In spring 2015, Don Weise spotted a post for a freelance position at Charlesbridge, a children’s publisher in Watertown, Mass. The company was seeking a part-time editorial director who would be tasked with refreshing Imagine, its adult imprint. “The position sounded full of possibility,” Weise said. “It’s not every day that the opportunity to rebrand an imprint comes along.”
Charlesbridge offered him the job, and Weise is now at work reorienting the imprint toward women’s and gender studies, multicultural studies, current affairs, memoir and biography, and spirituality, while still fostering the titles that make up the cornerstone of its list: cookbooks, puzzles, and health and diet titles. “They wanted to establish a distinctive editorial voice, one that unified the program,” Weise said.
Founded in 2008 by former Sterling head Charles Nurnberg and his son, Jeremy Nurnberg, Imagine was acquired by Charlesbridge in 2010, giving the publisher its first general trade list. Notable titles include Peter, Paul and Mary: Fifty Years in Music and Life; Delicious Diabetic Recipes; and Cookies, Cookies & More Cookies. When Charles Nurnberg left Imagine in May 2015 to create a new children’s imprint at Quarto Publishing Group USA, Charlesbridge found its adult program at a crossroad.
“After the founders of Imagine moved on to other positions, Charlesbridge was faced with abandoning our adult imprint or continuing to grow it,” said Mary Ann Sabia, publisher and executive v-p at Charlesbridge. “At the time, we had an eclectic mix of books with modest success in the general trade. We decided to forge ahead within some proven areas, cookbooks and puzzle books, but we wanted someone to act as an editorial director to build a program with more focus.”
Sabia added, “Don immediately understood our children’s list, and his interest in building an imprint that to a certain extent correlates to our children’s mission of providing excellent narratives about interesting and surprising people and events made him the perfect fit for Imagine.”
Weise got his start in the industry more than 20 years ago at the Bay Area–based lesbian-feminist publisher Cleis Press. After relocating to New York City in 2003, he was hired at Carroll & Graf, then an imprint of Avalon Books, where he acquired titles in the areas of African-American literature, fiction, and celebrity memoirs. In 2008 he was tapped to head up gay and lesbian house Alyson Books and in 2010 launched Magnus Books, an independent LGBTQ press.
Weise’s editorial focus over the past two decades informed his pitch for the new Imagine. “Since my background as an editor consists of women’s writing and multicultural literature, and because the Charlesbridge children’s list happens to consist of titles in these areas too, I proposed Imagine becoming an adult counterpoint to the children’s list,” Weise said, adding that he plans to complement the list with current affairs, politics, popular culture, and spirituality titles.
The first title that Weise edited for Imagine, Not My Mother’s Kitchen: Rediscovering Italian-American Cooking Through Stories and Recipes by Rob Chirico, was released earlier this month. To date, five titles have been acquired under Weise’s watch, including two he bought himself: Undercover Girl by Lisa E. Davis, a biography of Cold War informant Angela Calomiris, which is slated for a May 2017 release, and a history of women in the Black Panther Party, tentatively titled All Power to the Sisters, which is being compiled in partnership with the Huey P. Newton Foundation. Weise plans to release eight to 10 titles annually under the Imagine banner moving forward.
