Acclaimed children’s publisher Neal Porter, currently publisher of Neal Porter Books at Macmillan Children’s Book Group, will join Holiday House as v-p and publisher of Neal Porter Books, effective September 18. Porter will report to Derek Stordahl, executive v-p and general manager, working alongside v-p and editor-in-chief Mary Cash.
Over the course of his four decades in publishing, Porter has held marketing, editorial, and executive positions at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Atheneum, Orchard, DK, and Walker Books UK, among others. In 2000, Porter co-founded Roaring Brook Press, which is now an imprint of Macmillan; the Neal Porter Books imprint was created in 2002.
Porter has worked with many celebrated picture book creators, including Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Nick Bruel, Yuyi Morales, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Candace Fleming, Eric Rohmann, Stephen Savage, Antoinette Portis, Jason Chin, Julie Fogliano, and Christian Robinson. His books have won, among other awards, the Caldecott Medal, four Caldecott Honors, Geisel Honors, Sibert Honors, the Coretta Scott King Award and Honor for illustration, Pura Belpré Awards, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. In 2015 Porter was awarded an Eric Carle Honor in the category of Mentor.
In a statement, Porter said, “After almost 17 happy and productive years at Roaring Brook and subsequently Macmillan, the time felt right for a fresh challenge, and the prospect of working with the closely knit team of creative and talented professionals at Holiday House―old friends and new―proved irresistible. I look forward to continuing my efforts to publish books that make a difference to children and ensuring that they get the kind of individualized, title-by-title marketing and sales support that will enable them to flourish. Holiday House is growing in interesting ways and I’m excited to be a part of this new phase in its evolution.”
Stordahl welcomed Porter in a statement, saying, “Since our founding, Holiday House has been about the fun of making books that matter for children. Neal’s genius for creating award-winning books complements everything we do, and we’re all looking forward to the fun of working together.”
Porter’s imprint is the second imprint added by Holiday House this year; in April, Margaret Ferguson moved her Margaret Ferguson Books imprint there from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, also part of Macmillan Children’s Book Group.
