Less than a year after joining the newly formed Simon & Schuster Canada, editorial director Martha Sharpe has been laid off, along with associate publisher Alison Clarke.

Sources interviewed by The Globe & Mail claim that the departures came as a shock to many in the industry.

There is no word yet as to what will happen to Sharpe’s editorial projects, including a non-fiction work by Sheila Heti that investigates the “identity, creativity, and the difficulties of understanding motherhood.”

This story will be updated as more details become available.