BTW News Briefs

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

The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Buzzfeed Books have announced Patti Smith’s Just Kids (Ecco) as the winning book for the city’s third annual “One Book, One New York” program. During the month of April, New Yorkers voted for the book they wanted the entire city to read together.

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, the Spanish-language division of Penguin Random House, has acquired the Barcelona-based publishing house Ediciones Salamandra. The publisher, which is owned by Sigrid Kraus and Pedro del Carril, was founded in 2000 and was initially conceived as a Spanish subsidiary of Argentine publisher Emecé Editores.

Chronicle Books is partnering with Hachette Audio to create audiobooks to be marketed under the Chronicle Books brand. The company’s Chronicle Audio division will focus on the release of adult nonfiction digital audiobooks; the first four books will be released this spring.

Former President Barack Obama recently recommended three books on Facebook, The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates, The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, stating, “Here are a few books that I’ve thinking about lately and read recently that I wanted to share with you. I hope you’ll consider adding them to your own reading list.”

Highlights for Children has sold Boyds Mills Press and its affiliated imprints, Calkins Creek and WordSong, to Kane Press. The company will operate as Boyds Mills & Kane, based in New York.

On May 31, John Hardy is retiring from Simon & Schuster after 22 years. Most recently, Hardy served as senior director of distribution for sales and retail marketing, where he oversaw sales for the entire S&S adult, children’s, audio, and distribution client lists. 

Independent Publishers Group has announced several promotions: Alex Granato was promoted to editorial and subsidiary rights associate; Sam Ofman to senior publicist; Emily Parenti to content marketing coordinator; Stefani Szenda to marketing associate; Anna Torres to publisher development coordinator; and Jen Young to special sales rep.

Becky Odell has been promoted to publicist at Dutton.

Michael Ploetz has joined DK as associate marketing manager for the publisher’s children’s books division.

Damion Searls has won the $10,000 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, which is awarded in honor of “an outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the U.S. the previous year.” Searls is the translator of Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson (New York Review of Books).

Chautauqua Institution has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize, honoring “a book that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and to honor the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts.” The winner will be announced later this month.

The longlists have been announced for the £3,000 (about $3,920) Orwell Prize for Political Fiction as well as the Orwell Prize for Political Writing (nonfiction). The shortlists will be announced later in May, and a winner will be named on June 25.

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