Barbara Lalicki, whose career in children’s book publishing spans more than 40 years, will retire at the end of January. Currently senior v-p and editorial director at HarperCollins Children’s Books, Lalicki came to Harper in 1999 during the merger with William Morrow, where she had been publisher of Morrow Junior Books. Previously she was director of children's publishing at the National Geographic Society, editorial director at Macmillan’s Books for Young Readers division, and editorial director at Bradbury. Earlier in her career she worked at Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, Four Winds Press, and Coward, McCann. The many authors and illustrations she has worked with include Beverly Cleary, Gary Paulsen, Susan Jeffers, Mildred Pitts Walter, Jim Arnosky, Pat Cummings, Rhoda Blumberg, Mary Engelbreit, Tim Green, Will Hobbs, and Dan Gutman.
Executive editor Rosemary Brosnan has been promoted to editorial director. She joined HarperCollins in 1999 during the Harper-Morrow merger as well, and had previously worked at Lodestar Books, an imprint of Penguin Putnam, until that imprint was eliminated in 1997. Authors Brosnan has worked with include Neil Gaiman, Rita Williams-Garcia, Lauren Oliver, Kelley Armstrong, Gail Carson Levine, Norma Fox Mazer, Stephanie Tolan, and Neal Shusterman.
“I feel so incredibly lucky to have stumbled into the publishing business as a green college graduate over four decades ago,” Lalicki told PW. “The people I have known and worked with have made life fun in countless ways and I have loved being a part of this world. So many exciting things are ahead of me that I hardly know what to do first. And I am thrilled that Rosemary Brosnan will be taking over as editorial director for my splendid team.”
In other moves, Andrew Harwell has been promoted to editor, from associate editor. Harwell joined Harper in June 2011 from Penguin, and has acquired Asylum by Madeline Roux, Case File 13 by Scott Savage, and the forthcoming middle-grade series Jupiter Pirates by Jason Fry and Almost Super by Marion Jensen.
