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| Steve Wasserman | |
Steve Wasserman has been named publisher and executive director of Heyday Books. He succeeds Malcolm Margolin, the company's founder, who is retiring after 41 years at the helm. Wasserman, currently executive editor-at-large for trade books at Yale University Press, assumes his new post July 1. Until then, editorial director Gayle Wattawa is acting as interim publisher, while Lindsie M. Bear, director of nature and environmental publishing, serves as interim executive director.
Wasserman noted that he "met Malcolm twenty years ago when I was editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review. I greatly admired his vision for Heyday and his knack for inviting nearly everyone he encountered to join him on his journey of celebration and joy and beauty. Malcolm's passion for good books, his instinct for finding fresh voices, and his ability to inspire others in this quest have been exemplary. His shoes will be hard to fill. I'm honored to have the chance to try. I look forward to becoming Heyday's chief cartographer as it maps the still-to-be-discovered riches of California in the years ahead."
Prior to joining Yale University Press in 2012, Wasserman was a partner at the Kneerim & Williams Literary Agency; LATBR editor for nine years and a principal architect of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books; editorial director of Times Books at Random House; and publisher & editorial director of Hill & Wang and the Noonday Press at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press, said Wasserman "brought luster and allure to the Yale list, acquiring important books by such figures as Greil Marcus, Michael Roth, Martha Hodes, David Thomson, and David Rieff, publishing them with flair and gusto. He will continue to consult with YUP, particularly editing several key authors still to be published."
Margolin said he is "genuinely thrilled and honored that Steve Wasserman has agreed to take over as executive director and publisher of Heyday. I can't imagine anyone with better professional skills, more depth and variety of experience, and a more impressive record of accomplishment and public service. He knows California and its many cultures with intimacy, associates easily with the best writers and deepest thinkers everywhere, and his ample playfulness and wit have always been at the service of a humane social vision. More than that, he's great fun to be around; the world always seems so lively and full of possibility with Steve in the room. I expect that while continuing and perhaps even expanding the publishing programs Heyday has created, he will also lead us into areas more in line with his unique interests. I couldn't be more pleased."