NEW YORK – The head of the organization which presents the National Book Awards is joining the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation since 2016, has been named senior vice president of the Knopf imprints Pantheon and Schocken Books. “I love books, I love talking about them, reading about them and spreading the word about them,” Lucas said in a recent telephone interview. “And the idea that you might walk into a bookstore and see a book you published seemed this extraordinary, magical, beautiful thing.”The 40-year-old Lucas has been widely praised for her passionate stewardship of the foundation, from organizing the annual November dinner ceremony in Manhattan for the National Book.