Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing will launch a new imprint under Atheneum Books, called Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, helmed by the editor of the same name who has worked with such authors as Laurie Halse Anderson, Ashley Bryan, David Small, and Sharon Draper in her 16 years with the company. Dlouhy was previously v-p and editorial director at Atheneum.
In an interview with PW, Dlouhy said that given her long history at Atheneum, it was “very important” to her to keep her new imprint under the Atheneum umbrella. Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher of Atheneum, said in a release that the new imprint is a “celebration of one of the publishing industry’s finest editors.” President Jon Anderson added, “An eponymous imprint is the natural next step in a career that has produced an unparalleled number of critical and commercial successes.”
Among Dlouhy’s projects are Newbery, Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, and Coretta Scott King Award winners, including The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata, I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin, and The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. Dlouhy said in a release: “The strength of voice in characters is what I believe most helps kids as they find their own voices. I’m thrilled and deeply grateful that Simon & Schuster continues to empathically support my quest to find those voices, those stories that speak to the hearts of young readers.”
For Dlouhy the change means that she’ll be spending “slightly less” time on administrative aspects of publishing. As as she told PW: “I already handle a robust list of books, but I’m always wanting to have a few more that I fall in love with, and I think this will give me an opportunity to let that happen.”
Her imprint’s first list will appear in spring 2016, featuring a range of titles from a picture book debut by Richard Jackson (with Kevin Hawkes set to illustrate); the first standalone middle grade from William Joyce, including full-color illustrations, entitled The Lost; and Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend, the U.S. YA debut of Canadian author Alan Cumyn.
Finding fresh voices is one part of her new venture that Dlouhy is looking forward to: “It’s my favorite thing to publish a debut,” she said. “You can’t anticipate what a reaction will be, and that moment, watching a new author have their first experience of the book, can’t be replicated.”
