Present your work one-on-one to literary agents, editors, and publishers.
We have gone to great lengths to identify and invite the most highly respected and accomplished agents who are actively looking for new authors to represent. You will find biographical information and a website link for each of them in their homepage listing as well as below.
You may sign up for up to a maximum of three one-on-one sessions. They are only for registered conference participants and take place between 8:45am and noon Friday, Nov 15, through Sunday, Nov 17. Each session is fifteen minutes in length. After you have registered for your session(s), you will be invited to send what you wish to submit and schedule your appointment.
AGENT SESSIONS
These individual sessions are a rare opportunity to sit in private with a literary agent and present yourself and your work. At your option, you may submit a three-to-five page excerpt from your book, and/or a one page synopsis or query letter. If you submit such pages, the agent will read them in advance of your meeting and be prepared to talk with you about them. You may also opt not to submit in advance but to just present verbally at your session. Whether your goal is to find an agent to take you on as a client, or to get advice on your work and your path to publication from a literary professional, these sessions are an unprecedented chance to fulfill your objective.
$95
PUBLISHING CONSULTATIONS
The Kauai Writers Conference provides the rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with prominent editors and publishers, including representatives of major publishing houses and leading exponents of alternative publishing. You will have the opportunity to submit excerpts from your work in advance and receive personal guidance on your best path to publication from the most knowledgeable and well-connected people in the publishing world.
$95
We have gone to great lengths to identify and invite the most highly respected and accomplished agents who are actively looking for new authors to represent. You will find biographical information and a website link for each of them in their homepage listing as well as below.
You may sign up for up to a maximum of three one-on-one sessions. They are only for registered conference participants and take place between 8:45am and noon Friday, Nov 15, through Sunday, Nov 17. Each session is fifteen minutes in length. After you have registered for your session(s), you will be invited to send what you wish to submit and schedule your appointment.
AGENT SESSIONS
These individual sessions are a rare opportunity to sit in private with a literary agent and present yourself and your work. At your option, you may submit a three-to-five page excerpt from your book, and/or a one page synopsis or query letter. If you submit such pages, the agent will read them in advance of your meeting and be prepared to talk with you about them. You may also opt not to submit in advance but to just present verbally at your session. Whether your goal is to find an agent to take you on as a client, or to get advice on your work and your path to publication from a literary professional, these sessions are an unprecedented chance to fulfill your objective.
$95
PUBLISHING CONSULTATIONS
The Kauai Writers Conference provides the rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with prominent editors and publishers, including representatives of major publishing houses and leading exponents of alternative publishing. You will have the opportunity to submit excerpts from your work in advance and receive personal guidance on your best path to publication from the most knowledgeable and well-connected people in the publishing world.
$95
Learn more about the agents …
… and publishing experts.
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.
Alison is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.
Learn more about Alison at lithub.com/author/alisonfairbrother
Read about her debut novel, “The Catch” in the New York Times.
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.
- MY MOTHER CURSED MY NAME by Anamely Salgado Reyes, sold in six-figure preempt to Atria (S&S)
- YOUR UNCONSCIOUS IS SHOWING by Dr. Courtney Tracy, sold in a seven-way auction to St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan)
- TELL THEM YOU LIED by Laura Leffler, sold to Hyperion Avenue (Disney)
- HOW I KNOW WHITE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY by Dr. Jonathan Lassiter, sold at auction to Hachette Go (Hachette)
- A MOST PUZZLING MURDER by international bestselling author Bianca Marais, sold to Mira Books (HarperCollins)
The P.S. Literary Agency (PSLA) has championed creators for nearly two decades since opening in 2005 as a full service literary agency. Since then, they’ve built a tradition of connecting clients with leading publishers in North America, Europe, and the entire world. Their goal is to support clients from their drafts to post-publication, pursuing foreign, audio, digital, TV/film and serial rights.
Cece will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Michelle Brower is a founding partner of the renowned literary agency Trellis Literary Management. She has spent over fifteen years as an agent, first at Wendy Sherman Associates and most recently as a partner at Aevitas Creative Management. She co-founded Trellis Literary Management in 2021 in order to better serve and support her authors and create an agency with a lasting positive impact in the world of publishing.
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
Schedule a Pitch Session with Michelle.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Michelle.
Cherise Fisher began her career in publishing more than twenty-five years ago, spending many years editing and publishing several national bestselling and award winning authors at Simon & Schuster and Plume (an imprint of Penguin Random House), where she was Editor-in-Chief.
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.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Cherise.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Cherise.
Stacey Kendall Glick, Vice President, joined Distel, Goderich and Bourret in 1999 after working in film and television development for five years. Following a number of internships in the entertainment business, her first job after college was at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, where she looked for book projects to be adapted into feature films. Next, she worked as a story editor at Hearst Entertainment, where she scouted material for television movies. Stacey grew up just outside of Manhattan and is a former child actress who appeared on television, on stage, and in feature films. She now lives in New Jersey with her husband, four daughters (the youngest are identical twins) and two dogs, and enjoys cooking, food and wine, yoga, taking pictures, theater, going to Mets games and eating cheese, chocolate and spicy tuna hand rolls (not necessarily in that order) when she can find the time. She has a wide-ranging and eclectic client list, a consistent theme of which is to help people live better and happier lives. She is interested in many subjects, on the adult side: practical and narrative nonfiction across categories including (but not limited to) cooking and food, psychology, self-help, mental health and wellness, lifestyle, women’s issues, parenting, current events, pop culture, science, biography, and memoir. And on the children’s side: select YA, middle grade, nonfiction, and picture books. Stacey is a member of the AAR, Women’s Media Group, and is a former council member of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Stacey.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Stacey.
Heidi will be teaching the master class:
How to Write a Great Short Story: Cultivating Empathy, Voice, and Character in Short Fiction with Lauren Groff
Heidi is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.
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.
Caitlin will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
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
Wendy will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Lisa Leshne
Lisa Leshne’s clients include a diverse list of #1 New York Times bestselling, Pulitzer, Polk award-winning, and debut authors across many genres. She is most passionate about memoir and narrative non-fiction that elevate social justice topics, women’s issues, and underrepresented voices. She also acquires in the sports, business, political, health and pop-culture genres, and is always seeking exceptional literary and commercial fiction.
Lisa has worked in the media and entertainment business for 30+ years and her entire career has been spent working with and advocating for writers. Prior to founding her eponymous agency in 2011, she was a literary agent at LJK Literary. Previously, Lisa co-founded The Prague Post newspaper in 1991 Czechoslovakia and served as Publisher for over a decade. At the Wall Street Journal, she was Executive Director, International, for WSJ.com, responsible for business operations in Europe and Asia, overseeing advertising, marketing and circulation.
The Leshne Agency a full-service literary agency committed to the success of our authors over the course of their careers. Our authors have appeared in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Washington Post, as well as on NPR, Oprah’s Book Club, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSBNC, and a host of others. We take a deeply personal approach by working closely with our authors to develop their best ideas for maximum impact and reach across all formats, providing hands-on guidance and networking for lasting success.
Lisa will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Sally Wofford-Girand has worked with such luminaries as Salman Rushdie, Grace Paley, Kim Edwards, and Alice Hoffman as the foreign rights director at a boutique literary agency. Her particular areas of interest are: history, memoir, women’s issues, cultural studies, and, most of all, fiction that is both literary and gripping. Favorite authors include Cormac McCarthy, Kate Atkinson, Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth Strout, Anne Patchett, John Green, Jose Saramago, and Wallace Stegner. She is a hands-on agent with a passion for great storytelling. She loves the thrill of discovery in working with debut novelists. Sally is on the board of AAR and a board member of Writers Omi, an international writers colony in New York State.
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
Schedule a Pitch Session with Sally.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Sally.
Joëlle Delbourgo is President and Founder of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates Literary Agency. She represents a broad range of adult nonfiction and fiction.
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
Schedule a Pitch Session with Joëlle.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Joëlle.
Ayesha Pande founded APL in 2007. Before becoming an agent she held several editorial positions, including most recently as a senior editor at Farrar Straus and Giroux. She is on the board of Art Omi and the AALA (Association of American Literary Agents) where she founded the Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and helped launch the non-profit Literary Agents of Change. Her client roster includes Ibram X. Kendi, Patricia Engel, Danielle Evans, Matthew Salesses and Lisa Ko. While her interests are wide-ranging and eclectic, she works mostly with literary fiction, narrative nonfiction across a broad range of topics including history and cultural commentary, memoir and biography, and the occasional work of young adult fiction. She is drawn to distinctive voices with a compelling point of view and memorable characters. Ayesha’s greatest joy is in finding and launching new literary voices.
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
Schedule a Pitch Session with Ayesha.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Ayesha.
Stephanie Cabot is half French, half American and grew up in London, Paris and New England. She attended Harvard, where she studied History, and first worked in New York and London with JP Morgan. Her career as an agent began at WME in London, where she spent nine years and ran the office for the last five, before relocating to the US and to The Gernert Company in NYC, where she worked for fifteen years. Stephanie joined Susanna Lea Associates in the Spring of 2020.
Stephanie’s interests are a reflection of her own reading tastes which have always been wide and far ranging. She represents authors from all over the world and is drawn to the international narratives whether told in story, memoir or essays as well as literary fiction reflecting diverse, global voices, speculative fiction, upmarket commercial fiction, crime and thrillers.
Stephanie has spent the past ten years involved with a small internationally focused social justice NGO, World Connect, whose mission is to empower grassroots leaders to initiate change in their communities
Learn more at www.thegernertco.com
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Stephanie.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Stephanie.
Kevin Larimer is editor-in-chief of Poets & Writers, the leading literary organization in the United States. He has served as moderator / interviewer for many of the sessions of KWC online. Everyone who saw his presentations at the 2019 Kauai Writers Conference recognizes what a depth of knowledge Kevin brings, along with natural warmth and humor. We are most grateful for his participation.
Kevin is the author of The Poets & Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer: Everything You Need to Know about Craft, Inspiration, Agents, Editors, Publishing, and the Business of Building a Sustainable Writing Career, published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
He has given presentations and appeared on a number of panels on publishing at events such as the Library of Congress National Book Festival, the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, the Anguilla Lit Fest, the Slice Literary Writer’s Conference, the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, Poets Forum, the Bronx Book Fair, and the Writer’s Hotel.
His poems have appeared in Poetry International, Fence, Pleiades, Verse, and a dozen other literary magazines. He has written book reviews for American Letters & Commentary, American Book Review, Chelsea, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He holds a degree in journalism and received his MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was the poetry editor of the Iowa Review. His latest book, The Poets & Complete Guide to Being a Writer, was written with his wife, Mary Gannon, executive director of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.
Poets and Writers is the nation’s leading organization serving authors. In addition to its monthly magazine, it provides a wide range of services to help authors with all aspects of their work and their careers.
Kevin Larimer, as editor-in-chief, heads not only Poets and Writers magazine, but all of their educational programs. He is widely admired as one of the most knowledgeable people on the craft and business of writing. This year marks his fourth appearance at the Kauai Writers Conference. We have invited him each year because of the depth of his knowledge and his deeply felt desire to help writers in all stages of their careers.
A publishing consultation with Kevin is a rare opportunity. Even if you live in New York City, you would find it difficult to or impossible to sit with him in person to get his advice. On Kauai it is easy. We know of no other person as well positioned as Kevin to understand your unique journey as a writer and give you insightful advice on how to achieve your goals. Whether you are writing fiction, memoir, nonfiction or poetry, you’ll find a session with Kevin a milestone in your evolution as an author.
In addition to his broad knowledge of book publishing, Kevin is also intimately familiar with all of the leading literary magazines. Often writers overlook the importance of these publications. Getting your work, or excerpts of it, in print in one of them can be a crucial step for you, and Kevin can help you learn how to do it.
Learn more about Kevin Larimer at pw.org
Kevin is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.
Michelle Tessler has worked in the publishing industry for over twenty years. Before forming her boutique agency in 2004, Michelle worked at the William Morris Agency and the prestigious literary agency Carlisle & Company (now Inkwell Management). She also spent seven years working in content and business development in the Internet industry, beginning in 1994 when she was hired by best-selling author James Gleick to help launch The Pipeline. In light of the digital opportunities that are transforming publishing, Michelle’s experience in the Internet world is of great benefit to her authors, both as they navigate ebook opportunities, and as they look for creative and effective ways to market their books to niche communities that can be targeted online.
She represents a select number of best-selling and emerging authors in both fiction and non-fiction. Clients include accomplished journalists, scientists, academics, experts in their field, as well as novelists and debut authors with unique voices and stories to tell. She values fresh, original writing that has a compelling point of view. She represents, among many others, Paul Collins, Frans de Waal, Mira Jacob, Amy Stewart and Amanda Eyre Ward.
Learn more at www.tessleragency.com
Michelle will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Andy Ross opened his literary agency in 2008. Prior to that, he was the owner of the legendary Cody’s Books in Berkeley for 30 years. During that time, he sold more than 10 million books and hosted over 5000 events for some of the world’s greatest authors. In 1989, Cody’s was fire bombed in retaliation for the store featuring Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. This made them the first victim of Islamic terrorism in The United States, which goes to show that bookselling can be a dangerous business. They never stopped selling the book.
Andy’s agency represents books in a wide range of non-fiction genres including: narrative non-fiction, science, journalism, history, popular culture, and current events . They also represent literary, commercial, historical, crime, upmarket women’s fiction, and YA fiction. For non-fiction he looks for writing with a strong voice, robust story arc, and books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject. In fiction, he likes stories about real people in the real world. No vampires and trolls, thank you very much. He doesn’t represent poetry, science fiction, paranormal, and romance.
Authors Andy represents include: Daniel Ellsberg, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Anjanette Delgado, Elisa Kleven, Tawni Waters, Randall Platt, Mary Jo McConahay, Gerald Nachman, Michael Parenti, Paul Krassner, Milton Viorst, and Michele Anna Jordan.
Andy also works as a freelance editor.
Andy will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Lisa Sharkey is the SVP and Publisher of the newly inaugurated HarperCollins imprint, Harper Influence, where her team acquires high profile non-fiction spanning popular culture, from general lifestyle and entertainment to stories of survival and inspiration. Whether in the fields of science, medicine, nature, music, lifestyle, spirituality, cooking, design, or news-driven narratives, the defining theme of her books surrounds cultural impact and relevance. A creative pioneer across multiple media platforms, Lisa Sharkey has overseen the acquisition and publication of more than seventy-five New York Times Bestsellers, including multiple number one bestsellers.
As part of her HarperCollins innovation, Sharkey created a robust video and live-streaming division with tens of millions of views of book-related content. Lisa is also a veteran interviewer, moderator, and speaker on various topics from book publishing to transferable skills in the media landscape. In March, Sharkey delivered the keynote address at the London Book Fair Writers’ Summit and was a featured speaker at the fair. She also teaches author branding and advises writers at conferences across the country as a faculty member at Aspen Words and The Kauai Writers Conference.
She has published authors including: Rep. Jamie Raskin, Benjamin Hall, Michelle Miller, Johnny Joey Jones, Pete Hegseth, Shannon Bream, Jim Acosta, Tim Tebow, the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, Megyn Kelly, Gabrielle Douglas, Dr. Deborah Birx, Dan Ariely, Laurie Hernandez, Jessie James Decker, Russ, Sammy Hagar, Cissy Houston, Pat Benatar, Maira Kalman, Hannah Brown, Amy Morin, Toni Braxton, Rev. Run Simmons, Gregg Allman, Lindsey Vonn, Jorge Posada, Bud Selig, Tony La Russa, Peter Max, Melissa Ben-Ishay, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Randi Zuckerberg, Tippi Hedron, Maurice Benard, Chita Rivera, Geoffrey Kent, and HM King Charles III.
Prior to her publishing career, Sharkey was President of Al Roker Entertainment, Senior Producer of Good Morning America and worked at various network news organizations from CBS to PBS and KingWorld’s Inside Edition. She executive produced the documentary Profiles in Courage: A Kennedy Legacy, hosted by Caroline Kennedy.
A two-time Emmy Award winner, Sharkey is also the recipient of Peabody and Dupont Awards for her work as part of the ABC News team during 9/11. Sharkey is also a member of various groups and organizations including: the New York regional cabinet for Washington University in St. Louis, and the advisory board for NABU.org.
Sharkey also spearheads the annual Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture, honoring her late mother Mona Sherman, bringing high-profile speakers to the Berkshires in Massachusetts at no cost to the community. For the past eleven years, Sharkey has been a mentor for American Corporate Partners helping veterans transition out of the military and into civilian jobs. She is also a certified Yoga instructor.
Lisa earned her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Arts from Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently, she received the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Arts and Sciences. Lisa resides in one of New York City’s first eco-houses designed by her husband and three children. After creating the eco-house, Sharkey co-authored with her husband, architect Paul Gleicher, the book Dreaming Green: Eco-Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire published in 2008 by Clarkson Potter.
Lisa will be teaching the Master Class – Defining Your Author Brand
Lisa is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.
Jeff Kleinman is a literary agent, intellectual property attorney, and founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC, a New York literary agency which works with all of the major U.S. publishers (and, through subagents, with most international publishers).
As an agent, Jeff feels privileged to have the chance to learn a great variety of new subjects, meet an extraordinary range of people, and feel, at the end of the day, that he’s helped to build something – a wonderful book, perhaps, or an author’s career. Books of his clients include the bestsellers The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein), The Snow Child (a Pulitzer finalist; Eowyn Ivey), Widow of the South (Robert Hicks), and Mockingbird (Charles Shields), among many others.
Learn more about Jeff at www.foliolit.com
Jeff will be teaching the Master Class – The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between along with Regina Brooks.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Jeff.
Jane Friedman has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors, and has previously worked for F+W Media and the Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2019, Jane was awarded Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press); Publishers Weekly said that it is “destined to become a staple reference book for writers and those interested in publishing careers.” Also, in collaboration with The Authors Guild, she wrote The Authors Guild Guide to Self-Publishing.
In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com; her expertise has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, PBS, CBS, the National Press Club and many other outlets.
Jane has delivered keynotes and workshops on the digital era of authorship at worldwide industry events, including the Writer’s Digest annual conference, Stockholm Writers Festival, San Miguel Writers Conference, The Muse & The Marketplace, Frankfurt Book Fair, BookExpo America, and Digital Book World. She’s also served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, and has held positions as a professor of writing, media, and publishing at the University of Cincinnati and University of Virginia.
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:
Reserve an individual session with Jane to discuss you manuscript.
Stephanie Stokes Oliver heads SSO Media, an international consulting firm that specializes in book, magazine, and digital publishing. She serves as a literary scout for Simon & Schuster’s Atria Book Group, and as author curator for the Anguilla Lit Fest.
In 2004, Stephanie served as editor-in-chief of Essence.com. She was asked to assist in the merger of Essence Communications with Time Inc. in the capacity of deputy editor, returning to the magazine for the second time. Stephanie originally joined Essence as senior editor of the lifestyle section. During her 16 years at Essence, when the magazine reached the milestone circulation of 1 million, she rose from West Coast Editor to the second-in-command position of editor of the magazine.
In 1998, she formed SSO Media, Inc., a publishing and digital content consulting firm in the New York area, contributing as guest beauty editor to O, The Oprah Magazine, as consulting editor to start-up Lifetime magazine, writing for SpaFinder, and producing the website for the New York Women in Communications. In 2000, she became the founding editor-in-chief of NiaOnline, a popular digital magazine for Black women where she served for two years and wrote a monthly blog for six years.
Currently, Stephanie works “location independent,” living between Anguilla, where she moved from the New York City area in 2007, and Seattle, her high-tech hometown. At the Anguilla Community College, she teaches a course on Publishing 101. She also serves as author curator for the annual Anguilla Lit Fest, held each May for readers, writers, thinkers, and vacationers.
She is the author of Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing, Song for My Father: Memoir of an All-American Family, and Seven Soulful Secrets for Finding Your Purpose and Minding Your Mission.
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:
Reserve an individual session with Stephanie to discuss you manuscript.
Learn more about Stephanie at
Dana Newman is an LA-based independent literary agent representing authors of practical and narrative non-fiction in the areas of memoir, biography, business, popular culture, current affairs, lifestyle and wellness (health, mind/body/spirit and sports/fitness), and on the fiction side she focuses on literary fiction and women’s upmarket fiction. She’s always on the lookout for compelling voices, ideas and stories, and is a passionate believer in the power of books to connect and transform us.
Dana is also an attorney, focusing on publishing law and contracts. She’s a member of the California State Bar and the Association of Authors’ Representatives, and holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco. Before founding her literary agency she worked as in-house counsel in the entertainment industry.
More information about her agency is available at dananewman.com.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Dana.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Dana.
Susan Golomb is a senior agent at Writers House, representing writers of fiction and non-fiction, for both adult and juvenile books as well as illustrators. She works with literary and commercial fiction, women’s fiction, science fiction/fantasy, narrative non-fiction, history, memoirs, biographies, psychology, science, parenting, cookbooks, how-to, self-help, business, finance, young adult and juvenile fiction/non-fiction and picture books. In addition to referrals, she still takes on new clients from among the twenty to thirty unsolicited submissions that she receives daily.
Golomb graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a theatrical production coordinator and story editor before starting her literary agency in 1988. Her clients include Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Viking, 2006), Tom Rachman (The Imperfectionists – Dial Press, 2010), Gwyn Hyman Rubio, author of Icy Sparks (Viking, 1998), and she discovered Jonathan Franzen’s first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City (FSG, 1988). She also represents Yvon Chouinard, Harry Dent, Joshua Max Feldman, Glen David Gold, Rachel Kushner, Krys Lee, and William T. Vollmann, among many others.
Schedule an Agent Session with Susan.
Vicky Bijur started her agency in 1988 after working at Oxford University Press and with the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. She represents fiction and non-fiction.
Books she represents have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, in the New York Times Notable Books of the Year, Los Angeles Times Best Fiction of the Year, Washington Post Book World Rave Reviews of the Year, and been nominated for the L.A. Times Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. Three of her mystery writers have won Edgar awards.
Vicky has served as president of the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives), the only organization of literary and dramatic agents in North America. She has been a member of the AAR Royalties Committee since 1993 and is currently Chair of its Ethics Committee.
Vicky has been profiled in Poets & Writers and in Literary Agents: A Writer’s Introduction by John Baker (Macmillan). She has been quoted on the subject of agenting in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. She can be heard on Writers on Writing here, here, and here.
Vicky is currently accepting submissions of literary fiction and commercial women’s fiction. She is not the right agent for science fiction, fantasy, romance, or self-help.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Vicky.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Vicky.
Susanna Einstein has worked as a literary agent since 2005, and launched Einstein Literary Management in 2015. She has worked in publishing since 1995, first in the publicity and editorial departments at what was then called Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing) and then as a literary scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates. A native New Yorker, she graduated with distinction from Northwestern University. She lives in NJ with her husband and two children.
Susanna Einstein is a member of the board of directors of the Association of Authors’ Representatives and a member of the Women’s Media Group. She has a particular fondness for crime fiction, upmarket commercial women’s fiction, MG and YA fiction, and narrative non-fiction. She likes a good story well told.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Susanna.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Susanna.
Alia Hanna Habib is a literary agent at the Gernert Company. Alia began her publishing career as a book publicist at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She represents narrative nonfiction, memoir and literary fiction.
Her list includes the New York Times’ 1619 Project’s forthcoming book series; MacArthur Fellow and journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones; Doree Shafrir, author of Startup: A Novel; journalist and PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor; Chasten Buttigieg’s New York Times bestseller I Have Something to Tell You; Josh Levin’s The Queen, winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle Award in Biography; literary critic Lauren Oyler’s forthcoming debut novel Fake Accounts; award-winning and bestselling poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib and Clint Smith, poet, scholar, author of the poetry collection Counting Descent and forthcoming nonfiction debut How the Word is Passed.
Her authors have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Prize and have been nominated for the Edgar Awards, PEN Awards and the National Book Award.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Alia.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Alia.
Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC in New York, New York. Her agency is the largest African American owned agency in the country and has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Her authors have appeared in USA TODAY, NY TIMES, and the Washington Post, as well as on Oprah, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSBNC, TV ONE, BET, and a host of others. In 2015, Publishers Weekly nominated Regina Brooks as a PW Star Watch Finalist, and she was honored with a Stevie Award in Business. Writer’s Digest magazine named Serendipity Literary Agency as one of the top 25 literary agencies. Formerly, she held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons (where she was not only the youngest but also the first African-American editor in their college division) and McGraw-Hill.
Prior to her publishing career, she worked as an aerospace engineer and made history as the first African American woman to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from The Ohio State University. She is a graduate of The School of the Arts High School in Rochester, NY.
She is the author of Essence Magazine’s quick pick children’s book, NEVER FINISHED NEVER DONE (Scholastic), WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS 2e (Sourcebooks), and YOU SHOULD REALLY WRITE A BOOK: HOW TO WRITE, SELL AND MARKET YOUR MEMOIR (St. Martin’s Press), and a well received blogger for the Huffington Post. Brooks is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program the Whidbey Island Writers MFA, Western Connecticut MFA low residency programs, Writer’s Digest University and teaches annually at more than twenty worldwide conferences. She has been highlighted in several national and international magazines and periodicals, including Publishers Weekly, Forbes, Media Bistro, Writers and Poets, Essence Magazine, Ebony, Jet, Women on Writing, Writer’s Digest Magazine, The Writer, The Network Journal, and Rolling Out.
She was named Woman of the Year by The National Association of Professional Women, A New York Urban League Rising Star Award winner, and a finalist for the StevieTM Award for Women Entrepreneurs. Regina Brooks is featured in books such as The Guide to Literary Agents and the NAACP nominated Down to Business: The First 10 Steps for Women Entrepreneurs, How to Build a Platform, and Bill Duke’s Dark Girls. She is also listed in International Who’s Who under the categories of Professional Management, Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Engineering.
In November 2010, Brooks partnered with Marie Brown, of Marie Brown and Associates, and Marva Allen of Hue Man Bookstore to launch a new publishing imprint with Johnny Temple’s Akashic Books called Open Lens.
Further, Possibiliteas is the brainchild of literary agent and tea enthusiast, Regina Brooks, who believed that tea—the world’s oldest performance-enhancing beverage—could have a beneficial effect on her clients—writers, artists, and other creative professionals who were looking for fuel for their creative fire.
She is a pilot and cofounder of Brooklyn Aviation as well as a member of the Association of Author Representatives and New York Women in Film and Television.
Ms. Brooks is the founder and co-Executive Director of Y.B. Literary Foundation, Inc. (www.ybliterary.org), a not-for-profit organization designed to kindle a passion for literature within high school students and an appreciation for the possibilities and opportunities that reading can provide.
Learn more at www.serendipitylit.com
Regina will be teaching the Master Class – The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between along with Jeff Kleinman.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Regina.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Regina.
Lynn Johnston
The Lynn Johnston Literary Agency represents books called “firebreathing” and “righteous” by the New York Times, “exuberant” by O: The Oprah Magazine and “a godsend” by Publishers Weekly.
Lynn’s authors are purposeful, sincere and sometimes controversial and ever determined. Among their many accolades are the Pulitzer Prize, George Polk Award, Peabody Award, GLAAD Media Award, Global Teaching Prize (finalist) and National Headliner Award.
Lynn’s list includes New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers, winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award, PEN finalist, and numerous “best of year” citations.
Lynn is a highly respected solo agent based in New York representing mostly nonfiction.
Asked to describe her approach to agenting, Lynn wrote: “I care,” I said off the top of my head. After thinking about it some more and searching for a better answer, I decided that’s really it. My entire unique selling proposition is I care about my authors, the important work they do, how it gets translated into book form, what happens to the book before and after publication and ultimately, the effect it has in the world.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Lynn.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Lynn.
Jay Mandel is interested in representing authors of autobiography and memoir, commercial fiction, journalism and investigative reporting, literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and nonfiction. His clients Include Sloane Crosley, Mohsin Hamid, Terry Hayes, and Mary Roach.
“I like to know how writers see their work in the context of the marketplace. Which books are reminiscent of their own, why the success of certain titles or authors may bode well for them. I’m otherwise all about the facts. I don’t like elaborate attempts to be charming. I want to know what’s on offer. We can both preserve our charm for a later date.”
Schedule a Pitch Session with Jay.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Jay.
Erin Malone has been a literary agent at WME since 2006. Prior to books she worked in film/TV. She represents fiction as well as narrative (personal and investigative) and platform-driven nonfiction, and occasional lifestyle titles—primarily in the areas of psychology, science, culture, and food. More than any specific genre, she’s drawn to good stories and distinct points of view.
Among the clients she represents are New York Times bestselling authors, major book club selections, Thurber Prize finalists, Hugo and Edgar Award nominees, Fulbright Scholars, Goodreads Choice Award winners (and combinations thereof). She is looking to work with writers who make us think, as well as those who provide a great escape. She ascribes ardently to Carrie Fisher’s adage that “if life weren’t funny it would just be true, and that’s unacceptable.” Originally from the Midwest, she worked in WME’s NYC office before moving to LA, where she lives with her husband, an author and film producer, and their two kids.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Erin.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Erin.
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
Ryan will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Ryan will be teaching the master class Write On: Achieving Successful Publication.
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.
Andrea will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
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
Barbara will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
Learn more about Barbara at skagency.com
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.
Leigh is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.
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.
Kara is available for individual sessions to discuss your manuscript.
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
Kirby will offer one-on-one sessions to discuss your work
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.
