Prior to her retirement in June 2026, Lara Heimert spent nearly three decades in the publishing industry, most recently as president and publisher of the Basic Books Group, a division of Hachette Book Group. She began her career in 1998 as an intern at Yale University Press, where she went on to become a history editor and ultimately publisher of its Trade Division. In 2005, she joined Basic Books and helped build the imprint into one of America’s most respected publishers of serious nonfiction.
During her tenure, Basic Books grew significantly in scale and reputation. She became publisher in 2012, added the feminist imprint Seal Press to her portfolio in 2018, and helped establish Basic Books UK in partnership with John Murray Press in 2020. In 2023, PublicAffairs and Bold Type Books also came under her remit, and she created the imprints Basic Liberty and Basic Venture. As an editor, she worked with bestselling and influential authors including Timothy Snyder, Serhii Plokhy, Heather Cox Richardson, Arthur C. Brooks, Tom Holland, and Victor Davis Hanson. Her books have won numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize, the Cundill Prize, and the Wolfson History Prize.
Lara lives in New York with her husband Gary Rosen and their son Maximilian.