Following the recent news of Houghton Mifflin‘s planned acquisition of Harcourt, Gary Gentel has been appointed Interim President of the Trade and Reference Division, effective immediately. HM Chairman, President and CEO Tony Lucki told employees that “Gary will lead the division’s strategic direction with the support of the Trade and Reference management team, who will report directly to him. He will also be an instrumental part of planning the integration of Harcourt Trade with Houghton Mifflin Trade and Reference.” Gentel has served as the division’s Corporate VP, Director of Sales for the past four years. Prior to joining HM, he was VP of Trade Sales at Scholastic, and had previously worked at Candlewick Press as President, and at DK and Random House.

Separately, it was announced that George Hodgman is moving to Houghton Mifflin Adult Trade as VP, Senior Executive Editor, starting in the New York office in early September and reporting to Publisher Janet Silver. He had previously been Executive Editor at Holt.

Will Balliett, former Publisher and Editorial Director of Carroll & Graf Publishers and Thunder’s Mouth Press, is joining Hyperion as Editorial Director, as of August 8 and reporting to SVP Editor in Chief Will Schwalbe. Meanwhile Katie Wainwright, Executive Director of Publicity and Associate Publisher of Trade Paperbacks at Hyperion, has joined Crown as VP, Executive Director of Publicity, reporting to Jenny Frost. She succeeds Tina Constable, who last month was named VP and Publisher for Crown Publishers, Crown Business, and Crown Forum.

After two months at Hilsinger-Mendelson, Brian Belfiglio is leaving to take Elizabeth Hayes‘ place as VP Publicity at Scribner. He starts in mid-August. Hayes – who had moved over from S&S to Scribner six months ago, is leaving to work in the film industry, as a producer.

Pamela Cannon will join Ballantine as Editor at Large on September 10, acquiring and editing lifestyle books, and reporting to Libby McGuire, SVP and Publisher. She will work from her office in Connecticut, where she previously ran Cannon Literary Services, specializing in editorial, publicity and marketing services for authors, agents and publishers including The New York Times and Bon Appétit.

Garrett P. Kiely, President of Palgrave Macmillan, has been named Director of the University of Chicago Press. He succeeds the retiring Paula Barker Duffy, who is moving to the East Coast. Kiely will begin on September 1; Deputy Director Chris Heiser is serving as interim director as of July 1.

Lots of movement in sales and marketing circles:

Greg Brandenburgh has become Sales and Marketing Director of Hampton Roads Publishing. Earlier he worked for Thorson/Element, Tuttle Publishing and HarperOne. . . . Unbridled Books has hired Steven Wallace as Sales Director. He was a field rep and then Divisional Director for Field Sales at Random House for more than 18 years. . . . Mike Rohrig has gone to Dalmatian Press in Atlanta, as Senior Director of Sales. Most recently he had been at Scholastic. Michelle Patterson has left Globe Pequot and is now Senior Director of Marketing at Kaplan Publishing. Yulia Borodyanskaya has also gone to Kaplan, as International Sales and Rights Manager. . . . Phaidon has hired Sharon Huerta as North American Sales Manager. She was Director of Field and International Sales at HNA/Abrams. Meanwhile, HNA has hired Julia Coblentz as Director of Marketing. She was at Broadway Books/Random where she was most recently Associate Marketing Director. Justin Nisbit has joined HNA as Director of Digital Initiatives and comes from Workman Publishing where he was Web Manager. Both report to VP of Sales, Mary Wowk who now officially takes on the responsibility for marketing in addition to sales. . . . At Harper, Campbell Wharton will join the company as Associate Director of Publicity. He had been at Publicity Manager for Crown Forum.

The Ingram Book Group has hired Skip Prichard as its COO. He was formerly president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning.

Following on the resignation of Ric Vanzura, EVP emerging business and technology, chief strategy officer, Teresa Wright was appointed VP, Merchandising, Paperchase U.S. Division and Myles Romero was named VP, Strategic Marketing and Entertainment Alliances.

Bill Nasshan, SVP of trade books at Borders Group, has left the company. Rob Gruen, EVP, merchandising and marketing, will assume his duties.

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd announced the appointment of Oliver Gadsby as Chief Executive of its worldwide publishing business. His previous role was as Director of Strategy & Acquisitions with Informa PLC, which includes Taylor & Francis and Routledge. Continuum also announced the appointment of Bob Marsh as Chief Financial Officer of the group reporting directly to the Gadsby. He had been the CFO of the North American business of Continuum and prior to that of Morehouse Publishing. Ed Suthon has left the company and may be reached at edsuthon@aol.com.

Helen Atsma has joined Holt as Editor, Adult Trade. She has been an associate editor at Little, Brown. . . . Counterpoint has hired both Sharon Donovan as Publishing Director, reporting to CEO and Publisher Charlie Winton, and Abbye Simkowitz as Publicity Manager. They will work from the company’s new Berkeley, CA office and be responsible for both the Counterpoint and Soft Skull imprints. Donovan was Publishing Manager at the Foundation for Deep Ecology and previously worked at Conari Press and Sierra Club Books. Simkowitz was a publicist at St. Martin’s.

In children’s books: Susan Yeager has been appointed Associate Director of Mass Merchandise sales for HarperCollins Children’s Books. For the past 15 years, she worked for Borders Group in inventory, category management and buying/merchandising. She will oversee Tim Synek and Mikki Plaskett. . . . Melanie Chang is joining Little, Brown Children‘s in the new position of Executive Director, Publicity and Communications, reporting to Associate Publisher, VP Marketing Andrew Smith, starting on August 20. Chang will both oversee the publicity team and direct the PR strategy and overall communications for the division. She has been Director of Publicity at Random House Children’s. . . . Meanwhile, Carl Raymond has completed his consulting assignment at Scholastic and may be reached at craymondny@aol.com. Anica Rissi has also left Scholastic for Simon Pulse, where she is an Editor.

Laurie Parkin, VP and Publisher of Kensington Publishing announced that Karen Auerbach joined the company as Director of Publicity and Public Relations. Previously Auerbach was the Senior Director of Publicity at Avalon Publishing Group.

PROMOTIONS
Following Jeannie Emanuel’s departure for Candlewick, Adams Media announced that Phil Sexton has been promoted to Sales Director.

Rica Allannic was promoted from Editor to Senior Editor at Clarkson Potter. Her promotion is effective immediately. She will continue to report to Doris Cooper.

At S&S, George Hedges has moved to the BGI sales team as a National Account Manager for Atria and Pocket.

At Random House Children’s Books, Erin Clarke has been promoted to Senior Editor, and Jack Lienke has been promoted to assistant editor.

Sean Yule, Domestic Rights Director at Knopf, announced that Thomas Dobrowolski has been promoted to Assistant Manager, Domestic Rights for the Knopf Publishing Group.

AUGUST EVENTS

Poets Billy Collins and Paul Violi will read from the works of Frank O’Hara (who was awarded the National Book Award for Poetry posthumously in 1972), as well as from their own works, on August 2nd at Madison Square Park. Poet and critic Craig Morgan Teicher will moderate. On August 9, dogs and their owners are invited to attend a reading and talk by Mark Doty, author of DOG YEARS: A MEMOIR (HarperCollins, 2007). Doggy treats will be provided.
For a complete listing of Mad. Sq. Reads events, visit www.madisonsquarepark.org.

DULY NOTED

Susan Naythons left PGW/AMS in 2005, and, as she now tells PT, “I went off to Italy and the rest is history,” or more accurately, her future job: Naythons launched eyeItalia.com last month to celebrate (and sell) all things Italian. “Some friends have teased me a bit about offering books on the site (“who are you kidding by trying to compete with Amazon?” etc.) , but to not offer books as a complement to the site would be anathema to me,” she writes from her house near Volterra.

Biographer James McGrath Morris (Rose Man of Sing Sing and the forthcoming Joseph Pulitzer) has recently launched a free monthly newsletter and website for writers and readers of biography that will serve as a great resource for publishers, authors, bookstores, librarians, and readers. It’s called The Biographer’s Craft, www.thebiographers craft.com.

The BISG offices are still not habitable, but the website is operational, and everyone can be reached on their regular emails: Michael@bisg.org, Angela@bisg.org, Sara@ bisg org.

MAZEL TOV

Mazel tov to the proud parents of William Francis Held born 7/16/07. Proud dad Ivan tells us that he joins Margaret, 2 and George, 4, who’s “declared him “cute,” which is accurate.”