Books Alive 2013 Agent Listing
Books Alive! 2013 conference attendees will have the chance to meet with three literary agents throughout the day. Here is a list of the agents that will be in attendance. When you register, please select your 4 top choices of agents you would like to speak with.
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Agents in Attendance:
BJ Robbins
Lisa Hagan
Eric Lupfer
Helen Zimmerman
Sorche Fairbank
Paul Levine
Shira Hoffman
Daniel Bial
Gary Heidt
Victoria Skurnick
Roger Williams
Regina Ryan
John Talbot
Gerrie Sturman
Shannon O’Neill
Diana Finch
BJ Robbins
BJ Robbins opened her Los Angeles-based literary agency in 1992 after a multifaceted career in book publishing, first in publicity at Simon & Schuster and later as Marketing Director and Senior Editor at Harcourt. Her agency represents fiction writers such as James D. Houston, John Hough, Jr., Nafisa Haji, CBS TV Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson, Eduardo Santiago, Kathryn Jordan, Laura Catherine Brown, Max Byrd, and Renee Swindle. In nonfiction, she has a particular interest in memoir, biography, history, pop culture, sports, travel/adventure, medicine, and health. Nonfiction clients include J. Maarten Troost, James Donovan, Dave Davies, Tim Madigan, Dr. Lisa Masterson, Chris Erskine, Roger Love, and Dr. Pamela Nagami. She is a member of AAR.
What we are looking for: fresh, original voices, especially in nonfiction. Marketable authors, new ideas, spectacular writing.
Lisa Hagan
Lisa Hagan Literary has a history of anticipating future book trends and creating appropriate projects with its clients—scientists, writers, and innovators from around the world. Lisa Hagan began her literary career with Paraview Literary Agency in 1993 and purchased it 1999. Areas of interest: Non-fiction properties only, self-help, metaphysical, spiritual, health, travel, science, and business. Lisa is always on the lookout for a good story that will inspire others to become who they are truly meant to be.
Lisa teaches and lectures on publishing, how to and what to expect as well as work with kids on reading and writing skills. The Paraview Literary Agency was among the first to successfully develop literary properties for a rapidly growing worldwide audience known as cultural creatives, Lisa will continue to follow this path. The agency handles only nonfiction properties at this time.
Eric Lupfer
Eric Lupfer joined William Morris Endeavor (WME) in September of 2002, beginning in the agency’s storied mailroom program before serving as the assistant to a senior agent in the literary department. Lupfer has been an agent in the literary department since 2007, and has earned a reputation for the representation of up-market nonfiction, with expert authors drawn from journalism, academia, and from the forefronts of a variety of professional fields. Subjects of particular interest to him include narrative history, national security and defense, the social, life, and physical sciences, business, and politics. Lupfer is also an agent in the WME Branded Lifestyle Group, a cross-departmental team within the agency specializing in the growth of new business models across all media for clients who specialize in food, style, and design.
Lupfer graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Film Studies. He also has an MBA from Duke University, where he was selected as a Fuqua Scholar. He spent his high school years in Westchester County, New York, prior to which time he was shuttled around the world as an army brat.
Helen Zimmerman
Helen’s publishing experience includes the Director of Advertising and Promotion at Random House and the Author Events Director at an Independent Bookstore in New York. She founded the agency in 2003 and enjoyed early success with the New York Times bestseller Chosen by A Horse. Her experience working at a large publishing house and an independent bookstore gives her a unique and invaluable insight into each project that she works on.
She is currently concentrating her non-fiction efforts in health and wellness, relationships, popular culture, women’s issues, lifestyle, sports, and music. She is also drawn to memoirs that speak to a larger social or historical circumstance, or introduce her to a new phenomenon. And she’s always looking for a work of fiction that will keep her up at night!
Sorche Fairbank
Ms. Fairbank’s pitch schedule is full this year - we can no longer take requests to pitch to her. Thanks for understanding.
Since establishing Fairbank Literary Representation in 2002, Sorche Elizabeth Fairbank has had the pleasure of working with a dynamic and varied list, representing best-selling authors, Edgar recipients, award-winning journalists, and of course one of her favorite kinds of client – the debut author. Tastes in novels tend toward literary fiction, international voices, and women’s voices. On the nonfiction side, books that tackle current events and topical and societal issues with a narrative treatment. She has a strong interest in women’s voices and class and race issues, quality lifestyle books (food, wine, design), memoir that goes beyond the memoir, and humor, gift books, and pop culture.
Subjects and genres not of interest by Sorche and Fairbank Literary include: sci-fi and fantasy, children’s and YA, self-help, romance, sports fiction, or anything that opens with a dream scene and/or exhaustive descriptions of weather. Unless, of course, it’s really really REALLY good.
Authors and books represented by Fairbank Literary include: O. Henry Prize winner Charlotte Forbes; Pulitzer nominee and LA Times Cairo Bureau Chief Jeffrey Fleishman; Edgar winner Rex Burns, Matthew Frederick and his best-selling 101 Things I Learned series; Eudora Welty prize winner Miroslav Penkov (East of the West), Travis Bradford, CEO of Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room (Solar Revolution); Darci Klein (To Full Term:A Mother’s Triumph Over Miscarriage); Jonathan McCullough’s A Tale Of Two Subs: An Untold Story Of World War II, Two Sister Ships, And Extraordinary Heroism; Robert McKinnon, (Legacy: Keeping Our Promise for a Better World, essays by such luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Bill McKibben, Mia Hamm, Dave Eggers, etc.); Essayist Jessica Handler. Humor and gift book clients include Chuck Sambuchino (How To Survive a Garden Gnome Attack; Red Dog,Blue Dog), Terry Border (Bent Objects empire), and Carl Warner (Carl Warner’s Food Landscapes).
For updated information on Sorche Fairbank and Fairbank Literary, their clients, and recent deals: www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SorcheFairbank
Paul S. Levine
Born in New York City and raised and educated in Montreal on full academic scholarships, Levine received a Bachelor of Commerce (Magna Cum Laude) from Concordia University in Montreal and went on to earn a Master of Business Administration from York University in Toronto. In the late 1970s, he came to Los Angeles to attend University of Southern California law school (also on full academic scholarship), leaving tobogganing in the cold Canadian winters for Santa Anas blowing through the palm trees of Southern California.
Levine began his career as an associate attorney at the Law Office of Stephen F. Rohde, where he specialized in business transactions and civil litigation, with an emphasis on trademark, copyright, unfair competition, trade secrets, book publishing, and the rights of privacy and publicity for some six years. Then, answering a “blind” advertisement in the Hollywood Reporter, he went to work for over three years for the Business and Legal Affairs Departments of Warner Bros. Television, where he negotiated and drafted agreements for all above-the-line personnel (writers, directors, actors, and producers) for network and cable television programming. He was then recruited to the now-defunct Hearst Entertainment Productions, where he spent two years as Resident Counsel, negotiating and drafting agreements for all above-the-line personnel in production and distribution of made-for-television movies, first-run development, television series, and documentary programming .
In 1992, Levine established his solo entertainment law practice, first in Santa Monica, then in Venice, California. Seeing an underserved niche on the West Coast, he decided early on to focus on serving book authors. This naturally evolved into his work as a literary agent and the establishment of his agency. Seeking to expand the range of services he could offer his clients to include the representation of books, Levine opened The Paul S. Levine Literary Agency in 1996, which he has recently expanded. Whether he is considering fiction or non-fiction, Levine will not take on a project unless he feels certain he can sell it. With a preference for politically and socially important works, he represents more than 100 clients, the vast majority of whom are new, unpublished, or self-published writers. For Levine, the most rewarding moment is holding his client’s published book in his hands at a well-attended book-signing and seeing the smile on his client’s face.
Shira Hoffman
Shira Hoffman began her career in publishing as an intern at Tor Books and started working at McIntosh & Otis, Inc. in 2007. In 2013 she took over as M&O’s Director of Subsidiary Rights. Shira is currently developing her own list and is interested in a broad range of fiction and non-fiction in the adult market as well as an occasional YA or middle grade title. Her primary interests include mainstream commercial fiction, mystery, literary fiction, women’s fiction, romance, urban fantasy, fantasy, science fiction, horror and dystopian. She is particularly keen to acquire projects that blend genres in new and interesting ways and she hopes to discover writers with well developed and original voices.
Daniel Bial
Daniel Bial was an editor at Holt, HarperCollins and Longmeadow Press (an imprint of Waldenbooks) for 14 years. In that time, he edited a wide range of books, including bestsellers (Hank Aaron’s I HAD A HAMMER) and three Pulitzer Prize winners, including Michael Chabon (MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH).
Since founding the Daniel Bial Agency in 1991, Dan has sold major projects to a wide range of publishing houses, both large and small.
Gary Heidt
Gary Heidt started his career with the Imprint Agency in 2003, and joined Signature Literary Agency in 2009. Gary represents authors of fiction and non-fiction. In non-fiction, he is interested in history, science, pop culture, current events, narrative non-fiction, psychology, religion and spirituality. He represents, among other, National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award Winner Charles Yu, Robert Clara, Benjamin Whitmer, Dr. Steven Manly, Cicily Janus, Jason Myers, Jason Henderson, Brian Mandabach, Matt Jacob, Mark Jacob, Anis Shivani, The Church of the SubGenius, Bayard, Chris Carter, and Jenny Shank.
Victoria Skurnick
Victoria Skurnick came to Levine Greenberg after being at The Book-of-the Month Club for almost twenty years. As Editor-in-Chief, she relished the opportunity to devour every kind of book, from the finest literary fiction to Yiddish for Dogs. Anne Tyler, John LeCarre, Amy Tan, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King, Michael Lewis, Lee Child, Roddy Doyle, Alice Sebold, Tracy Kidder, Julia Child and Susan Elizabeth Phillips are just a few of the authors that make her deaf and blind to anyone around her when she’s reading.
Victoria’s other addiction besides reading is music. She has sung in many choirs in New York City and spent a few ostensibly happy years singing rock in groups like Big and the Evolution. No, you haven’t heard of it-if you had, she wouldn’t be an agent. She also is the co-author (with Cynthia Katz) of seven novels written by “Cynthia Victor.”
Raised in New Rochelle, NY, Victoria went to the University of Wisconsin where she studied political science with an emphasis on constitutional law, a subject that still fascinates her. Neither adventurous nor peripatetic, she has remained within a 20-mile radius of home since her day of birth.
Roger Williams
New England Publishing Associates (NEPA) was founded in 1983 as a full-service literary agency and book packager specializing in non-fiction books for the adult market. Since then we have placed more than 600 of our clients’ titles with some 100 U.S. and overseas publishers. NEPA sells an average of 70 titles per year. Our mission is to provide personalized service to all of our authors. We work closely with our clients to shape and perfect each proposal so that it can be sold to the right editor at the right publisher, giving personal and expert attention to placing each project entrusted to us.
Regina Ryan
I founded this independent literary agency company 35 years ago. Prior to that I was editor-in-chief of Macmillan Adult Books, the first woman ever to hold that position in a major hardcover publishing house. Before that I was an editor at Alfred A. Knopf. My strong editorial background—first as an editor and later as a book packager—is very useful in helping my authors develop their projects in the most salable way. My years of experience in the business and my extensive contacts help me to place their books with the best houses for their projects. I am a member of the Women’s Media Group, PEN, the Authors Guild, the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR), and the Agents’ Roundtable. I am a past president and former board member of the American Book Producers Association. I am also a member of the New York Academy of Science, the New York Audubon Society, the Linnaean Society of New York and the New York Mycological Society.
My areas of special interest include well-written narrative nonfiction, architecture, history, politics, natural history (especially birds), science (especially dealing with the brain), the environment, women’s issues, parenting, cooking, psychology, health, wellness, diet, fitness, lifestyle, sustainability, popular reference, and leisure activities including sports, travel, and gardening. I am interested in projects that have something new to say and that will, if possible, make the world a better place.
John Talbot
John Talbot has twenty-plus years of book publishing experience as an editor and literary agent. As an agent, he has placed books at imprints of all of the major publishers, including Doubleday, Random House, Bantam Dell, Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, HarperCollins, Grand Central/Hachette, St. Martin’s Press, Putnam Berkley, Dutton, NAL, Wiley, Macmillan, and McGraw-Hill. His clients include several New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, National Book Award Finalist Clarence Major, National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee Bruce Bawer, New England Book Award winner Suzanne Strempek Shea, former Delta Force commander Lt. Col. Brad Taylor, US Army (Ret.), former CBS News Senior Producer Batt Humphries, and Coffeehouse Mystery Series bestseller Cleo Coyle. He is a member of the AAR. Prior to becoming an agent John spent three years with Pocket Books and seven years with Putnam Berkley (now part of Penguin USA), where he rose to the rank of Senior Editor and worked with such global bestsellers as Tom Clancy, W.E.B. Griffin, and Jack Higgins, as well as rising literary stars such as Tom Perrotta, whose novel ELECTION was the basis for the Oscar-nominated film of the same name. He edited over a dozen national bestsellers and had five New York Times Notable Books for the Putnam, Berkley, and Riverhead imprints. He began his editorial career at Simon & Schuster/Prentice Hall Press. John received his B.A. in English Composition from DePauw University and also spent semesters at Washington University in St. Louis and Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.
Gerrie Sturman
Goldfarb and Associates has been representing authors since 1966. Its principal attorney is Ronald Goldfarb, an author of 11 books himself and literary agent for hundreds of authors. With offices in DC and Miami, Goldfarb’s clients are prize winning writers, mostly of non-fiction. He is in Who’s Who in America and in Law and other prestigious organizations. He was long time general counsel to WIW and remains counsel to AWP. Goldfarb and Associates specializes in serious non-fiction and in unusual and limited cases, special fiction. Associates Robbie Anna Hare and Gerrie Sturman also handle a select list of clients. No children’s literature. No science fiction.
Shannon O’Neill
Shannon O’Neill is a literary agent and the editorial director of ICM/Sagalyn in Washington DC (http://www.sagalyn.com). She is actively seeking new clients in the nonfiction areas of current affairs, popular science, business, and memoir/narrative from authors with an established platform. Shannon has taught writing at American University and The Writer’s Center, and was a longtime staff member at Politics and Prose Bookstore. She has a Masters of Arts in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and graduated with honors from Dartmouth College.
Diana Finch
Diana Finch started her own agency 10 years ago. She handles primarily nonfiction and most of her clients are journalists - several of whom write memoir - and also represents literary fiction and YA.
In fiction she looks for strong story-telling and distinctive voices. In nonfiction, she’s excited about environmental issues, business (both narrative and how-to), politics - especially the progressive kind - sports and science.
Notable backlist and recent titles include Azadeh Moaveni’s Lipstick Jihad, Eric Simons’ The Secret Lives of Sports Fans, Keya Chatterjee’s Zero Footprint Baby, If A, Then B: How The World Discovered Logic by Shenefelt and White, Maonomics by Loretta Napoleoni and the novel Heidegger’s Glasses by Thaisa Frank. Diana is the Chair of the AAR’s International Committee and goes to the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs regularly. Before starting her own firm she worked with Ellen Levine Literary Agency, and her first job in publishing was on the editorial side, at St. Martin’s Press.