Lara Heimert joined Basic Books in 2005. In 2012, she became Vice President and Publisher of the imprint. In 2018 she also became the Publisher of Seal Press. In 2023, she became SVP and Publisher of the newly-created Basic Books Group, which includes Basic Books, Seal Press, PublicAffairs, and Bold Type Books.
Prior to joining Basic, she was publisher of the trade division at Yale University Press, where she was also the history editor. She has published numerous prize-winning and New York Times bestselling books, primarily in the field of history. Highlights include Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told, Eugene Rogan’s The Fall of the Ottomans, Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands, Nicholas Stargardt’s The German War, and Bee Wilson’s Consider the Fork. A graduate of Princeton University with a degree in English and Women’s Studies, Lara subsequently spent two years at Cambridge University studying history and political theory.
