Bray, Balzer Form HC Imprint

Donna Bray and Alessandra Balzer, editorial director and executive editor at Hyperion Books for Children, respectively, are joining HarperCollins Children's Books, where they will form their own imprint, Balzer & Bray. The imprint, which is slated to launch in fall 2009, will release a range of titles, from picture books through YA; no figure has been set for the first list. Bray and Balzer said the list will reflect the work they did together at Hyperion for 12 years.

Disney's Jeanne Mosure said the company will replace both women.

Guild Sees Antitrust Issue in Amazon POD

The Authors Guild is reviewing the antitrust implications of Amazon's decision to make its BookSurge division the primary publisher for POD titles that are to be sold directly through the e-tailer. In an e-mail to members, the organization said the move puts Amazon in a position to control the industry's supply chain and thus the long-tail business.

Borders Completes Financing; Has New Investor

Borders Group has finalized its new financing agreement with Pershing Square Capital Management under terms more favorable than the original deal. One change is the lowering of the interest rate, from 12.5% to 9.8%, that Borders will pay on the $42.5-million loan from Pershing. Pershing has also upped its offer to acquire Borders's international subsidiaries, from $125 million to $135 million. Pershing will acquire the operations if Borders cannot find another buyer.

Separately, investment groups controlled by Gerald Catenacci have purchased just under 3.4 million shares of Borders, giving them a 5.7% stake in the chain.

Stinehour Press to Close

The Stinehour Press, one of the country's best-known independent printers of high-end illustrated books, will shut down by the end of spring. The press was acquired in 2002 by an investor group led by Warren Bingham. Although an initial infusion of funds helped to turn the press around, the owners were unable to find additional capital to compete in the increasingly difficult market.

'Misha' Publisher Files Challenge

Jane Daniel, whose Mt. Ivy Press was the first publisher to release the now discredited memoir by Misha Defonseca, Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust, has filed a complaint in Gloucester, Mass., seeking to overturn a $33-million judgment, on the basis that the book is a hoax.

That judgment was the culmination of lawsuits that claimed Daniel hid money earned from the book and that she had inadequately promoted the book. As a result, Mt. Ivy ceased publishing, and Daniel paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Defonseca and co-author Vera Lee.

Obituary: Simon Michael Bessie

Simon Michael Bessie, a prominent publisher of literary works throughout his career, died April 7. He was 92. Bessie rose to prominence as an editor at Harper & Row before leaving to start Atheneum Books in 1959. Among the books he published at Atheneum were The Making of the President, 1960, Soldier in the Rain and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Bessie returned in 1975 to Harper, where he and his wife operated their own imprint, Cornelia and Michael Bessie Books. After News Corp. acquired Harper, the Bessie imprint moved to Pantheon and then to Counterpoint.

Obituary: Susan Kaminsky

Writer and editor Susan Kaminsky, 70, died on March 31 in Manhattan. She co-authored numerous novels with her husband, Howard Kaminsky, under the pseudonym Brooks Stanwood. She was also, at one point, a senior fiction editor at the Saturday Evening Post and a senior editor at E.P. Dutton (where she edited Rachel Carson and Charles McCarry). A memorial service in New York City is planned for the spring.

Obituary: Melissa Riggio

Melissa Riggio, the 20-year-old daughter of Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio, died in Manhattan on April 7 after a battle with leukemia. Melissa, who grew up in Bernardsville, N.J., was born with Down syndrome and, in 2003, received the Self Advocate Award from the National Down Syndrome Society. She graduated from Bernards High School in 2007 and worked at the Somerset YMCA as an office manager. In addition to her father, she is survived by her mother, Laura, and sisters Laura and Christina.