Little, Brown and Company has made a number of staffing changes, from bringing in a new editorial director for its Little, Brown Spark imprint to a handful of layoffs across the division.
In a memo to employees, Little, Brown president and publisher Sally Kim announced that Michelle Howry will assume the position of editorial director of Little, Brown Spark starting February 23. Howry, most recently executive editor at G.P. Putnam’s Sons, is being brought into LB Spark “to set a new vision for the imprint and expand its role in leading the conversations in the worlds of big ideas and expert-led, prescriptive, and health and wellness nonfiction,” Kim explained.
At Putnam, Howry’s focus was on commercial nonfiction. Among her recent books are I Really Needed This Today by Today Show cohost Hoda Kotb and the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Fair Play by Eve Rodsky. In her new role at LB, Howry will report to Kim, whom she previously worked with at Putnam and Simon & Schuster.
With the hiring of Howry, Talia Krohn, VP and editorial director of LB Spark, will be leaving the company on February 20.
Kim also announced that Michael Szczerban, VP and publisher of Little, Brown Spark and Voracious, will now devote his full attention to Voracious as VP and publisher. Szczerban founded Voracious in 2019 and the change, Kim wrote, “allows Mike to focus on expanding his excellent and game-changing work that has made the list a destination for visually rich, high-quality projects.”
In addition to the announced changes, PW has learned that LB has let go a number of other employees, including Joshua Kendall, editorial director of the Mulholland Books imprint, and Nadxieli Nieto, who was hired by Kim in 2024 to help reinvent the Algonquin imprint as editorial director. HBG had no comment on the departures of Nieto and Kendall or on the future leadership of Mulholland and Algonquin.
