Ryan Harbage 

Ryan founded The Fischer-Harbage Agency in January, 2007 and has placed books for six #1 New York Times bestselling authors. Ryan’s clients include Miranda Esmonde-White, author of the New York Times bestseller Aging Backwards and host of public television’s #1 fitness show, “Classical Stretch,”; Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Halsey, author of the New York Times bestselling poetry collection I Would Leave Me If I Could; Sunny Hostin, co-host of “The View” and bestselling author; iconic musician and New York Times bestselling author Robbie Robertson; New York Times bestselling memoirist and animal communications pioneer Christina Hunger; MSNBC anchor and author of The Likeability Trap Alicia Menendez; New York Times bestselling memoirist and producer Janet Mock; American Booksellers Association “Book of the Year” winner and New York Times bestselling novelist J. Ryan Stradal; He represented Gérard de Villiers until the author passed away–his S.A.S. series has sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. Books represented by the agency have received many accolades, among them: the American Bookseller’s Association Indies Choice Book of the Year Award, American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book, Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award, Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, Nautilus Book Award, The Palmer Prize, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, Women’s Way Book Prize; and finalists for the Desmond Elliot Prize, the Thurber Prize, Books for a Better Life Award, Goodreads Best Books of the Year, Lamda Award, Langum Prize in Historical Fiction, and The National Book Award (fiction).

He was an editor at Simon & Schuster where he helped create and launch a new imprint, now Gallery Books. He also worked as an editor for Little, Brown & Company as well as Penguin Random House (where he edited books for Plume, Dutton, and Viking). He acquired and edited the Pulitzer Prize winning Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church, which informed the movie Spotlight, winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture as well as Peter Singer’s New York Times bestseller The President of Good & Evil: Questioning the Ethics of George W. Bush. He has also worked with numerous other bestselling authors, including Farah Ahmedi, Michael Connelly, Matthew Diffee, John Feinstein, Malcolm Gladwell, Brad Listi, and Danny Wallace.

For twelve years, Ryan taught courses on writing book proposals and fiction at The New School University’s MFA Program, Pratt Institute, and Mediabistro. He addresses writers regularly at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, New York University’s MFA program, the New School’s MFA program, and has spoken at many other venues including the Columbia Publishing Course, Aspen Summer Words, Sarah Lawrence College’s MFA program, The Colgate Writers’ Conference, Miami Writers Institute, The New Orleans Writers Conference, and The Writers’ League of Texas, among others. He has been quoted on writing and publishing in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Poets & Writers, Publishers Weekly and on “Good Morning America,” among other outlets. Ryan is a graduate of Kalamazoo College, The Radcliffe Publishing Course, and the Master of Fine Arts program in writing and literature at Bennington College. He lives with his family in Brooklyn.

Learn more about Ryan at fischerharbage.com

Panio Gianopoulos is the author of the #1 indie-bestselling novella, A Familiar Beast, and the short story collection, How to Get Into Our House and Where We Keep the Money. His writing has appeared in Tin House, Northwest Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Literary Hub, Salon, The Rattling Wall, Big Fiction, Weekly Humorist, The Brooklyn Rail, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. A recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Award for Non-Fiction, he has been featured in the anthologies The Bastard on the Couch, Cooking and Stealing: The Tin House Non-Fiction Reader, and The Encyclopedia of Exes. He received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his M.B.A. from Stanford University. A veteran book editor, he is the co-founder and editorial director of The Next Big Idea Club, a book discovery platform and subscription book club curated by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Daniel Pink, and Adam Grant.

Alison Fairbrother is an associate editor at Riverhead Books, where she acquires fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction. Her authors are New York Times bestsellers and 5 Under 35 awardees from the National Book Foundation, and include Kristen Arnett, Aja Gabel, Anna Hogeland, R. O. Kwon, and Jenny Xie. She’s worked closely with Riverhead’s editor-in-chief on the manuscripts of Chang-rae Lee, Liz Moore, and Tiphanie Yanique, among others.

Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing, is a leading publisher of literary fiction and quality nonfiction. Since its inception in 1994, Riverhead has been devoted to publishing authors who change the conversation—urgent, unheard voices from a wide variety of backgrounds who have new perspectives and new stories to tell. Riverhead’s books and authors have won or been finalists for the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award, the MacArthur “Genius Grant,” the Hurston Wright Legacy Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and many other honors.

In addition, Alison is a published novelist, and she offers a unique perspective on both sides of the business. Her first novel, The Catch (Random House, 2022), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Amazon Editors’ Pick, and People magazine Best New Book.

Marie Howe earned an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied with Stanley Kunitz, whom she refers to as “my true teacher.”

Her first collection, The Good Thief (1988), was chosen for the National Poetry Series by Margaret Atwood, who praised Howe’s “poems of obsession that transcend their own dark roots.” In that collection, Howe’s oracular yet self-doubting speakers often voice their concerns through Biblical and mythical allusions. Kunitz, on selecting the book for the Lavan Younger Poets Prize from the American Academy of Poets, observed, “Her long, deep-breathing lines address the mysteries of flesh and spirit, in terms accessible only to a woman who is very much of our time and yet still in touch with the sacred.”

In 1989, Howe’s brother John died of an AIDS-related illness. As Howe states in an AGNI interview, “John’s living and dying changed my aesthetic completely.” What the Living Do (1997), an elegy to John, was praised by Publishers Weekly as one of the five best poetry collections of the year. Stripping her poems of metaphor, Howe composed the collection as a transparent, accessible documentary of loss.

In The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008), Howe distanced herself from the personal narrative and returned to, as she describes in the AGNI interview, her “obsess[ion] with the metaphysical, the spiritual dimensions of life as they present themselves in this world.” In these poems Howe “makes metaphor matter and material metaphysical,” according to Brenda Shaughnessy in Publishers Weekly. Howe’s fourth book of poetry is Magdalene (2017).

Howe has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, and NYU. She coedited (with Michael Klein) the essay anthology In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (1994). She has received fellowships from the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She was the Poet Laureate of New York State from 2012 to 2014. She lives in New York City.

Cecilia “CeCe” Lyra is a literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency representing adult fiction and nonfiction. A longterm strategic thinker, CeCe prioritizes the creative reach and sustainable longevity of her authors’ careers, and she is especially looking for clients with whom she can build fruitful, lasting relationships. CeCe believes that stories are empathy generating machines capable of healing, connecting, and enacting true change. She is particularly drawn to books centered around power (dynamics, imbalance, rise & fall), identity (perception, exploration, intersectionality), and dysfunction (familial, societal, cultural) told with originality, nuance, and authenticity.

cecelyra.com

Andrea Somberg

A literary agent for over twenty years, Andrea Somberg represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, including projects for adult, young adult and middle grade audiences. My clients’ books have been NYTimes and USABestsellers, GMA and Target Book Club Picks, winners of ALA’s Alex Award and the Nebula, finalists for the Center For Fiction’s First Novel Prize, The Edgar Award, The Governor General’s Award, the Lambda Award, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, the Ohioana Award and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, Junior Library Guild Selections, PublishersMarketplace’s Buzz Book Selections, and named best books of the year by NYPublic Library and Book of the Month Club .She also actively pursues film and tv rights, and has had projects optioned by 20th Century Fox, Imagine Entertainment, Warner Brothers and others. Andrea teaches courses for MediaBistro and Writers Digest on topics such as middle grade, nonfiction, memoir, mystery and thrillers, fantasy and sf and is always actively looking to take on new authors who write in the following categories:

Fiction: literary and upmarket/book club fiction, speculative, horror, thrillers, mystery, fantasy, science fiction
Children’s:  young adult, middle grade, graphic novel.
Nonfiction: memoir, narrative, popular science, pop-culture, humor, how-to, parenting, self-help, lifestyle and crafts.

To learn more please visit www.harveyklinger.com

You can also find her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,
and learn more at Manuscripts Wish List and Publisher’s Marketplace.

Previously, she spent several decades as an editor, first in magazines (HARPER’s, VOGUE, REAL SIMPLE) and then in books (as editorial director at Hyperion Books and as an executive editor at Henry Holt). Barbara edited celebrated novels such as TRUST EXERCISE by Susan Choi, which won the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, and Paul Auster’s Booker-Prize shortlisted novel 4 3 2 1. She published NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers such as Julie Lythcott-Haims’s HOW TO RAISE AN ADULT and Luvvie Ajayi’s I’M JUDGING YOU. Other notable titles include ARCADIA and DELICATE EDIBLE BIRDS, by Lauren Groff, GOODBYE, VITAMIN by Rachel Khong, MY LIFE by Coretta Scott King, MY MONTICELLO by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, NUMBER ONE CHINESE RESTAURANT by Lillian Li, and books by Janice Hadlow, Sebastian Faulks, Jacqueline Novogratz, Christa Parravani and Carl Safina. She has also led writing workshops for 30 years, at Yale University, New York University, Queens University of Charlotte, and elsewhere.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR

High quality debut novels and works of narrative nonfiction by writers with several books in them.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

• CONFIDENCE and BUGSY & OTHER STORIES, by Rafael Frumkin
• THE SWANS OF HARLEM: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History, by Karen Valby
• HOW TO GET ALONG WITHOUT ME, Stories by Kate Axelrod
• I WILL DO BETTER: A Grieving Father and his Plucky Little Girl, a memoir by Charles Bock
• Other clients include the fiction writers Mohammed Naseehu Ali, Elizabeth Ferris, Russell Hogg, Danielle Lazarin, Isaac Olivers, and the MacArthur Genius Award winner Byllye Avery.

SPECIALIZES IN:

• Fiction: Literary Fiction, Commercial Fiction
• Non Fiction: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, Memoir, Nature/Ecology, Narrative, Women’s Concerns

Leigh Haber is the books editor at O, the Oprah Magazine, a position she has held for more than ten years. She graduated from George Washington University with a degree in international affairs, and after getting a job as a copy aide at the Washington Post Book World, she worked for many years in book publishing, first in publicity and later as an editor—at Jeremy Tarcher, Ballantine Books, Avon, Bantam Books, Berkley Books, Harcourt Brace, Scribner, Hyperion, and Rodale—before turning to work as a freelance editor and start-up consultant. At O, the Oprah

Magazine, Haber is responsible for putting together the Reading Room section of the magazine, and is always on the lookout for books to feature or excerpt elsewhere in the magazine. She also works with Oprah Winfrey and the rest of the staff to identify new candidates for Oprah’s Book Club.

Dawn Davis, Senior Vice President and Publisher, 37 Ink

The Poets & Writers 2019 Editor of the Year, Dawn Davis is the founding publisher of 37 INK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.  She has edited many prize-winning and New York Times bestselling books, including one of the 2023 New York Times’ 10 Best Books of the Year, Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo; How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair; The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan; Never Caught, a finalist for the National Book Award, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar; The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton; The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, by Issa Rae; Tough Love by Ambassador Susan Rice; I Can’t Make this Up by Kevin Hart, and various books by weight loss expert JJ Smith, including the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse.  

In 2020, Davis was named Editor in Chief of the Condé Nast magazines, Bon Appétit and Epicurious. She returned to Simon & Schuster in 2023.

Prior to first joining Simon & Schuster, Davis was publisher of Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, where she edited The Known World by Edward P. Jones, which won the Pulitzer Prize; Steve Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, which was one of the best-selling books of the decade; and The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner.

She lives in New York City

Kara Watson, Vice President, Executive Editor, acquires literary and book club fiction, memoir, narrative and practical nonfiction, and cookbooks. Recent novels include the national bestseller Big Swiss by Jen Beagin, Death Valley by Melissa Broder, The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, Treacle Walker by Alan Garner, and The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer. Nonfiction lifestyle books are The World in a Wine Glass by Ray Isle, The Everlasting Meal Cookbook by Tamar Adler, Gateau by Aleksandra Crapanzano, and The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson. Rediscovered classics on Kara’s list include O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker, The Women in Black by Madeleine St John, and The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff. Forthcoming projects include Say More by former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki; novels by Stephanie Danler, Claire Kilroy, Rachel Lyon, and Kat Tang; narrative nonfiction by Rachel Clarke and Annie Liontas, and an update of Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking. Kara also works with Joanna Cannon, Tahmima Anam, Andrea Lee, AJ Pearce, Carole Johnstone, Ethan Joella, Katy Butler, Dr. Wendy Mogel, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Kate Manning, Ken Jennings, Ann Beattie and others, and oversees key backlist including the F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway catalogs.

Kirby Kim represents both literary and commercial authors. He’s most interested in receiving manuscripts that straddle the fence a bit, with upmarket expression combined with a genre element or plot device (Adam White, Ling Ling Huang, Sierra Greer). When it comes to straight literary work, he’s alternatively drawn to rich, sweeping stories that try to encompass a time or a place (Malcolm Brooks) or tightly written, narratively innovative stories or voices with award potential (Gina Apostol). His commercial interests include thrillers (James A. McLaughlin), mysteries (Matthew Sullivan), speculative fiction (Ted Chiang), and horror (Nick Cutter).

He also represents a range of nonfiction working with leaders and journalists in the areas of science (Dan Werb), culture and current affairs (Lauren Etter). He’s also known for representing pop culture, in particular music (Common) and comedy (Dave Hill).

A native of Los Angeles, California, Kirby attended Pomona College and got his JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. Kirby is currently a board member of the Asian American Writers Workshop. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife and two kids.

Lean more about Kirby at www.janklowandnesbit.com

Caitlin Mahony has been at WME since 2016. She represents romance, genre, and commercial fiction. Caitlin’s clients include bestselling romance authors Chloe Walsh, Ivy Fairbanks, and Peyton Corinne, as well as fantasy writers SenLinYu and Scarlett St. Clair, among others. Caitlin is passionate about working with authors who originate from non-traditional spaces, and bringing new opportunities their way.

Wendy Sherman has been in publishing more years than she cares to admit. She has held senior, executive positions at Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Henry Holt where she was Associate Publisher. During her time at these major publishing houses, she worked in the areas of subsidiary rights, marketing, sales, and editorial. She left to pursue her dream of becoming a literary agent and founded Wendy Sherman Associates Literary Management in 1999.

Wendy loves voice and story-driven fiction that hits that sweet spot between literary and mainstream. She has a passion for Southern voices, suspense with a well-developed protagonist, and has a weakness for family secrets, mother-daughter relationships, and realistic love stories.

She is also interested in non-fiction with a unique twist by authors with a strong, well-developed media platform. Areas of interest include memoir, narrative non-fiction, practical and prescriptive, self-help and popular psychology, parenting, lifestyle, pop-culture, health, wellness, and spirituality, and and just about anything to do with food or dogs.

Wendy is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) and the Women’s Media Group.

Wendy Sherman Associates, Inc. is the home of award-winning writers and bestselling books. With a unique perspective on the publishing process, and an invaluable blend of experience in editorial, acquisitions, sales, marketing, and contract negotiations, we offer our clients a comprehensive strategy for navigating the publishing terrain. Our office is based in New York City, but we are a bi-coastal establishment with agents in San Francisco and Seattle. As a full service agency, we also partner with major film and television agents in Los Angeles.

With a long-standing tradition of attracting and identifying quality material and a strong knowledge of market trends, we have proven success discovering first time authors as well as managing  the work of those with established careers. We pride ourselves on cultivating long-term relationships with clients as well as with publishers throughout the world.

Learn more at wsherman.com

Her list spans the spectrum of literary and commercial fiction, from thought-provoking story collections to page-turning thrillers. She is primarily interested in work that focuses on storytelling and emotional connection, rather than formal experimentation, and believes that the best reading experience engages both the heart and the head. She is looking for book club novels (a commercial idea with a literary execution), literary fiction, literary suspense, genre fiction for a non-genre audience, and upmarket women’s fiction. In non-fiction, she is looking for a personal story that illuminates a greater subject. Michelle also very selectively represents literary Young Adult fiction. In all of these areas, she is looking to support underrepresented voices.

Michelle is honored to work with books that have received a variety of accolades, including NY Times Bestsellers, National Book Award finalists, and Read with Jenna, Target, and Barnes and Noble book club selections.

You can learn more about Michelle and Trellis Literary Management at trellisliterary.com

As an agent with Wendy Sherman Associates for the past seven years, she has represented story-driven fiction with full bodied characters, both contemporary and historical.  She seeks out memoirs and narrative nonfiction that showcase the diversity of human experience, and well-platformed non-fiction writers who seek to provoke, inspire, and educate on diverse subjects, including self-help, finance and career, health and wellness, spirituality, and social justice

An active member of the American Association of Literary Agents, and a very popular workshop leader for several writer’s conferences including the Grub Street Writing Center, Cherise also teaches the “Introduction to Publishing” class as a part of the Publishing Certificate Program at the City College of New York.

Her intention is that all the books she helps bring into the world are relevant, enduring, and help readers maximize their lives.

To learn more about John Grisham and his books, visit jgrisham.com

Dr. Iwasaki is an assistant professor of English at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. She received her Ph.D. in Learning Design and Technology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and also has an M.Ed. in education. Her research interests and teaching practices include instructional design and development, English studies, media writing, migration narratives in graphic novels, documentary film, diversity, place and community-based, culturally relevant resources in education, and cross-cultural exchange and collaboration.

She has conducted extensive research activities, published articles, and given presentations in the United States, Asia and Europe in these areas. Her teaching and research awards include the UH Hilo Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi Award for Excellence and Innovation. She is active in the community, serving on the boards for several organizations dedicated to diversity, education and youth.

To learn more about Lee Child and his books, visit jackreacher.com

Her authors include New York Times bestselling fiction writer Ben H. Winters, winner of both the Edgar Award and the Philip K. Dick Award; Jim Obergefell, named plaintiff in the Supreme Court marriage equality case (Obergefell v. Hodges), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Debbie Cenziper and Dale Russakoff; Dr. Michele Borba, award-winning educator and parenting contributor to The Today Show; the late Dr. Susan Forward, memoirists Ariel Burger, Ashley Rhodes-Courter, and Israel Meir Lau (former Chief Rabbi of Israel);  historians Philip Freeman and Elizabeth White; true crime writer James Renner;  novelists Marilyn Simon Rothstein, Julie Valerie, Marj Charlier and Lindsey J. Palmer, among many others.

What Joelle would like to see more of right now:  history and science (especially neuroscience) that tells a great story or is cutting edge, nonfiction and fiction with a strong voice or point of view, lifestyle books with an innovative twist, out of the box thinkers, diverse and own voices, literature in translation.

Prior to founding  the agency, Delbourgo was a senior editorial executive at HarperCollins and Ballantine Books, a division of Random House for more than two decades. Among the authors she worked with are Ken Davis, Abraham Verghese, Lee Smith, Barbara Tuchman, Carl Sagan, Robert Massie, James P. McPherson, Jim Davis, Sophy  Burnham, Delia Ephron and Margaret George.  She began her editorial career at Bantam Books, where she discovered and launched the Choose Your Own Adventure series for kids, which sold millions of copies worldwide.

Joëlle is a member of AALA (Association of American Literary Agents), an industry organization that upholds ethical standards.

She holds a Master of the Arts in English and Comparative Literature with Honors from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of the Arts from Williams College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a double concentration in History and English Literature.  Joëlle is as sought-after speaker, panelist, workshop leader and instructor at writing conferences.  She has taught publishing and editing at Rutgers University to graduate students.  She has lived on three continents, is fluent in French, and considers herself to be a citizen of the world.  The proud mother of two, she is an ardent student of Latin and ballroom dance and a dedicated home baker.

Joëlle Delbourgo Associates Literary Agency is a boutique literary agency based in the greater New York City area. We represent a wide range of authors writing for the adult trade market, from creative nonfiction to expert-driven nonfiction, commercial fiction to literary fiction, as well as new adult, young adult and middle grade fiction and nonfiction. Founded in September 1999, the agency and its co-agents have negotiated over 1,000 contracts with publishers throughout the world, and for adaptation into other media, such as film and television and audiobooks.

As former editors who have worked a major publishing houses, we are creative, know the publishing world from both sides, and pride ourselves on helping our authors at every stage of the publishing process, from creation of submission material, to pitching and selling, negotiating strong deals, and extending the reach of our client’s work internationally and in multiple formats. We enjoy helping authors to build careers over multiple books. We have a wide range of contacts throughout the industry. Our philosophy is to build bridges and effective partnerships.

We look for both narrative and prescriptive nonfiction: “big think” books, groundbreaking research-based nonfiction, history and politics, psychology, parenting, business and economics, science, memoir, health and wellness, and true crime . We love to see smart practical books in crafts, cooking and gardening, supported by strong author platforms. Our fiction spans mainstream quality commercial women’s fiction to literary fiction, upscale mysteries, and and occasionally, romance and fantasy. We seek quality first and foremost, distinctive voices, and original points of view.

Learn more at delbourgo.com

Union Literary is a full-service boutique agency specializing in literary fiction, popular fiction, narrative non-fiction, memoir, social history, business and general big idea books, popular science, cookbooks and food writing. We excel at project development, hands-on editing and placing our projects with domestic and foreign publishers, film and television companies.

Authors include: novelists Alyson Richman (The Velvet Hours); Kim Barnes (In The Kingdom of Men), Vanessa Diffenbaugh (New York Times bestselling The Language of Flowers, published in 40 countries), Jardine Libaire (White Fur), Kaylie Jones (A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, adapted into a Merchant-Ivory film), Geoff Nicholson (Booker finalist), Jenny Offill (Dept. of Speculation), Kristen Roupenian (You Know You Want This); Ellen Sussman (national bestselling French Lessons); memoirists Kate Braestrup (New York Times bestselling Here If You Need Me, optioned by CBS), Conor Grennan (New York Times bestselling Little Princes, published in 12 countries), Ashley Judd (New York Times bestselling All That is Bitter and Sweet), Michael Frank (The Mighty Franks); scientist John Marzluff (national bestselling The Gifts of the Crow); young adult and middle grade authors Steven Arntson (forthcoming The Trap), Jenny Lee (Elvis and the Underdogs); cookbook authors Emily Elsen and Melissa Elsen (Pie: Four & Twenty Blackbirds), Maria Speck (Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, winner of multiple awards including IACP’s Julia Child Award); and the estates of Gracey Paley, Pamela Moore, James Jones and David Markson.

Learn more at unionliterary.com

Ayesha Pande Literary is an acclaimed Harlem-based literary agency known for successfully launching award-winning, bestselling authors, scholars, and emerging writers.

WE LOVE TO WORK WITH WRITERS WHO DARE TO INNOVATE, TAKE RISKS, EXPRESS SOMETHING MEANINGFUL ABOUT OUR WORLD.

We bring conviction and passion to everything we do: from developing concepts and ideas to strategizing long-term career goals, selling foreign, film and other subsidiary rights, brainstorming marketing and publicity plans; and advocating for our authors.

We are especially passionate about discovering and nurturing talented new voices, and we work hard to procure and negotiate contracts and guide authors through the bewildering publication process. We work with clients on setting career goals; consult with them on creating an effective online media platform and advocate for their interests with the publishing companies. We believe good writing is everything and bring our extensive editorial experience to bear in editing and polishing clients’ work before submitting it to publishers. We provide every client with personal attention and because of this we limit the number of clients we take on. We pride ourselves on being transparent, communicative and ethical.

FOREIGN and SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

We work with a group of highly experienced co-agents throughout the world who aggressively sell translation rights on our client’s behalf. We attend international book fairs in order to meet with foreign publishers and pitch our clients’ projects to them. We have close relationships with several film agents and have successfully placed film and television rights with high profile production companies and studios.

Learn more at pandeliterary.com

If you’ve been to the movies in the last 25 years, you have seen the influence of Hollywood story consultant and author Christopher Vogler. Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Vogler transformed that famed analysis of mythic storytelling into a 12-stage narrative structure for screenwriters, based on ancient archetypes. It became the most impactful guide for screenwriting of the modern era and is the basis for the now-standard three act structure.

A staple in film classes the world over, Vogler’s influential guide, The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers,  tracks the hero’s path from trials to triumph, a flexible template that has stood the test of time. “Stories are resilient and seem to be adapting to a new age and new realities with the help of writers who are always looking for unexpected ways to put together the elemental pieces,” Vogler says.

Vogler has worked for Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers and was instrumental in developing some of their most iconic films.

Ruth Ware grew up in Lewes, in Sussex. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London.

She worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer, before settling down as a full-time writer. She now lives with her family in Sussex, on the south coast of England.

She is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game. Ruth’s books have also won or been nominated for various awards: In a Dark, Dark Wood won NPR best book of 2015 and RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Suspense Novel; The Woman in Cabin 10 was nominated for the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards, Best Mystery & Thriller; One by One, was shortlisted for the 2021 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award at the Crime Writers Association Awards; and The It Girl was shortlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

Her books have been published in over 40 territories.

Ruth’s new mystery thriller, One Perfect Couple, will be released in summer 2024.

Visit her at RuthWare.com,
or follow her on Instagram @ruthwarewriter and Twitter @RuthWareWriter

Previous novels have included The Beach House, Second Chance, Jemima J, and Tempting Fate.

She joined the ABC News team to write their first enhanced digital book— about the history of Royal marriages, then joined ABC News as a live correspondent covering Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton.

A former journalist in the UK, she has had her own radio show on BBC Radio London, and is a regular contributor on radio and TV, including as well as regularly appearing on television shows including Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart show, and The Today Show.

Together with writing books and blogs, she contributes to various publications, both online and print, including anthologies and novellas, and features for The Huffington Post, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and Self. She has taught at writers conferences, and does regular keynote speaking, and has a weekly column in The Lady magazine, England’s longest running weekly magazine.

A graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York, Green is bringing out her first cookbook: Good Taste , with Berkley in October 2016.

She is a storyteller for The Moth radio hour on NPR, and lives in Westport, Connecticut with her husband and their blended family. When she is not writing, cooking, gardening, filling her house with friends and herding chickens, she is usually thanking the Lord for caffeine-filled energy drinks.

Learn more at janegreen.com

A Korean immigrant, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, and one of Variety Magazine’s inaugural “10 Storytellers to Watch,” Kim has written for Vogue, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Glamour, and numerous literary journals. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and three sons.

Learn more at angiekimbooks.com

“[T]hought-provoking journey of ideas disguised as a courtroom page-turner…Miracle Creek becomes a fascinating study of the malleability of truth in the courtroom. For the reader, learning the killer’s identity matters less than parsing the moral compromises each character makes to guard his or her own version of truth.”

―The New York Times Book Review

“A deeply moving story about parents and the lengths they will go for their children…Readers will be riveted by the book’s genre-bending structure and superb pace. Miracle Creek is a stunning debut about parents, children and the unwavering hope of a better life, even when all hope seems lost.”

―The Washington Post

“In her mesmerizing debut novel, Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes readers into the courtroom for a story of lies and a trial to find the truth…She shows an enormous amount of empathy for her characters, infusing them with such intense humanity that I sat weeping for them in an airplane middle seat, between two strangers, for several minutes after I finished the book. With clear, assured prose and penetrating emotional intelligence, she takes us deep into their inner lives . . . The plotting is deliberate and detailed and marvelously done.”

―The Los Angeles Times

Mary Beth Keane attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. She was awarded a John S. Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing, and has received citations from the National Book Foundation, PEN America, and the Hemingway Society. She is the author of The Half Moon, The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes, which spent eight weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List. To date, Ask Again, Yes has been translated into twenty-two languages.

Learn more at marybethkeane.com

Mary Beth Keane attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. She was awarded a John S. Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing, and has received citations from the National Book Foundation, PEN America, and the Hemingway Society. She is the author of The Half Moon, The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes, which spent eight weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List. To date, Mary Beth’s novels have been translated into twenty-two languages.

Learn more at marybethkeane.com

Chris Pavone is the author of five international thrillers, beginning with The Expats in 2012 and most recently the instant bestseller Two Nights in Lisbon. His novels have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and IndieNext; have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards, and have been shortlisted for the Strand, Macavity, Thriller, and L.A. Times Book Prize; are in development for feature and series; and have been translated into two dozen languages. Chris grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Cornell, and spent the first half of his career working in book publishing in positions ranging from copy editor at Doubleday and managing editor of the Lyons Press to executive editor at Clarkson Potter and deputy publisher at Workman. He lives in New York City.

Learn more at chrispavone.com

John Searles is the best-selling author of the novels Her Last Affair, Help for the Haunted, Strange but True and Boy Still Missing. 

Hailed as “riveting” by The New York Times and “hypnotic” by Entertainment Weekly, Boy Still Missing inspired Time magazine to name him a “Person to Watch,” and the New York Daily News to name him a “New Yorker to Watch.” His second novel, Strange but True was praised as “sinister and complex” by Janet Maslin of The New York Times, “extraordinary” by Publishers Weekly, and was named best novel of the year by Salon. Help for the Haunted was named a Boston Globe Best Crime Novel of the Year, an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Must List, and won the American Library Association’s Alex Award. John’s most recent novel, Her Last Affair, was named a Best New Book by People magazine and praised as “a tense, intricately woven tale of heartbreak, retribution and redemption” by Publishers Weekly and “a twisted thriller that explores despair and loneliness with cinematic flair” by Kirkus Reviews.

In 2019, Strange But True was adapted for film by the producers of La La Land and released in theaters nationwide by Lionsgate. Now streaming on HBOMax and Amazon Prime, the film stars the award-winning ensemble cast of Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Brian Cox, Blythe Danner, Nick Robinson and Margaret Qualley. The movie was praised as “suspenseful and haunting” by The Hollywood Reporter and “a twisty tale of tragic secrets” by the Los Angeles Times.

John has appeared regularly on morning programs like NBC’s Today Show, CBS This Morning, Live! With Regis & Kelly, NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and CNN to discuss his books.

For 23 years, John was the books editor of Cosmopolitan, also serving as the magazine’s brand director, executive editor, and editor-at-large.  His personal and travel essays, book and restaurant reviews have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post and numerous other magazines, newspapers and websites. He has a master’s degree in creative writing from New York University and lives in NYC.

Learn more at john-searles.com

Learn more at billycollinspoetry.com

Jean Kwok is the award-winning, NYT and international bestselling author of The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in more than twenty countries and taught in schools across the world. She was one of twelve contemporary authors asked by the Agatha Christie estate to write an original, authorized Miss Marple story. All of her novels are in development for film and television. The Leftover Woman was a Good Morning America Book Club Buzz Pick, CBS New York Book Club Top 3 Pick, Book of the Month Pick, and a LibraryReads Top 10 Pick selected by library staff across America. An instant New York Times bestseller, Searching for Sylvie Lee was chosen for the Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club. She has appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America, and spoken at many schools and venues including Harvard, Columbia and Talks at Google. A television documentary was filmed about Jean and her work. She divides her time between the Netherlands and New York City.

Learn more about jean at jeankwok.com

To learn more about Meg
visit her website:
megwolitzer.com

“With a belief that the power of story changes us and moves us, Patti’s historical fiction, SURVIVING SAVANNAH, WILD SWAN, and BECOMING MRS. LEWIS explores the untold stories of the past that affect us now.” (writing as Patti Callahan)

SURVIVING SAVANNAH, a new historical fiction, based on the true story of the Steamship Pulaski wreck, known as “The Titanic of the South” was released March 9, 2021.

The new podcast series, “The Untold Story Behind Surviving Savannah” is an in-depth exploration into the fascinating stories explored in her novel, Surviving Savannah. The podcast series (03/21) includes interviews with some of the foremost experts on the myth and lore of Savannah, shipwreck treasure hunting, the hidden stories in museums, and the astounding real-life family story that inspired the novel. Trailer and Episodes One-Six, available now. 

WILD SWAN, a novella following the fiery life of one of history’s greatest heroines and the mother of modern nursing: Florence Nightingale by Patti Callahan was released December 2020, as an Audible Original performed by the award-winning narrator, Cynthia Erivo.

BECOMING MRS. LEWIS—The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis was released in an expanded edition, March 2020.  The author is also the host of the popular seven-part original “Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series”—the podcast audiobook collection including bonus material was released in January 2020. 

ONCE UPON A WARDROBEis another tenderly imagined and enchanting story that pulls back the curtain on the early life of C. S. Lewis from Callahan— October 19, 2021, and available now—published by Harper Collins’ new imprint —Harper Muse as their debut novel. 

REUNION BEACH, Stories Inspired by Dorothea Benton Frank, a collaboration and tribute was released April 27, 2021.  Patti joins a group of bestselling authors to present a moving anthology to pay tribute to the legendary NYT bestselling author and her literary legacy.

Patti Callahan is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast, featuring New York Times bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Kristin Harmel. With endless stories and special guests, they are LIVE every Wednesday at 7 pm ET on the Friends and Fiction Facebook group page, their YouTube Channel, and Parade Magazine Facebook page. You can follow them on Instagram and, for weekly updates, subscribe to their newsletter.

In a recent essay series partnership with Parade Magazine, each Wednesday viewers get a new “life lesson” from one of the FF writers on Parade.com as well as a chance to discuss the themes later that evening on Facebook Live.

A full-time author, mother of three, and grandmother of two, she lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband, Pat Henry.

​THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA: Her newest novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea, is set outside Oxford in the hamlet of Binsey, and will be released on May 2nd, 2023 with Simon & Schuster Atria.

She’s spent countless hours, and yet not nearly enough hours, wondering and reading and talking about C. S. Lewis, Joy Davidman, and their life together.

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds, and the celebrated short story collections Delicate Edible Birds and Florida.

She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award, France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages.

The Vaster Wilds, her most recent novel, is a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for The Southern Book Prize, and one of Time’s 10 Best Books of 2023),

Her novel Matrix, was named a Top Ten book of 2021 by the Washington Post and a best book of the year by over two dozen newspapers and magazines, including TIME, The Guardian, The Financial Times, the Spectator, The Times, Library Journal, and Esquire.

Her third novel, Fates and Furies, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kirkus Award. It won the 2015 American Booksellers’ Association Indies’ Choice Award for Fiction, was a New York Times Notable book and Bestseller, Amazon.com’s #1 book of 2015, and on over two dozen best-of 2015 lists. It also received the 2016 American Bookseller Association’s Indies’ Choice Award for Adult Fiction and, in France, the Madame Figaro Grand Prix de l’Héroïne. Rights have been sold in thirty countries.

Her collection of stories, Florida, was released in June 2018. It won the Story Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, Kirkus Prize, and the Southern Book Prize.

Her work has appeared in journals including the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Tin House, One Story, and Ploughshares, and in the anthologies 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and five editions of the Best American Short Stories.

In 2017, she was named by Granta Magazine as one of the Best of Young American Novelists of her generation. In 2018, she received a Guggenheim fellowship in Fiction and a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband, two sons, and dog.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.

Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by fifteen more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in three restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn, Ebbtide, and Coquina Cottage—all named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and all available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.

Marta F Kauffman is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television writer, producer, and showrunner behind the hit series Friends ​and Grace and Frankie.  Kauffman got her big break alongside David Crane with their pilots ​Dream On (1990) and ​The Powers That Be ​(1992) before they co-created Friends. In 2015, Kauffman started her production company, Okay Goodnight, with industry veterans Robbie Tollin and Hannah KS Canter. Their first series, ​Grace and Frankie is Netflix’s longest-running original ever.

Marta Kauffman on set of Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda

Most notably, David Kirkpatrick, was the President of Paramount Pictures and the Production President of Walt Disney Studios. He started as a screenwriter, selling his first script to Paramount at 16. He became story editor at Paramount at 25 where he managed thousands of screenplays.  Over his long career, David has worked on over 200 motion pictures starting with ideas and seeing them through to successful production, marketing, and distribution. He has worked on such recognizable global franchises as Indiana Jones, and Star Trek.  He has developed countless Academy Award winning movies including Ordinary People, Elephant Man, Witness, Terms of Endearment, and Forest Gump.

David Kirkpatrick working on a scene with Sally Field and Kevin Kline in the comedy Soapdish

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

by The Wall Street Journal; O: The Oprah Magazine; The Economist; Vogue; Slate; Chicago Tribune; The Seattle Times; Dayton Daily News; Publishers Weekly; Alan Cheuse, NPR’s “All Things Considered”

SELECTED ONE OF THE TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

by Michiko Kakutani, “The New York Times”; Entertainment Weekly; The Christian Science Monitor; The Kansas City Star Library Journal

 

Priya Parmar’s novel, Vanessa and Her Sister was recently chosen as a New York Times Book Review ‘Editor’s Choice’ selection, an Entertainment Weekly ‘Must List’ pick, a People Magazine ‘Book of the Week’, and as an editor’s pick for: O Magazine, Oprah.com, Vanity Fair, Elle Magazine, New York Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, US Weekly and USA Today and Priya was chosen for the Barnes and Noble ‘Discover Great New Writers’ 2015 program.

Educated at Mount Holyoke College, The University of Oxford and The University of Edinburgh, she is the author of one previous novel, Exit the Actress. Priya divides her time between Kauai and London.

Priya is also the co-author of the wildly successful musical Sylvia, which debuted last year at London’s Old Vic theater.

To learn more about Sam, visit her website at samhorn.com

She Writes Press was founded by Kamy Wicoff and Brooke Warner in 2012 as a response to the barriers to traditional publishing getting higher and higher for authors. Kamy’s online community, She Writes, had been founded on the principle of connecting and serving women writers everywhere, offering a community for established and aspiring writers. Brooke had been the Executive Editor at Seal Press for eight years, and was witnessing firsthand the contracting publishing environment, where she personally was having to reject beautifully written books on a regular basis because the submitting author didn’t have a strong enough author platform.

Kamy and Brooke envisioned a company where authors would be invited to publish based on the merit of their writing alone. They wanted to found a press for women writers that would be a platform—that could launch their writing careers, and where they could legitimately compete with their traditional counterparts.

In 2013, She Writes Press secured traditional distribution through Ingram Publisher Services and established itself as a real player in the hybrid publishing world. This relationship secured the right for SWP authors to submit their books for review through traditional channels, creating a more level playing field. SWP authors have been featured in O! magazine, People, and USA Today, and have been reviewed in all of the trade magazines: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus; Booklist; Library Journal; and featured on Shelf Awareness.