Johnstone-Burt steps into publishing director role at Walker 

Denise Johnstone-Burt has been promoted to publishing director at Walker Books, following Jane Winterbotham’s decision to step back to an editor-at-large position. 

In the new role, Johnstone-Burt will chart the direction for and supervise the non-fiction, fiction and novelty lists, as well as the Walker Studio and MIT children’s and teen imprints. She will set the strategy and long-range planning for Walker UK, with a goal to increasing the market share both in the UK and the international marketplace. Previously deputy m.d. and publishing director, Winterbotham will focus directly on editorial projects two days a week. These changes are effective immediately.

Johnstone-Burt has been with the children’s publisher more than 20 years. She has worked with authors including Patrick Ness, Anthony Browne, Petr Horacek and M G Leonard. Most recently, under her direction, Walker’s fiction list has multiple Book of the Month slots at Waterstones with Jennifer Bell, Thomas Taylor and Ross Montgomery, and YA successes with Caroline O’Donoghue and Angie Thomas. She has also set up many lucrative third-party partnerships for Walker with major institutions including the Panorama Pops line.

Winterbotham said: "It has been an enormous privilege to manage the Walker list as publishing director for the past 22 years and to work with such talented creators and colleagues across the whole Walker Group. I am delighted to see Denise take on the role: as a hugely respected publisher on the international stage, her vision, energy and publishing brilliance will take Walker to ever greater heights."

Johnstone-Burt added; "I am both thrilled and honoured to be following in the footsteps of my colleague Jane Winterbotham and to be taking on the role of publishing director at Walker, surely one of the most coveted jobs in our industry. It is such a privilege to work with so many talented authors, illustrators and wonderful colleagues and at Walker to have the creative space to develop books together – books that change children’s lives."

Karen Lotz, managing director, added: "While it’s wonderful news that Jane can devote more of her time to books, it is also most certainly the close of an extraordinary chapter in Walker’s publishing history. I am especially thankful that she is not departing yet altogether, but will remain on board in the new role of editorial director at large. 

"Denise’s editorial intelligence and creative generativity, meaning both how she produces a prodigious number of book ideas, and how deeply she cares for the next generation – have brought us works across a huge range of genres. Her publishing vision is renowned and in so many ways synonymous with the unique panache of the Walker list. It brings me great joy to step into this new era of Walker publishing with her in this role."