, formerly foreign editions manager at Eaglemoss, has joined Insight Editions as editor. 



PROMOTIONS

At Simon & Schuster, Priscilla Painton has been promoted from editorial director of nonfiction to SVP to take over for Dana Canedy. Keith Parent has been promoted to vice president at Simon & Schuster Publisher Services.

At Penguin Random House, Janice Barcena has been promoted to VP and contracts director.  Scott Gould joins as director of business development at Penguin Random House Publisher Services. Jeremy Wrubel, Grace Beehler, and Beth Pizio have all been promoted to the position of associate director of subsidiary rights contracts. Amy Myer has been promoted to VP and contracts director at Random House Children’s Books and Kerry Milliron has been promoted to VP of brand management and business development. Nicole Biton has been promoted to publicist at Putnam.

Alexis Banyon has been promoted to senior director content development, custom & proprietary sales at Sourcebooks.

Zachary Greenwald has been promoted to associate publisher for Artisan Books and Workman Adult. He is also the executive managing editor at Artisan Books. Allison McGeehon has been promoted to executive director of publicity, marketing, and publishing strategy for Artisan Books. Judy Pray has been promoted to editorial director of food and drink for Artisan Books and Workman Books. Stephanie Mendoza has been promoted to associate director of publicity at Algonquin Books and Workman Publishing

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Benita Flucker has been named to the new position of chief equity and inclusion officer, focusing on “internal and public-facing DEI efforts.”

Ed Schlesinger has been promoted to executive editor at Gallery Books. Megan Manning has been promoted to telemarking account manager at Simon & Schuster. At Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Cassandra Fernandez has been promoted to marketing manager. Saleena Nival has been promoted to digital marketing coordinator. Amelia Johnson has been promoted to marketing operations coordinator and events. Alisa Sakakura has been promoted to marketing designer at Insight Editions. 

Rachel Gluckstern has been promoted to executive editor at InterPop.

At Scholastic, Jenne Abramowitz has been promoted to editorial director.

In agency news… Mike Salisbury has been promoted to senior literary agent at Yates & Yates. Giselle Gonzalez has been promoted to publicist at Tom Doherty Associates.

Andrea Nelson has been promoted to managing editor of young adult nonfiction at Lerner Publishing Group. Cindy Jerome has been promoted to production director at Lerner Publishing Group. Lindsay Matvick has been promoted to publicity director. Brad Richason has been promoted to direct sales manager.

Sophie James has been promoted to publicist at Harlequin Trade Publishing.

Alicia Samuel has been promoted to senior key account sales manager for Lightning Source at Ingram Content Group.

At Amazon Publishing, Kristin Lunghamer has been promoted to publicity lead. 

At Guilford Press, Brooke Horn has been promoted to junior education project manager. 

At Candlewick Press, Ainslie Campbell-Schwartz has been promoted to assistant editor. Janella Angeles has been promoted to contracts & rights administrator. 

DULY NOTED

The first annual Sonny Mehta Fellowships and Sonny Mehta Scholarships have been awarded to four international students at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of East Anglia. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Bader Al-Awadi has been named Poetry Fellow and Waseem Rashid has been named Fiction Fellow. At the University of East Anglia, Zui Kumar-Reddy has been awarded a Scholarship in Creative Writing for prose fiction and Perla Kantarjian has been awarded a Scholarship in Creative Writing for poetry.

After its most recent elections, the Association of American Literary Agents has named Jennifer Weltz of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency its new director.