BTW News Briefs

Here’s what’s happening this week in the book industry:

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) has added three new members to its Board of Directors: NAIBA Executive Director Eileen Dengler, Watermark Books & Café owner Sarah Bagby, and NCIBA Executive Director Calvin Crosby. Anne Kubek, Wanda Jewell, and Deb Leonard have completed their terms on the board.

Russell Baker, the Pulitzer-winning journalist and columnist and beloved author of the bestselling childhood memoir Growing Up, died on Monday, January 21, at the age of 93, after a fall at his home in Leesburg, Virginia.

Swoon Reads, a YA imprint at Macmillan, has signed a two-year deal for A+E Studios to develop and produce Swoon titles for television and film.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has announced new sales teams for APA Publishing’s Magination Press, APA’s children’s book imprint. Effective this month, Magination titles will be sold across the U.S. by the following independent rep groups: Fujii Associates in the Midwest and parts of the South; Chesapeake & Hudson in the Northeast; The Imprint Group in the West; and Southern Territory Associates in the South.

Graphic Arts Books in Berkeley, California, which publishes books for children and adults in a variety of genres, has been renamed West Margin Press. The newly renamed company will retain the Graphic Arts Books and Alaska Northwest Books imprints and phase out WestWinds Press.

Penguin Random House is closing its Spiegel & Grau imprint after 14 years.

At Avery and TarcherPerigee, Allyssa Kasoff has been promoted to publicity manager.

At The New Press, Jessica Yu has been promoted to senior publicist.

At the University of Chicago Press, Carrie Olivia Adams has been named promotions and marketing communications director for the book division.

Mark McElhinney, formerly a bookseller at the The Book Cellar in Chicago, has joined Arcadia Publishing as field sales representative.

At Chronicle Books, Jennifer Yim has been promoted to children’s marketing and publicity coordinator; Jenna Homen has been promoted to digital marketing manager for adult books; Madison Killen has been promoted to digital marketing manager for the children’s division; and Julia Hass has joined the company as marketing and publicity assistant for adult books.

At Random House Children’s Books, Kelly McGauley has been promoted to associate director of trade marketing; Sharon Burkle moves up to senior art director; Tara Grieco is now marketing manager; Jena DeBois becomes marketing associate; and Sarah Murphy becomes marketing coordinator.

Poets & Writers has received $150,000 from the Hearst Foundation to expand programs in Detroit, New Orleans, and Houston “to better serve writers coast to coast, especially writers of color and other historically marginalized groups.”

The MacDowell Colony has awarded fellowships to 86 artists hailing from 18 states and nine countries, including Tommy Orange, author of the June 2018 Indie Next List number-one pick There There (Knopf).  The $10,000 fellowships are for the upcoming late winter and spring residencies at the prestigious arts retreat.

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominees for the 2019 Edgar Allan Poe Awards in nine categories, as well as the nominees for the Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award and the winner of the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award. Crime writer Meg Gardiner has also been named the president of the organization’s board of directors.

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has announced 31 finalists in six award categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The NBCC also announced the winners of several special awards, including There There author Tommy Orange, who will receive the 2018 John Leonard Prize.

PEN America has announced the finalists for its 2019 Literary Awards.

We Need Diverse Books has announced the winners and honorees for the fourth annual Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children’s Literature. The Walter Awards ceremony will be held March 29 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Author Joyce Carol Oates will receive the 2019 Jerusalem Prize during the opening of the Jerusalem International Book Forum this May. The prize, which is awarded to international writers whose body of work asserts “The Freedom of the Individual in Society,” comes with a reward of $10,000.

Diamond Comic Distributors has announced the winners of the 2018 Diamond Gem Awards, an annual award honoring sales success in the comic book industry. Winners are selected by comic book specialty retailers.

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