Saletan Lands at Riverhead
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 1/27/2009 8:51:00 AM
Proving that, even in this economy, prominent publishing names can land on their feet, Becky Saletan has been named editorial director of Riverhead Books. Saletan, who quit her job as publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's trade unit in early December, following news that the division had stopped acquiring books, will start her new job at the Penguin imprint on March 2.
Speaking to Saletan's hiring, Geoff Kloske, v-p and publisher of Riverhead, said that after competing with Salatan for many years, he was "happy to finally be working with her." He declined to comment on whether she will be taking any of her authors from HMH with her, noting only that, sometimes, authors and editors "reconnect down the road."
At Riverhead, Saletan will focus on acquiring and editing narrative nonfiction, as well as literary fiction. Saletan, who was at Harcourt since 2004 and took the top job at HMH after Harcourt merged with HM, has worked at various houses throughout her career--FSG, Simon & Schuster, Random House and Yale University Press. She edited Mohson Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which hit the Times list and was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker. She also worked on Hillary Clinton's 1996 bestseller, It Takes a Village, and has edited such literary heavies as Philip Roth and Peter Matthiessen.
