W.W. Norton is launching a new imprint, Norton Waverly, which is being led by Karen Lotz, who joined Norton as director, children's books and strategic development, in September 2025, with the goal in part of expanding Norton's own children's book publishing as well as widening market opportunities for Norton's distributed clients.
The imprint plans to publish up to six titles annually and has a children's focus, but, as Lotz put it, "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." The imprint is the first new imprint at Norton since Norton Young Readers launched in 2018.
Norton chairman and president Julia Reidhead noted 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 was to engage readers across all backgrounds and experiences in a dialogue with the great ideas of their time. Karen Lotz's concept for the Norton Waverly imprint builds on this tradition, but with a new approach."
Lotz said in part, "In learning about Norton's history, I was delighted to realize that the Nortons' mission from a century ago offers a wonderful opportunity for us today: the chance to engage readers from different points of view in a dialogue of ideas, connected by a shared love of storytelling. Reading in our time is often 'unbound,' and we intend to offer e-books and, whenever suitable, audio editions. But our hope is that Norton Waverly print editions will shine as the centerpiece offering, because the experience of holding and sharing a beautiful book is irreplaceable.... Our curation of Norton Waverly will adhere to the principle of creating singular, spectacular reading experiences, flying free as needed from constraints of format, genre, and age banding.... The Nortons exhorted us to create Books That Live. Norton Waverly will hope to do just that by publishing dazzling narratives that are worthy of legacy--joyful books created to last."
The imprint's first title is The True Story of Edith Leapyear, Child Outlaw: As Told by Herself by Kate DiCamillo, the two-time Newbery Medalist, most of whose titles have been published by Candlewick Press. DiCamillo said she is "deeply moved" to have her book be the first published by Norton Waverly. "I believe in the power of stories to connect us, to change us. This imprint embodies that belief." The publication of DiCamillo's 12th major work marks a kind of reunion for her and Lotz. From 1999 to 2023, Lotz was president and founding U.S. publisher of Candlewick and from 2010 to 2023, she was group managing director of Walker Books, Candlewick's parent company.
Another upcoming Norton Waverly title is "a lavishly illustrated and never-before-announced" Heir to Magic duology by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. Meloy is the bestselling novelist and picture-book author (and Decemberists indie rock singer-songwriter), and Ellis is the bestselling Caldecott Honoree for Du Iz Tak? The first book of this reimagining of the world of Arthurian legend is Mordred Rex, "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."
Norton Waverly has also signed two books by Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens, the first of which will be a long-form, multinarrative, highly illustrated history of the banjo.
Norton Waverly will also introduce works by authors new to children's books, including The Many Revolutions of Sophie Germain, a debut novel by Paris author and scientist Agathe Chave-Lucas about the eponymous 18th-century mathematician, and two fictional stories for young children by Sugpiaq writer and biologist Autumn Loyal Watkins inspired by the author's childhood memories of living off the sea and land with her family while growing up as a member of the Sun'aq Tribe of Kodiak on Kodiak Island, Alaska.