People Round-Up, Mid-October 2022

PEOPLE

At Penguin Random House, SVP, Director of Publishing Operations Sue Malone-Barber will retire at the end of the year. Felicia Frazier, SVP, Children’s and Educational Sales, is departing to launch a new venture, to be announced. At Tarcher Perigee, Editorial Director Sara Carder has departed and can be reached at sarakatecarder@gmail.com. Jordan Rodman, previously Director of Publicity at Avid Reader Press, will join Vintage Anchor as Senior Director of Publicity on October 31.

At Candlewick, Mary Marotta will join as SVP, Sales, North America on November 21. She was most recently SVP, Group Sales Director for Knopf Doubleday.

Jessica Turner joins Webtoon as SVP of Marketing. Previously she was VP of Brand Development and Marketing at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Jennifer Weidman has retired as SVP and Deputy General Counsel at Simon & Schuster. On the advertising and promotion team for S&S imprint, Regula Hofmann, Ryan Raphael, and Mary Zadroga have joined as Designers; Zadroga supports the children’s division. Grace Rambo joins as Manager for Children’s Advertising and Paid Digital Media. At Avid Reader Press, David Kass joins as Senior Director of Publicity, beginning November 1; he was formerly VP, Executive Director of Publicity at Hilsinger-Mendelson. At Simon Element, Samantha Weiner, formerly Executive Editor at Abrams, joins as Executive Editor.

At HarperCollins Children’s Books, Katherine Tegen, VP and Publisher of Katherine Tegen Books, will retire in December. Andrea Flick-Nisbet has left her position as VP and Publisher of Harper Horizon. And Michael Maudlin, SVP and Executive Editor, is leaving HarperOne and can be contacted at mgmaudlin@gmail.com.

Josh Frankel, Founder and CEO of Z2 Comics, has left the company.

At 555 Comic, Rob Pereyda, lately Head of Anime, Editorial, and Publishing at Netflix, joins as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Partnerships Officer.

Sydney Tillman joins Zibby Books as Publicity Director. She was previously Publicity Manager at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Kristine Anderson has resigned as Trade Marketing Director.

At the University of South Carolina Press, Michael J. McGandy succeeds Richard Brown as Director. Most recently, McGandy was Editorial Director of Three Hills, the regional trade imprint of Cornell University Press.

Stephanie Lewis joins Insight Editions as Director, Business Analytics. Formerly she was Data Analytics Manager at Sourcebooks.

In agency news…Tara Gilbert, lately Associate Literary Agent at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, joins KT Literary as Literary Agent. Kaitlyn Sanchez joins Bradford Literary Agency as Agent; previously she was Literary Agent at Context Literary. At Artistique International, Helen Biles, lately Creative Director at HarperCollins, joins as Global Manager.

At Little, Brown, Danielle Finnegan joins as Senior Marketing Manager, working across the Little, Brown and Mulholland lists. She was previously Assistant Marketing Manager at William Morrow.

Jenny Baumgartner, previously Senior Acquisitions Editor and Editorial Director at Nelson Books, joins FaithWords and Worthy Books as Executive Editor.

Deidra Purvis joins Free Spirit Publishing as Acquisitions Editor. Previously she was Director of Classroom Services at Mackin Educational Resources.

At Lake Union Publishing, Chantelle Aimée Osman joins as Editor. She was formerly Editor at Agora. Alexandra Torrealba, lately Editor at Vintage Español, joins AmazonCrossing as Editor.

Katie Vaughn, lately Marketing Coordinator at Riverhead, joins Bloomsbury as Assistant Marketing Manager.

At Sourcebooks, Maddie Herr joins the manufacturing team as Buyer II.

 

PROMOTIONS

At Z2 Comics, a new leadership team has been appointed. Sridhar Reddy continues as Publisher, while Kevin Meek becomes CEO; Josh Bernstein moves up to President; Aleksey Zelenderg moves up to CTO; and Courtney Menard becomes Creative Director.

Janet Rasche becomes SVP, Director of Publishing Operations at Penguin Random House. Heather Peterson moves up to Executive Director of Publishing Operations Systems. At Riverhead, Jacqueline Shost, Delia Taylor, and Catalina Trigo each become Associate Editor.

Leslie Cohen is now VP of Publicity at the Harper Group, while Rachel Elinsky moves up to Senior Director of Publicity. At HarperOne, Sydney Rogers has been promoted to Executive Editor. At Zondervan Academic, Katya Covrett is now VP, Publisher. Sarah Ried moves up to Editor at Harper. At HarperCollins Children’s Books, Patty Rosati becomes Senior Director, School & Library Marketing; Megan Pagano has been promoted to Director of Sales Forecasting and Analysis; and Colleen O’Connell moves up to Executive Director, Marketing. Additionally, Lisa Calcasola becomes Marketing Associate; Benny Sisson, Marketing Coordinator; Sean Cavanaugh, Production Associate; Theresia Kowara, Assistant Manager, Subrights; and Cassidy Miller, Rights Associate. Alyssa Miele is now Senior Editor at Quill Tree Books. At the Morrow Group, Mireya Chiriboga has been promoted to Assistant Editor.

At Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Kelly Lee moves up to VP of Finance and Operations and Controller. In addition, Maren Fox has been promoted to Associate Director of Digital Products, Design, and Development, and Sarah Modlin becomes Editor.

Susan Brooke has been promoted to VP and Publisher at Phoenix International Publications.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Nadia Almahdi moves up to Assistant Director of Digital Marketing for Kids, Emily Ritter becomes Assistant Director of Digital Marketing for Teens, and Remi Moon is promoted to Marketing Coordinator. Emily Hutton is now Director of Sales for the group. Krista Vitola is now Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, where Deeba Zargarpur becomes Senior Editor, Alyza Liu becomes Editor, and Dainese Santos becomes Associate Editor. At Simon & Schuster, Larry Hughes and Anne Tate Pearce have both been promoted to Deputy Director of Publicity. Christine Calella moves up to Senior Publicist, Chonise Bass to Publicist, and both Omesha Edwards and Martha Langford to Associate Publicist. Lindsay Leiter has been promoted to Assistant Director of Advertising and Paid Digital Media; Genevieve Quiban and Sam Graham are both promoted to Senior Designer for Advertising and Promotion; and Dalia Baban is now Advertising and Paid Digital Media Coordinator. Melissa Croce becomes Senior Marketing Manager, Adult Library. Amara Hoshijo moves up to Senior Editor at Saga Press and Gallery. At Margaret K. McElderry, Kate Proswimmer is now Senior Editor and Nicole Fiorica is now Editor. At Atria, Kaitlin Olson, Loan Le, Melanie Iglesias Perez, Natalie Hallak, and Amar Deol all advance to Senior Editor, while Sean deLone becomes Associate Editor and Jade Hui becomes Assistant Editor. Danielle Collins has been promoted to Assistant Editor at Paula Wiseman Books and Beach Lane Books.

In agency news…at Aevitas Creative Management, Rick Richter has been named Senior Partner and Kate Mack has been named VP, Operations and Personnel. Sara Megibow is now VP and Senior Literary Agent at KT Literary. At SBR Media, Ena Burnette and Laura Pink both move up to Senior Agent. Lauren Scovel becomes Agent at Laura Gross Literary Agency. Laura Southern is now Associate Agent at Wolf Literary Services.

Diana Ventimiglia has been promoted to Executive Editor at Sounds True.

At Chronicle Books, Ariel Richardson becomes Senior Editor, Daria Harper becomes Editor, and Elizabeth Lazowski becomes Associate Editor.

At Zibby Books, Bridie Loverro has been promoted to Senior Editor and Madeline Woda has been promoted to Editor. Sherri Puzey moves up to Senior Marketing Manager and Contributing Editor, Zibby Mag. Diana Tramontano is now Associate Publicist and Consulting Editor at Zibby Books and Zibby Mag.

At Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Morgan Kane moves up to Director of Publicity and Elysse Villalobos moves up to Associate Marketing Manager. Ashley Caswell has been promoted to Designer, working on four-color books across all imprints. Avia Perez becomes Senior Production Editor. Carina Licon is now Associate Editor at Henry Holt Children’s. Emilia Sowersby becomes Associate Editor at Roaring Brook Press. Milo Walls becomes Associate Editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. At Celadon, Randi Kramer and Cecily Van Buren Freedman both move up to Associate Editor.

 

DULY NOTED

Lerner Publishing Group is adding three new clients, effective January 1: Planting People Growing Justice Press, Knowledge Books, and Intergalactic Afikoman.

Cardinal Rule Press is now distributed by Independent Publishers Group.

Kensington Publishing has acquired Erewhon Books, which will continue as an imprint. Titles will be handled by Kensington’s distributor, Penguin Random House Publisher Services.