SDSU Writers' Conference - 2008
SPEAKERS and TOPICS
Consult this page often for faculty updates!
Editors and Agents
Betsy Amster is a literary agent and president of Betsy Amster
Literary Enterprises, representing literary fiction and a wide range of nonfiction,
including memoirs, psychology and self-help, pop culture, health, women's issues,
parenting, gardening, cooking, and design. Before opening her agency in 1992, she
spent ten years as an editor at Pantheon and Vintage and two years as editorial director
of the Globe Pequot Press. She has been described in the Los Angeles Times as "a dogged prospector of the city's literary talent" and celebrated in
a profile in the American Society of Journalists and Authors newsletter for her "no-nonsense
style and whimsical sense of humor." She will moderate agent's panel one, do
consultation appointments, and present "On-the-Spot Critiques: Query Letters".
Kathleen Anderson is an award-winning editor and literary
agent and president of Anderson Literary Management in New York and a member of PEN
and AAR. She has been working in the publishing business since 1979, first as an editor
at W.W. Norton for nine years and then as a senior editor at Poseidon, a division
of Simon & Schuster, where she published Mary Gaitskill and Ursula Hegi. She is
a recipient of the Tony Godwin Award, which is given to an outstanding American editor
who is sent to the U.K. to learn about British publishing. Among her clients are The
New Yorker writer George Packer (The Assassins' Gate), novelist Emma Donoghue
(Slammerkin, Life Mask), young adult writer Barry Lyga (The Astonishing
Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl) and many other nonfiction and fiction writers.
She is particularly interested in literary fiction, general women's fiction, commercial
fiction (psychological suspense, romantic suspense, chicklit, ladylit), narrative
nonfiction, literary journalism, memoir, cultural studies, biography, true crime,
and young adult. She will conduct consultation appointments.
Shaye Areheart is vice president and publisher
of two imprints with Random House, Inc., and Crown Publishing Companies. Harmony Books
is her nonficition imprint; some of their titles are Agent Zigzag by Ben
McIntyre, Life after Death by Deepak Chopra, Can't Buy Me Love by
Jonathan Gould, Wonderful Tonight by Pattie Boyd, and Cesar's Way and Be the Pack Leader by Cesar Millan. She has an eponymous fiction imprint,
Shaye Areheart Books, that publishes such novels as The Double Blind by Chris
Bohjalian, The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman, Sharp Objects by Gillian
Flynn, and Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger. She began her career as an assistant
to poet and novelist James Dickey. She then moved to New York and spent 12 years at
Doubleday Publishing Company before joining Crown in the 1990s. She has been the recipient
of the LMP Award for Editorial Excellence. She will present "Question and Answer: The Publisher Tells All," and co-present, "The Role of the Publisher, the
Agent and the Author."
Adrienne Avila is an editor at Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin, where she acquires a range of nonfiction, from business to
wellness to lifestyle to memoir to how-to. Prior to her current role, she worked at
Warner Books where she developed a strong list of both nonfiction and fiction. In
nonfiction, she worked with Emily Franklin on the essay anthology It's A Wonderful
Lie: 26 Truths About Life in Your Twenties, Mary Jo Rulnick on The Frantic
Woman's Guide to Feeding Family and Friends, Monica Grenfell on 5 Days To A
Flatter Stomach, and with Temple Grandin on the re-issue of Emergence. In fiction, she worked with Latino Book Award winner Lorraine Lopez and Josefina Lopez
of Real Women Have Curves fame. At Berkley she is eager to develop her nonfiction
list and is also interested in seeing multicultural fiction. She will conduct advance
reading appointments and consultation appointments.
Stacey Barney, an editor at Putnam Books for Young Readers, has held posts in both adult and children's book publishing. She began her career at Lee & Low Books, a multicultural children’s book publisher, and also worked at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, as well as Amistad/HarperCollins, where she published Los Angeles Times bestselling Passport Diaries by Tamara Gregory and Gilbert Tuhabonye's highly acclaimed memoir This Voice in My Heart: A Genocide Survivor's Story of Escape, Faith, and Forgiveness. Before joining the Putnam team, she worked at Dafina/Kensington, where she launched a young adult list with such titles as Drama High, So Not the Drama, Boy Shopping, and Perry Skky Jr, the spin-off to bestseller Christian teen series Payton Skky. At Putnam, she is looking for multicultural voices in middle grade and young adult books. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments and present “Choosing Subject Matter for the Middle Grade and Young Adult Audience in a Competitive Market.”
Loretta Barrett is a literary agent and president of Loretta
Barrett Books, Inc. in New York. She founded the agency in 1990. Prior to opening
her own agency, she was editor-in-chief of Anchor Books and vice president and executive
editor at Doubleday. She is a member of AAR, and has representation in every major
foreign market. Her nonfiction interests cover a wide range of topics. These include
psychology, science and technology, religion, spirituality, current events, parenting,
women's issues, and biography. She represents the national best-seller The Singularity
is Near by Ray Kurzweil; The New York Times best-seller Mother Angelica, by Raymond Arroyo; The New York Times best-seller Symptoms of Withdrawal, by Christopher Kennedy Lawford; as well as I'm Not Mad I just Hate You, a national
best-seller by Roni Cohen-Sandler, Ph.D. Other notable clients include theologian
George Weigel, historian Ann Douglas, astronomers Neil Comins and Phil Plait, and
spiritualist writers Wayne Muller and Noah Levine. Her fiction preferences are largely
mainstream and contemporary. She is particularly drawn to women's fiction and thrillers.
Her fiction list includes Last Breath, by The New York Times best-selling
author Mariah Stewart and the national best-seller The Lake of Dead Languages, by Carol Goodman. In addition, she represents novelists such as Laura Van Wormer,
M.J. Rose, Dora Levy Mossanen, Theresa Rebeck, and Gary Birken, MD. For a complete
list of clients, as well as submissions guidelines please see www.LorettaBarrettBooks.com.
She will conduct consultation appointments and present, "Mock Auction: An Inside Look at How Agents Auction Big Books," and co-present, "The Role of the Publisher, the
Agent and the Author."
Molly B. Barton is publishing coordinator for Penguin Group
(USA). She acquires both fiction and nonfiction for Viking and other imprints. Before
her current role, she was assistant editor to Carole DeSanti, vice president of Viking,
where she worked with such authors as Terry McMillan, Dorothy Allison, Melissa Bank,
and Ruth Ozeki. Before coming to Penguin Group, she was assistant editor of political
science and sociology at Oxford University Press. She will conduct advance reading
appointments and consultation appointments and present "What to Do While You're Waiting for Oprah to Call."
Julie Bennett is senior acquisitions manager at Ten Speed
Press (www.tenspeed.com), a Berkeley-based independent publisher of lifestyle nonfiction
books. Ten Speed Press (and its imprints Celestial Arts and Crossing Press) is a backlist,
author-friendly publisher specializing in practical how-to guides and self-help. She
began her career in publishing ten years ago at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency
in San Diego before moving to San Francisco to work for Ten Speed. As acquisitions
manager for Ten Speed's three adult imprints, she is looking for quality nonfiction
in the genres of career, cooking, health and nutrition, craft, mind/body/spirit, alternative
spirituality, esoterica, self-help, business, and gift. Ten Speed Press does not publish
memoir, narrative nonfiction, or humor. She will conduct advance reading appointments
and consultation appointments.
Elise Capron is a literary agent with the Sandra Dijkstra
Literary Agency, known for establishing and guiding the careers of many fiction and
nonfiction authors, including Amy Tan, Lisa See, Diane Mott Davidson, Kevin Starr,
Mike Davis, and many others. For more than 20 years Dijkstra has developed a reputation
for discovering new talent and representing quality work with great commercial potential.
She is actively building her list and is especially interested in strong literary
fiction, "quirky" fiction and short stories. She will conduct consultation
appointments, and present, "What's Driving Your Story? Defining Character- vs.
Plot-Driven Fiction and Deciding What Works Best For You."
Jennifer Cayea is a literary agent with Avenue A Literary
LLC., and works with a select list of emerging authors of fiction and nonfiction.
Her recent projects include debut crime author Daniel Serrano's Gunmetal Black (Grand Central Publishing); The Girl from Charnelle (William Morrow) by Willa
Cather Literary Award winner K.L. Cook; Efrain's Secret by Sofia Quintero (Knopf
Books for Young Readers) and international best-selling author Mabel Iam's I Love
You, Now What? (Atria Books). Prior to starting her own literary agency, she was
an agent and the foreign rights director of Nicholas Ellison, Inc., a division of
Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. She also held a distinguished record as an editor
at Random House, in the audio and large print division where she demonstrated a keen
editorial eye and was known to be very aggressive in acquiring books. She is fiercely
dedicated to her authors, and her ten years of publishing experience make her uniquely
qualified to identify viable new projects and place them in the rapidly changing global
marketplace. She is currently looking for literary and upmarket commercial fiction,
intelligent chicklit, Latino/Hispanic fiction and nonfiction, young adult, memoir,
narrative nonfiction, and health. She will conduct consultation appointments.
Kevin Cleary is a partner of Content House, a production/management
company specializing in selling books and comic books to film studios and television
networks. Content House's client roster includes numerous intellectual property rights
holders, screenwriters, comic book creators J.M. DeMatteis, Tom DeFalco, and Fabian
Nicieza, as well as best-selling authors, including John Farris, Shirley Kennett,
and Leon Wagener. Recently, Content House, along with the TNT Network and Sony Television,
began work on a television movie based on Leon Wagner's book One Giant Leap: Neil
Armstrong's Stellar American Journey. He previously worked as a producer for Maverick
Entertainment, Madonna's film production company, and as a literary agent at ACME
Talent & Literary, where he represented comic book creators Will Eisner and J.M.
DeMatteis, Hurricane Entertainment, sports events such as The Wuxi Sports and Music
Festival in Wuxi, China, production companies for videogame and anime development
such as Mace Neufeld Productions and Adam Sandler's Happy Madison, as well
as numerous best-selling authors including Spider Robinson and John Farris. Before
joining ACME, he was vice president of business development for Internet Studios,
an online TV and film foreign rights marketplace, vice president of eMarketWorld,
and, for four years, head of his own company, Quantum Marketing, a firm that developed,
licensed, published and sold intellectual property in the areas of TV/film, animation,
gaming, and publishing. He will conduct consultation appointments and co-present "How
to Sell Your Work to Hollywood."
Lindsay Davis is a literary agent for Writers House.
She has worked in the children's marketing department at Harcourt, and taught fourth
grade as a member of Teach for America. While actively building her own list, she
has had the pleasure of working with such well-known authors of books for children
and young adults as Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith, Cynthia Rylant, Deborah Wiles, Kadir
Nelson, Jennifer Donnelly, and Sara Pennypacker. Lindsay is primarily interested in
picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction. She will conduct consultation
appointments.
Jennifer de la Fuente is an agent in the San Diego office
of Venture Literary, a full service literary agency. She is acquiring a wide range
of fiction, from literary to commercial, in addition to female-oriented nonfiction
projects. She is a voracious reader with a keen eye, and brings her love of books
to the world of agenting and publishing. Recent sales include novels to Dial and St.
Martin's, a serious work of nonfiction to Overlook Press, a compilation of stories
on the topic of sex and parenting to St. Martin's, and a cocktail recipe book to Clarkson
Potter. Before joining Venture Literary, she worked at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary
Agency and in the literary/feature film division of The Gersh Agency in Los Angeles.
For four years, she coordinated the literary and music series "Artists on the
Cutting Edge" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, which featured such
writers as Amiri Baraka, Dorothy Allison, David Foster Wallace, and Derek Walcott.
She will conduct consultation appointments.
Jill Dembowski is an editorial assistant at Little, Brown
Books for Young Readers. She assists editorial director Andrea Spooner on a broad
range of children's books by such renowned authors and illustrators as James Patterson,
Marc Brown, Alice Hoffman, Patrick McDonnell, Jerry Pinkney, Gail Giles, Robie Harris,
and Michael Hague, among others. She has recently begun acquiring her own titles,
including the picture book Pirates' Night Before Christmas by Marcia Vaughan.
She is especially interested in young adult literary fiction with fresh, compelling
narratives, humorous middle-grade fiction, historical fiction, mystery and horror,
and she adores beautiful and innovative picture books with distinctive illustration
styles. She attended the University of Michigan, where she graduated magna cum laude
with a B.A. in English literature and creative writing. She will conduct advance reading
appointments and consultation appointments.
Alyse Diamond is an assistant editor who joined St. Martin's
Press in 2005. She is actively acquiring popular nonfiction, memoir, lifestyle, cooking
and food, self-help, psychology, and pop culture projects. She is especially intrigued
by topics of interest to female readers. She enjoys working with both seasoned and
first-time authors, who run the gamut from psychologists and journalists to CEOs and
stay-at-home moms. She has worked with such authors as Cynthia Shapiro, author of What Does Somebody Have to do to Get a Job Around Here?, William Cane, author
of Kiss Like a Star, Jeanne Martinet, author of The Art of Mingling, Victoria Colligan and Beth Schoenfeldt, authors of Ladies Who Launch, and Susan
Piver, author of How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life. Prior to joining St.
Martin's, she worked at Peachtree Publishers in Atlanta and Parentguide magazine in
New York. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in publishing at New York University.
She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments.
Elizabeth Evans is an associate agent at the Reece Halsey North Agency in Tiburon, California. She began agenting in 2006 while completing her MFA in writing at the University of San Francisco. She represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, including literary fiction, mysteries, science-fiction, biography and memoir. She is especially drawn to voice-driven fiction and narrative nonfiction in unfamiliar or exotic settings. Special interests include opera, fishing, history, environmental issues, and espionage. She does not handle children's or young adult books, poetry or screenplays. She enjoys meeting with new writers and working closely with authors in the editorial process. Her forthcoming titles include Courage to Surrender (Ten Speed Press, April 2008), The Geography of Love (Broadway Books, August 2008), and Even Smoke Leaves a Trace (Tor/Forge, June 2009). She
will conduct consultation appointments, and present, "Love at First Read:
How to Seduce Agents and Editors with Opening Pages that Pop."
Taryn Fagerness is an agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary
Agency, an agency known for guiding the careers of many best-selling authors including
Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Kate White, Irvin Yalom, Eric Foner, Peter Irons, Lisa
See, Anchee Min, Diane Mott Davidson, Janell Cannon, and many others. The Los Angeles
Times dubbed the Dijkstra Agency "the most powerful literary agency on the
West Coast" and, in its 20 plus years, the agency has developed a reputation
for discovering new talent and representing quality work with great commercial potential.
She is also the sub-rights manager, selling foreign rights to more than 35 countries
around the world, along with film, audio, and merchandising rights. She is actively
building her list and specializes in mainstream fiction, science fiction, memoir,
narrative nonfiction, quirky nonfiction, and nonfiction with a science or environmental
angle. She will conduct consultation appointments and present, "No Nonsense Nonfiction:
Creating the Perfect Proposal and Platform."
Kate Fletcher is an associate editor at Candlewick Press, one of the largest independent children's book publishers in the world. She assisted president and publisher Karen Lotz with such authors and illustrators as Timothy Basil Ering, Charles Smith, Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, David Ellwand, and Gigi Amateau. She now works on books by Leslie McGuirk, Richard Sobol, Liz Kessler, Allan Ahlberg, Polly Dunbar and Sam Stern, among others. Her most recent projects including Varmints, The Apple-Pip Princess, the Where's Waldo? series, the Amazing Wonders Collection and the Marvel True Believers Retro Collection pop-up books. She is interested in acquiring young-adult and middle-grade fiction (both historical and contemporary), as well as picture books. She is drawn to strong characters and likes a story with a good sense of humor and one that offers an emotional connection. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments.
Dena Fischer is a literary agent with Manus &
Associates Literary Agency, Inc., representing literary fiction, practical and narrative
nonfiction, and memoir. With a knack for understanding an author's goals and helping
achieve them through respectful constructive feedback, she has been helping writers
streamline and perfect their work for more than a decade. Before joining Manus &
Associates, she was an associate at The Amy Rennert Agency, Inc., for three years.
Before that, she served as vice president at two independently financed film production
companies, New Regency Productions and then Douglas/Reuther Productions, where, in
addition to acquiring books and scripts, she hired and supervised screenwriters through
the adaptation and/or rewrite process. She regularly leads workshops and lectures
on how to get an agent and other publishing related topics. She attends several writers'
conferences each year and enjoys offering advice to emerging authors. Recent projects
include Lifeguarding: A Memoir of Secrets, Swimming, and the South by Catherine
McCall (Harmony Books); Screamfree Parenting: The Revolutionary Approach to Raising
Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool by Hal Edward Runkel, LMFT (Broadway Books); Baby
Lists: What to Do and What to Get to Prepare for Baby by Elaine Farber (Adams
Media); The Only Boy in Ballet Class by Denise Gruska (Gibbs-Smith); and
and the forthcoming Beauty and The Brain: The Doctors' Prescription for Inner
and Outer Beauty by Drs. Debra Luftman and Eva Ritvo (Contemporary Books, fall
2008). She will conduct consultation appointments.
Anne Hawkins is a senior literary agent with John Hawkins
& Associates, Inc., New York. Founded in 1893 by Paul R. Reynolds, it is the oldest
literary agency in the country. She works with mainstream literary and commercial
fiction, including mystery and suspense, and a wide variety of nonfiction, particularly
history, politics, biography, science, natural history, medicine, and women's and
family issues. A number of her books have gained distinction through award nominations,
book-to-film contracts, significant foreign rights sales, major book club selections,
or placement on The New York Times best-seller list. She is a member of the
Association of Authors' Representatives. She will conduct consultation appointments
and present, "Why Do Good Agents Turn Down Good Books?"
Christina Hogrebe is a literary agent who joined the Jane
Rotrosen Agency in 2003 as an assistant to the company's senior agents. Having worked
behind the scenes for the agency's prestigious clients, including Jennifer Crusie,
Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner, Carla Neggers, Nancy Martin, and Susan Wiggs, she is
now building her own diverse list of fiction and nonfiction authors. Among her clients
are New York Times best-selling author Kevin O'brien, The Last Victim (Kensington); Beth Kendrick, Nearlyweds (Simon & Schuster/Downtown Press);
Cathy Pickens, Hog Wild (St. Martins/Minotaur); Beth Killian, Boy Trouble (Simon & Schuster/MTV); and debut authors Robert Dalby, Waltzing at the Piggly
Wiggly (Penguin/Putnam); Amy Wallen, MoonPies and Movie Stars (Penguin/Viking);
Terri Garey, Dead Girls Are Easy (HarperCollins/Avon); Jeff Cohen, Some
Like it Hot-Buttered (Penguin/Berkley). She is looking for commercial fiction
with a particular interest in Southern settings, young adult, Latina lit, women's
fiction, chicklit, henlit, cozy mysteries, and thrillers. She also considers a few
nonfiction projects that read like fiction, especially food memoirs and travelogues.
She is a hands-on agent and strongly believes in taking on clients for their whole
career. While nothing can replace strong writing, she looks for motivated authors
who are interested in developing their careers and maintaining long-term goals. Born
in Northeastern Pennsylvania, she is a graduate of the University of Denver Publishing
Institute and Franklin & Marshall College, where she studied English literature
and women's studies, thus happily cementing a future in books. She will conduct consultation
appointments and present a topic to be announced.
Jud Laghi is a senior literary agent at LJK Literary Management,
where he has worked since 2005 after starting his career at International Creative
Management. He has represented several best-sellers including Brainiac by Ken
Jennings, The Hipster Handbook by Robert Lanham, Found: The Best Lost, Tossed
and Forgotten Items From Around the World by Davy Rothbart, and Why Do Men
Have Nipples? by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg. Other authors and books that
he represents include Queens Reigns Supreme by Ethan Brown, Bookmark Now:
Writing In Unreaderly Times by Kevin Smokler, the international best-selling novel Snakes And Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara, Brainiac by former Jeopardy! Champion Ken Jennings; along with a diverse range of journalists who contribute to The New York Times, Rolling Stone, New York, Spin, ESPN The Magazine, GQ, Sports
Illustrated, Vibe, The Atlantic Monthly, and the radio show This American Life. He graduated from Trinity College in 1997 with a B.A. in English and creative writing,
and lives in his native Brooklyn. He works closely with his clients at every stage
of the publishing process, and looks for authors who are like-minded in thinking ahead
of the curve and taking risks, be it through fiction or nonfiction. He will conduct
consultation appointments, and present "Pitching Nonfiction – What the Editors Are Looking for and How You Can Give It to Them."
Patrick LoBrutto has been an editor, author and anthologist for over 30 years. He has worked in all areas of fiction and nonfiction. His career in publishing began while studying urban planning in graduate school; he took a summer job in the mailroom of Ace Books and discovered there were people who would pay him to read. He never looked back. He has worked for Ace Books, Doubleday, M. Evans, Random House, Kensington, Stealth Press (an Internet Publisher) and Bantam. He has received the World Fantasy Award for editing. He currently lectures at writers' conferences and works as an editorial consultant and master class instructor for authors, as an acquiring editor for Tor/Forge and Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press, and as a scout for the Trident Media Group. He will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments and present, "Selling to the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Markets."
Selina McLemore is an editor at Grand Central Publishing
where she focuses on Latino fiction and nonfiction. Her diverse list includes award-winning
screenwriter of Real Woman Have Curves Josefina Lopez's sensual novel Hungry
Woman in Paris; Congresswomen Loretta and Linda Sanchez's motivational memoir Let Your Roots Show; controversial debut-novelist Raul Ramos y Sanchez's upcoming
thriller, America Libre; award-winning literary fiction author Lorraine Lopez's
newest novel, The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters; and nonfiction phenomenon, Craft
Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo's first ever series of novels. Additionally, she publishes
top-shelf general women's fiction and romance. Prior to Grand Central Publishing,
she worked at HarperCollins Publishers and Mira/Red Dress Ink. She is a graduate of
Northwestern University, where she earned degrees in English and Spanish literature.
She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments.
Nancy Mercado is a senior editor for Dial Books. She spent
some time in children's bookselling, where she heavily pressured kids to read her
all-time favorite books. When that didn't pay the rent, she moved on to a four-year
stint with the Scholastic Book Clubs, selecting middle grade and young adult fiction
for the Trumpet Intermediate Book Club. In January of 2002, she joined Dial Books
for Young Readers as an editor. Now a senior editor, she mainly gravitates towards
hopeful, contemporary middle grade and young adult fiction. Some of the recent books
she has edited are Defining Dulcie by Paul Acampora; I'm the Biggest
Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry; Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis; The Qwikpick Adventure Society by Sam Riddleburger; and My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by
Steve Kluger. A fan of short story collections, she has also edited and compiled Tripping
Over the Lunch Lady and Other School Stories; Every Man for Himself: Ten
Short Stories about Being a Guy; and Baseball Crazy: Ten Short Stories that
Cover all the Bases. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation
appointments.
James Minz recently joined Baen Books as a senior editor,
after working for Del Rey and Tor Books. Over the years, he has worked on science
fiction, fantasy, horror, suspense, thrillers, westerns, and historical fiction, as
well as the occasional nonfiction title. Authors he has worked with include Catherine
Asaro, Hal Duncan, Terry Goodkind, Elizabeth Haydon, Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Moon,
Frederik Pohl, Harry Turtledove and Gene Wolfe, among many others. He will conduct
advance reading appointments and consultation appointments, and present, "Science
Fiction and Fantasy - What's Hot - What's Not."
Drew Nederpelt - is a literary agent who grew up in Toronto,
Amsterdam and Zurich and spoke three languages by age 13. He was first introduced
to the agenting business when he had the opportunity to write a book with NBC reporter
Ashleigh Banfield about 9/11 and the journalist's travels to Afghanistan, the Middle
East and beyond. After experiencing several high-powered New York agents, he realized
there was an opportunity for a literary agency that was first and foremost a sales
organization, and so, after working for a venerable Manhattan agency in 2002, he founded
Metropol Literary, dedicated to exposing and educating, entertaining and revealing.
As the principal of Metropol Literary, which also has a West Coast office that brokers
Metropol projects to the film industry, he has overseen the growth of his company
to five agents and project sales that average one every three weeks. With such high-profile
clients as Terry Wallis, (the story of which Metropol sold to Scott Bakula Productions
and Paramount Pictures), the agency prides itself on never having had to return a
project to an author. He says, "We only take on projects that we ourselves would
want to read and that we fully appreciate. And we have the entire publishing industry
on speed-dial, not just the ones we went to NYU with." A member of
the Authors Guild, he will conduct consultation appointments and present “Agents, Publishers, and Bestsellers: How (and Why) You Can Have One Without the Others.”
Katherine Nintzel is an associate editor for William Morrow/HarperCollins
where she works with a broad range of fiction and nonfiction. She is looking for fiction
that straddles the line between literary and commercial, speculative fiction and fantasy,
and narrative nonfiction, including memoir and pop culture. She edited The New
York Times best-seller The Sharing Knife Volume One: Beguilement by Lois
McMaster Bujold and Book Sense notable Fiona McIntosh's Quickening trilogy;
forthcoming titles include Christina Baker Kline's return to fiction with The Way
Life Should Be; a re-issue of the supernatural classic Jane-Emily; and Everything You Wanted to Know About Animal Rights ... But Were Afraid to Get into
a Fight About, a hip, glossy call-to-arms covering the broad spectrum of the current
animal rights movement. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation
appointments.
Rebecca Oliver joined the Endeavor Talent Agency's book group
in May 2007 as a literary agent and director of subsidiary rights. Before becoming
an agent, she worked in book publishing, first at St. Martin's Press and most recently
at Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) as the associate director of subsidiary
rights. At Endeavor, her clients are diverse, ranging from practical nonfiction (Dr.
Michelle Callahan, Dating Detox) to memoir (John DeLucie, The Hunger)
to both commercial and literary fiction. Recent fiction projects include Shadow
of the Swords by Kamran Pasha, a historical novel set against the backdrop of
the Crusades, and The Baker Street Letters by Mike McKinley, a contemporary
mystery about two brothers living in London who receive letters addressed to Sherlock
Holmes. She is not currently looking for romance (with the exception of romantic suspense),
science fiction, or fantasy. She will conduct consultation
appointments and present "Writing a Fiction Synopsis or Nonfiction Outline."
Suzanne O'Neill is currently an editor at Atria Books, where
she edits a wide range of fiction and narrative nonfiction. She is drawn to plot-driven
novels with fresh, energetic voices, historical or contemporary, literary or commercial.
Her nonfiction criteria are much the same, and particular areas of interest are pop
culture, humor, and issue-driven memoirs. Her list of titles includes The New York
Times best-seller Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, The
Beautiful Miscellaneous by Dominic Smith, The New York Times best-seller Tommyland by Tommy Lee, and Ivy Briefs by Martha Kimes. She will conduct
advance reading appointments and consultation appointments.
Jeanette Perez is an editor at HarperCollins Publishers,
where she started in 2004 after a brief stint at the literary agencies Kuhn Projects
and Sarah Lazin Books. She acquires for both the Harper hardcover imprint and Harper
Perennial paperback imprint. Her titles include Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer
McMahon, The Island by Victoria Hislop, The Blue Death by Robert Morris, Happy Birthday or Whatever by Annie Choi, Blind Faith by Sagarika Ghose,
and The Bitter Sear by Charles Li. She is looking to acquire literary fiction,
commercial fiction, fiction from underrepresented cultures, narrative nonfiction,
and pop culture books. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation
appointments.
Angelle Pilkington has been an editor with Puffin/Speak
Books, imprints of Penguin Young Readers Group, for more than six years. She edits
middle grade and young adult fiction for both hardcover and paperback original publication.
Recent and forthcoming projects include the Students Across the Seven Seas series
(various authors); Richie Cusick's Walk of the Spirits; Anne Osterlund's Aurelia; Esther Friesner's Burning Roses, a historical fiction novel
about the Triangle Waist Company factory fire; and Jonathan Friesen's Jerk, California, a promising debut novel about a teenager living with Tourette Syndrome. She is actively
acquiring for Puffin/Speak, looking for edgy young adult fiction that strikes the
right balance between literary and commercial appeal. Young adult romance (historical
or contemporary), suspense, mysteries, historical fiction, and family drama are of
interest. She is also looking for middle grade fiction, particularly series with a
strong commercial hook, and high-action adventure for boys. (Please note that Puffin/Speak
does not publish original picture books.) She will cocnduct advance reading appointments
and consultation appointments.
Toni Plummer is an associate editor at Thomas Dunne Books,
a division of St. Martin's Press. The eclectic nature of the imprint's list has allowed
her to pursue a range of literary and commercial fiction, including general, women's,
and crime fiction. Her nonfiction interests include memoir, advice/relationships,
philosophy, music, humor, and social issues. In mysteries, she has acquired Bound
by Blood by Rick Nelson, a debut police procedural coming out in February and Chinatown Angel by A.E. Roman, a debut private eye novel. In other fiction,
she has acquired The Accidental Santera by Irete Lazo, a novel about a Latina
scientist who enters the mysterious world of Santería, the often misunderstood
religion brought to the New World by African slaves. Her recent nonfiction acquisitions
are Exposed: Confessions of a Wedding Photographer by Claire Lewis and The
Down and Dirty Dish on Revenge: A Girl's Guide to Getting Back at that Lying, Cheating
Bastard by Eva Nagorski. A Mexican-American, she is especially interested in acquiring
Latino authors and books with multicultural themes. She grew up in the San Gabriel
Valley of Los Angeles County and loves reading strong works having to do with Southern
California. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments.
Jennifer Pooley is an editor who has been with HarperCollins
imprint William Morrow since 1998 where her list encompasses literary and mainstream
fiction and nonfiction. She has most recently published The Motel Life by Willy
Vlautin; The Best of Friends: Two Women, Two Continents and One Enduring Friendship by Sara James and Ginger Mauney (memoir); and Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie
Hart which she discovered at the SDSU Writers' Conference in January 2006. She also
publishes such critically acclaimed authors as K.L. Cook The Girl from Charnelle;
Catherine Hanrahan Lost Girls and Love Hotels; Sarah Hall Daughters of the
North; and Daniel James Brown Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm
of 1894 (reprint) and the forthcoming Following Sarah: The Harrowing Wedding
Journey of Sarah Graves Fosdick. She is actively seeking new voices in literary
and mainstream fiction and nonfiction (memoir, history, biography, journalism, social,
and popular science) and she also acquires more whimsical work, including memoir that
delivers an unforgettable arm chair experience such as Marina Palmer's Kiss and
Tango and gift titles such as Amy Allen's This Little Piggy Went to Prada:
Nursery Rhymes for the Blahnik Brigade and David C. Barnette's The Official
Guide to Christmas in the South: Or, If You Can't Fry It, Spraypaint it Gold.
She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation appointments and present
a topic to be announced.
Lynn Price is editorial director for Behler Publications,
an independent publisher based in Lake Forest, California. She works with some of
the most exciting new voices in American literature - from an intimate portrayal of
a paralyzed man who impacted nearly all of the B-movies soundtracks of the '50s and
'60s to the amazing 60 year career of KTLA broadcast journalist Stan Chambers. Books
that tackle medicine, aging, family issues, death, abandonment, love and prejudice
- Behler has produced poignant, award-winning personal journeys in both fiction and
nonfiction. Eleven Behler titles are award winning books - the most recent include
the 2007 IPPY Gold Medal for Donovan's Paradigm, the IPPY Silver Medal for Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries, and the Ben Franklin
winner in the popular fiction category for East Fifth Bliss. Behler has recently
signed Victoria Costello, Emmy winner for This Planet Earth, Donna Ballman,
voted one of the top 50 attorneys in America, and award-winning investigative journalist,
Chip Jacobs. A new title The War of the Rosens was just nominated last week
for American Library Association's Sophie Brodie Award. Many of Behler's books have
received enthusiastic reviews from Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, and Bloomsbury Review. She will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation
appointments and present, "The Hook – What Is It, And What Does It Do?"
"Writing your Synopsis – Oh God!" and "Promotion Plan - Stop Grabbing
for the Maalox."
Amy Rennert is a literary agent and the founder of the Amy
Rennert Agency. She has spent more than 20 years in the publishing business, pursuing
her passion for the written word. The agency represents a select group of quality
fiction and nonfiction writers – many of them award winners – and several
agency books have been New York Times and national best-sellers. She provides
career management for established and first-time authors, and her breadth of experience
in many genres enables her agency to meet the needs of a diverse clientele. Agency
authors include singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, a #1 New York Times best-selling
author for his fiction and nonfiction; Edgar finalist and Agatha Award winner Jacqueline
Winspear; Today show medical editor Nancy Snyderman; and New York Times best-selling author Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She also represented Terry Ryan's The
Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, acquired for film by Robert Zemeckis and starring
Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. The book reached #4 on the New York Times best-seller list. Amy is the former editor-in-chief of two national magazines and
is currently on the faculty of the Stanford Publishing Course. She will conduct consultation
appointments and present "How to Get and Keep an Agent's Attention."
Marc Resnick is a senior editor who has been working for
St. Martin's Press since 1996. His nonfiction list consists of outdoor adventure,
sports, and military titles as well as popular culture and memoirs. His sports books
include Big Papi, The New York Times best-selling memoir by Boston Red
Sox slugger David Ortiz, a leadership book by legendary college basketball coach Jim
Calhoun of the UCONN Huskies, and Man o' War by Dorothy Ours, a narrative about
the renowned racehorse. His outdoor adventure books include the national best-seller Ten Hours until Dawn by Michael Tougias and Coming Back Alive by Spike
Walker. His list also includes Roughneck Nine One, about a Special Forces A-Team
at war, an inside look at a top-secret special operations unit titled Killer Elite, a pop culture book on competitive eating (Eat This Book), a memoir of life
on the road with the Grateful Dead (Home Before Daylight by Steve Parish) and The New York Times best-seller There And Back Again, by Sean Astin,
about filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On the fiction side he is excited
to work with Bob Morris on his Edgar-nominated, best-selling novels (Bahamarama,
Bermuda Schwartz), hardboiled noir by the multiple award-winning author Ken Bruen
(The Guards, Priest) and thrillers by James Sheehan (The Mayor Of Lexington
Avenue, The Law Of Second Chances) and Duane Swierczynski (The Wheelman, The
Blonde, Severance Package). He will conduct advance reading appointments and consultation
appointments and present, "Publishing Revealed: What Really Happens Once You've
Sold Your Manuscript."
Angela Rinaldi is a literary agent and formerly an editor
at NAL/Signet, Pocket Books, Bantam Books, and manager of book publishing for the Los Angeles Times. In this capacity, she has worked closely with first novelists
and nonfiction writers. She has taught publishing programs at UCLA and was a member
of the literature panel for the California Arts Council. She is a member of AAR. Her
agency list is an eclectic mix of nonfiction and fiction and includes The New York
Times best-seller, Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson, Zen
Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent, My First Crush by Linda Kaplan and novelists
Drusilla Campbell, Megan Clark, Marjorie Reynolds, and Stephanie Kane. She is actively
looking for commercial and literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir, social,
and cultural history and practical nonfiction. She does not represent category romances,
science fiction/fantasy, westerns, cookbooks, poetry, children's books, young adult
titles or film scripts. She will conduct consultation appointments.
Judith Riven, literary agent, established her independent
agency in 1993. Dedicated to working closely with clients throughout the publishing
process, the agency's list is limited to a select group of authors. she is particularly
effective in shaping projects for submission and placing new authors successfully.
In addition to achieving strong sales, the agency works with client and publisher
to target the market effectively, promote the book creatively, and position it for
post-publication. Marketing strategy is part of her representation. Editors and clients
have described the agency’s approach as fresh and innovative. She represents
a wide range of nonfiction, including narrative nonfiction, history, natural history,
memoir, food and wine books, travel and lifestyle, social issues, politics and
current events, parenting, intelligent self-help, relationship, psychology, medical/health,
and fitness. In fiction, she is particularly interested in literary fiction, historical
fiction, henlit, commercial women’s fiction, mysteries, and thrillers. Her authors
have been featured in such national publications as The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal, People, Food and Wine, Saveur, and Gourmet. They
have appeared on national media and have been the recipients of various prestigious
awards.
Before becoming a literary agent, she served as executive editor at Hyperion and Avon
Books, and was a senior editor at Dell/Delacorte. Among the authors she worked with
were Gail Godwin, Paul Auster, David Halberstam, and Jane Brody. In addition to editorial
acumen, the agency offers clients a keen awareness of the marketplace, concept creation,
presentation techniques, and sales strategies. The agency is recognized for its distinctive
original vision, integrity, and reliability. The agency has successfully placed projects
with all major publishers. Recent sales include The Sugar Fix (Rodale Press,
health/diet), Amidst the Gathering Storm (Smithsonian, history), The
Dark Rose of the Tudors (Bantam, history), The Triumph of Deborah (Plume,
fiction), Decoding Love (Avery, nonfiction), The Tall Book (Bloomsbury,
nonfiction), and Can-do Cookies (Wiley, cookbook). She will conduct
consultation appointments and present, "How Do I Get An Agent/How Do I Choose
Between Agents?"
B.J. Robbins is a literary agent who opened her Los Angeles-based
agency in 1992 after a long career in book publishing in New York, both in publicity
at Simon & Schuster and then as a senior editor at Harcourt. Her agency represents
non-genre fiction, both literary and commercial, and general nonfiction, with a particular
interest in memoir, biography, narrative history, pop culture, sports, travel/adventure,
medicine, and health. Her clients include J. Maarten Troost (The Sex Lives of Cannibals
and Getting Stoned with Savages), Craig Ferguson (Between the Bridge and the
River), James D. Houston (Snow Mountain Passage and Bird of Another Heaven),
Tim Madigan (I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers), Eduardo Santiago
(Tomorrow They Will Kiss), Los Angeles Times columnist Chris Erskine
(Man of the House), and Wendy Werris (An Alphabetical Life: Living it Up
in the Business of Books). A member of AAR and PEN USA West, she has taught publishing
programs at UCLA, UC Irvine, and at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Fiction
Workshop. She will conduct consultation appointments.
Holly Root is a literary agent with Waxman Literary
Agency. She began her publishing career as an editor in Christian publishing in Nashville
before coming to New York and joining the William Morris Agency's agent trainee program.
She then moved to Trident Media Group, where she sold audio rights for the agency's
clients, including a number of New York Times best-selling authors, before
joining Waxman in 2007, to sell audio rights and represent her own list of authors.
She is seeking commercial fiction, including romance, young adult, and women's fiction,
as well as nonfiction projects, with particular areas of interest in offbeat prescriptive
projects, narrative nonfiction of all sorts, and pop culture. She will conduct consultation
appointments.
Victoria Skurnick is an agent at the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. She started in publishing as a promotion and advertising assistant at Avon Books. She became assistant director of advertising and promotion at Pocket Books, then director of advertising and promotion at Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Her career as an editor began at Pocket Books, continued as senior editor at St. Martin's Press, and led to a twenty-year career at the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she was editor-in-chief. In addition to her career in publishing, she has also co-authored seven novels under the name Cynthia Victor. She joined Levine Greenberg in May of 2007, and has developed books including The Dangerous Book for Dogs, published October 9, 2007, by Ballantine, and Old City Hall by Toronto attorney Robert Rotenberg, to be published by Sarah Crichton at Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2009. Other books she has sold include literary novels, mysteries, thrillers, narrative nonfiction, and books on health and spirituality. She will conduct consultation appointments.
Kelly Sonnack is an agent with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary
Agency, known for establishing and guiding the careers of many fiction and nonfiction
authors, including Amy Tan, Janell Cannon, Lisa See, Diane Mott Davidson, Kevin Starr,
Mike Davis, and many others. The Los Angeles Times dubbed the Dijkstra Agency
"the most powerful literary agency on the West Coast" and, in its 20 plus
years, the agency has developed a reputation for discovering new talent and representing
quality work with great commercial potential. She began her career in publishing with
the publishing giant Elsevier, under the Academic Press imprint as an acquisitions
editor. At the Dijkstra Agency, she manages the submission cycle and works actively
with foreign rights, contracts, accounting, and public relations. She is actively
building her list and is especially interested in children's literature (young adult,
middle-grade, picture books, graphic novel) and international women's fiction. She
will conduct consultation appointments and present, "The Perfect Pitch: How to
Get to the Top of the Slush Pile."
Hilary Rubin Teeman is an associate editor who joined St.
Martin's Press in 2006. Prior to that, she worked as an agent at Trident Media Group.
She is looking to acquire commercial and literary fiction, historical fiction, thrillers,
mainstream romantic suspense, and chicklit as well as social and cultural histories,
narrative nonfiction, popular sociology and memoir. Recently published and forthcoming
titles include: Lenore Hart's Becky, a novel of the "true life" of
Becky Thatcher, star of VH1's The Pickup Artist; Mystery's The Mystery Method:
How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed; Lea Jacobson's Bar Flower, a gripping
memoir of the decadent, destructive life of a Tokyo nightclub hostess; Lori Uscher-Pines's Buying the Cow in the Age of Free Milk: How to Get Your Man to Propose; and
Tamar Yellin's, The Genizah at the House of Shepher, an award-winning novel
of four generations of a Jerusalem family. She will conduct advance reading appointments
and consultation appointments.
Traci Todd is a children's ediitor at Chronicle Books, where
she acquires and edits picture books and nonfiction for all ages. Before coming to
Chronicle, she worked as an editor of middle school nonfiction for both McGraw-Hill
and Heineman-Raintree. She has also been a reviewer for Booklist. As a writer-for-hire
for KinderMusik, she has written four books, two of which, Henry's Parade and Wiggle-Waggle-Loop-de-Loo, have won awards. She is always on the lookout for
good stories, especially well-told biographies for children. She will conduct advance
reading appointments, consultation appointments, and present a topic to be announced.
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