Amistad, the African-American imprint owned by HarperCollins, has hired Vintage editor Dawn Davis to take control of its program. Davis will also serve as executive editor at Harper and reprint manager for Quill and Perennial. She will report to Carie Freimuth, associate publisher of the General Books Group. Amistad founder Charles Harris will stay on as a consulting editor and chairman.
Some uncertainty has hovered over Amistad since Manie Barron left for William Morris earlier this year. Barron had been brought in as publishing manager of the Harper imprint, but stayed for only a short time.
Harris began Amistad in the 1960s as part of Random House. For much of the imprint's history, it was run as a sort of freelance operation, under arrangements with Essence, Warner and Dodd/Mead over the years. In late 1999, Harper bought it.
Davis began in publishing at the New Press, and recently has acquired reprints and original paperbacks for Vintage.
