In Which I Somehow Manage to Be the First to Learn Something...

If my casual google search for "penguin canada, lynne missen" is correct, this news has yet to hit the internets ... UPDATE: a smart reader (read: my mother) observed that the press release is marked "January 20, 2010." I'm pretty sure that's a typo, but if not then I'm actually the LAST person to learn this news. Which would be par for the course.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LYNNE MISSEN APPOINTED PUBLISHING DIRECTOR, PENGUIN CANADA YOUNG READERS

Toronto, January 20, 2010 … Nicole Winstanley, Publisher, Penguin Canada, announced today that Lynne Missen will take on the role of Publishing Director, Penguin Canada Young Readers, effective January 31st.

Missen will take responsibility for the publishing strategy and editorial direction of Penguin Canada’s illustrated children’s, middle grade and young adult titles; including brand and licensed properties.

“We are very excited,” said Mike Bryan, Penguin Canada President. “Lynne’s appointment comes at an exciting time, as the growth of commercial middle grade and teen fiction series continues unabated.”

Nicole Winstanley commented, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Lynne. Her dedication and commitment to publishing the very best in children’s literature is recognized by authors and agents in Canada and throughout the world. Lynne’s industry knowledge and keen judgment have led the authors she works with to great critical and commercial success and I am confident that under her leadership, the children’s program with grow and thrive.”

Lynne Missen said, "I look forward to this new challenge, working with Nicole and the great team at Penguin Canada, and following on the success of Penguin’s international Young Readers divisions.”

Lynne Missen has been editing books for over twenty years, and children's books for the past thirteen. In 2002, she joined HarperCollins Canada as children's book editor and was promoted to Executive Editor, Children's Books, in 2004. Lynne has worked with bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Kenneth Oppel, Susan Juby, Eric Walters, Arthur Slade, Kit Pearson, Helen Dunmore, John Marsden, and Lemony Snicket.

The authors on her list have won numerous awards, including the Governor General's Award for Children's Fiction, the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, the CLA Young Adult Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Award (young adult), the Arthur Ellis Award (Juvenile Fiction) and many children's choice awards. She has been nominated for the Libris Editor of the Year Award three times in the past five years.

Missen will oversee the highly anticipated publication of Lesley Livingston’s Once Every Never in July 2010. In the novel, Livingston, the critically acclaimed author of Wondrous Strange, introduces Clarinet Reid, a typical teenager who unknowingly carries a centuries-old Druid Blood Curse in her veins. With a single thoughtless act, what starts off as the Summer Vacation in Dullsville spirals into a deadly race to find a stolen artifact, save a Celtic warrior princess, and right a dreadful wrong that happened centuries before Clare was even born.

She will also shepherd Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Canadian screenwriter Jonathan Auxier (for publication in Fall 2011); Queen of Pyres, an epic series inspired by India’s swayamvara ritual, a sorcerer king and the reincarnation of his seven deadly queens; and The Wildlings, a three book series from Charles de Lint, to Canadian readers.

I should also add that she once edited a fine collection of Canadian ghost stories that included a piece from my favorite adult author, Robertson Davies (among others). Welcome to the Penguin family, Lynne!