Norton Will Launch Norton Waverly, Its First New Imprint Since Young Readers

Is W. W. Norton opening a new children's imprint? Yes. Publishers Weekly reported on October 1, 2026, that W. W. Norton & Company will launch Norton Waverly, a trade imprint, in spring 2027. Karen Lotz, director of children's books and strategic development since September 2025, will lead it. Publishers Weekly says it is the first imprint added since Norton Young Readers launched in 2019. Shelf Awareness, on October 2, dates that launch to 2018. The Bookseller also reported the spring 2027 opening and Lotz's role.

What the imprint is for

Shelf Awareness says Lotz joined with the goal, in part, of expanding Norton's own children's book publishing and widening market opportunities for Norton's distributed clients. She told Publishers Weekly, "From the beginning, our plan was that I would start an imprint, in addition to helping build out the strategy for the children's group as a whole." The challenge, she said, was deciding "what could stand apart from our existing offerings and bring something different to the market."

Lotz told Publishers Weekly the aim was "bridging the children's and adult audiences by publishing books that people of different ages can read together and share." She told Shelf Awareness, "The primary audience for a Norton Waverly book can range from young childhood to adulthood, but with each, we hope to foster opportunities for sharing and dialogue across the generations."

Publishers Weekly puts the pace at approximately six new titles a year and quotes a commitment to "creating single, spectacular reading experiences." Shelf Awareness says up to six titles annually and quotes "creating singular, spectacular reading experiences, flying free as needed from constraints of format, genre, and age banding."

Lotz told Publishers Weekly that "reading in our time is often 'unbound,'" and that Norton Waverly plans to offer ebook and, whenever suitable, audiobook editions. Her hope, in that interview, is that "our centerpiece offerings will live between two covers." Shelf Awareness quotes the print side as editions that "shine as the centerpiece offering, because the experience of holding and sharing a beautiful book is irreplaceable." She told Publishers Weekly, "We want our books, with the high quality of their content and artwork, to be friendly for teachers, librarians, and story times." That, she said, is "historically one of Norton's strengths."

Why the name is Waverly

Julia Reidhead, Norton's chairman and president, told Shelf Awareness that Norton Waverly "takes its name from 109 Waverly Place, the address in New York City where newlyweds William Warder Norton and Mary Dows Herter Norton first took up their publishing enterprise in 1923, assembling pamphlets in their living room." Their aim, Reidhead said, was to engage readers "in a dialogue with the great ideas of their time." Lotz's concept, Reidhead said, "builds on this tradition, but with a new approach."

Publishers Weekly, following Lotz, places that start in the couple's home on Waverly Place in lower Manhattan and says the address inspired the name 103 years later. Lotz said the old mission now offers "a dialogue of ideas, connected by a shared love of storytelling." She said, "The Nortons exhorted us to create 'Books That Live,'" and continued, "Norton Waverly hopes to do just that by publishing dazzling narratives that are worthy of legacy—joyful books created to last." Shelf Awareness prints that second sentence as "Norton Waverly will hope to do just that."

The debut, and the names on the list

The debut is Kate DiCamillo's middle-grade novel The True Story of Edith Leapyear, Child Outlaw: As Told by Herself. Publishers Weekly says it is due on April 6. Lotz called it "a fictional memoir told by a child with a fully formed voice. It reads like a fairy tale, yet has so much emotional truth, which I know that readers of multiple generations will respond to."

DiCamillo said she is "deeply moved" that the novel "will be the first book to bear the Norton Waverly imprint." She added, "I believe in the power of stories to connect us, to change us. This imprint embodies that belief." Shelf Awareness calls the novel her 12th major work and describes the publication as a kind of reunion. Publishers Weekly notes that the Newbery Medal books The Tale of Despereaux and Flora & Ulysses, and the Honor Book Because of Winn-Dixie, came from Candlewick Press. Lotz spent more than two decades at Candlewick and its parent company, Walker Books, where she served as DiCamillo's international publisher. Shelf Awareness says she was president and founding U.S. publisher of Candlewick from 1999 to 2023, and group managing director of parent company Walker Books from 2010 to 2023.

Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, whom Publishers Weekly calls frequent author-illustrator collaborators, will publish Heir to Magic, a duology that reimagines Arthurian legend. Shelf Awareness names the first book Mordred Rex, quoting this description: "a sweeping and lyrical epic tale in which Mordred, not Arthur, has won the day and a new hero, schooled in sorcery, must arise to challenge him." It calls Meloy the Decemberists indie rock singer-songwriter and Ellis the bestselling Caldecott Honoree for Du Iz Tak?

Rhiannon Giddens, a Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and author in Publishers Weekly's account, has two books on the list. The first is a history of the banjo. Publishers Weekly calls it a yet untitled multi-narrative illustrated history. Shelf Awareness calls it a long-form, multinarrative, highly illustrated history.

Two writers new to children's books are named too. Agathe Chave-Lucas, a scientist — Shelf Awareness also calls her a Paris author — will publish the debut The Many Revolutions of Sophie Germain, about the 18th-century mathematician. Autumn Loyal Watkins, a Sugpiaq biologist, has two books of stories from childhood in the Sun'aq Tribe of Kodiak on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Publishers Weekly calls her a proud member of the tribe. Shelf Awareness says the stories are fictional, for young children, and drawn from living off the sea and land with her family.

Why it matters for authors

Neither report posts a submission address or a payment. The news for authors is a short list meant for shared reading, and the first new Norton imprint since Norton Young Readers — dated 2019 by Publishers Weekly and 2018 by Shelf Awareness.

Sources

• Sally Lodge, Publishers Weekly: Norton Waverly Imprint Expands Publisher's Children's Book Reach (October 1, 2026)
• Shelf Awareness: W.W. Norton Launching New Imprint, Norton Waverly (October 2, 2026) — includes remarks from Norton chairman and president Julia Reidhead
• Lauren Brown, The Bookseller: WW Norton launches new trade imprint Norton Waverly (October 2, 2026)