Agents Attending Washington Writers Conference 2016
Whether you have a proposal or a manuscript ready, or are close enough to want to become familiar with the process, the Washington Writers Conference gives you the chance to sit with three agents for five minutes each.
When you register, indicate your top four choices and what kind of book you'll be pitching. We will schedule three pitches per author, but ask you to provide four choices to help us accommodate any conflicts or changes that may occur. Please also be aware that the agents scheduled may change between now and the day of the conference. You will receive your agent assignments and times when you arrive on Saturday.
And don't miss our Friday evening panel, "How to Pitch Agents," for firsthand advice from agents on how to pitch most effectively. An additional panel on Saturday morning will help you further prepare your query and synopsis.
Agent Bios
Updated 4/24/16
Adam Chromy (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Moveable Type Management
Adam Chromy has been representing authors of adult commercial fiction and nonfiction for over a decade, first at his Artists and Artisans agency and now at Movable Type Management. Adam's tastes span many genres, and he is particularly interested in well-told stories with film and/or television adaptation potential.
Anna Sproul-Latimer
The Ross Yoon Agency
Literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer has been a part of the Ross Yoon team since 2005. Specializing in nonfiction of all kinds, she particularly loves working with clients who are driven by curiosity: exploring new worlds, uncovering hidden communities, and creating new connections with enthusiasm so infectious that national audiences have already begun to pay attention. She has sold multiple New York Times bestsellers, major book-to-film deals, and foreign translations in more than 50 different languages. Anna attends book fairs and speaks at writers’ conferences across the country and world. In her spare time, she edits and ghostwrites books and writes for women’s lifestyle media. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University and her master’s degree from Oxford, both in English literature. She lives with her family in Arlington, VA.
BJ Robbins (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
BJ Robbins Literary Agency
BJ Robbins established her Los Angeles-based agency in 1992 after a multifaceted career in book publishing in NY, first in publicity at Simon & Schuster and later as marketing director and then senior editor at Harcourt. Her agency represents quality fiction, both literary and commercial, and general nonfiction, with a particular interest in narrative history, memoir, biography, pop culture, sports, travel/adventure, medicine, and health. Clients include NY Times bestselling authors and award-winning writers such as J. Maarten Troost, James Donovan, John Hough Jr., Max Byrd, Nafisa Haji, J.A. Mills, Stephen Graham Jones, and Deanne Stillman. A member of AAR, Ms. Robbins has led workshops at UCLA Extension, UC Irvine Extension, the Writer’s Pad, and at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Fiction Workshop. She is looking for fiction and nonfiction projects of literary merit that are fresh and original.
Cassie Hanjian (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Waxman Leavell Agency
Prior to joining Waxman Leavell, Cassie Hanjian held positions at the Park Literary Group, where she specialized in author support and foreign rights, and at Aram Fox, Inc. as an international literary scout for publishers based outside the United States. She holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from the University of South Florida, a graduate certificate from the University of Denver's Publishing Institute, and an M.S. in publishing from Pace University. In fiction, Cassie is actively acquiring page-turning plot-driven commercial and upmarket women's fiction, historical fiction, psychological suspense, cozy mysteries, and romance. In nonfiction, she's looking for projects in the categories of mind/body/spirit, health and wellness, lifestyle, inspirational memoir, narrative nonfiction focusing on food-related topics, and a limited number of accessible cookbooks. Follow Cassie on Twitter at @cjhanjian.
Claire Anderson-Wheeler (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Regal Hoffmann & Associates LLC
Claire Anderson-Wheeler is an associate agent at Regal Hoffmann & Associates LLC, New York. She previously worked at Christine Green Author’s Agency, London, and Anderson Literary Management, New York. She is currently particularly interested in building the nonfiction side of her list, and is looking for distinctive, well-credentialed biography and quirky historical narratives seen through an unexpected lens; "big picture" science, and some memoir (not travel writing or dating memoirs). In fiction, she is interested in Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction (particularly speculative, fantasy and urban fantasy, but also a fan of contemporary, issue-driven stories) and adult fiction with a big voice that asks searching questions. Regal Hoffmann & Associates was founded in 2002; Claire has been an associate there since 2013. She is Irish and grew up in Ireland, Belgium, and Switzerland, although she was born in Washington, DC. She holds a law degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and a master's in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, UK.
Dawn Michelle Hardy
Serendipity Literary Agency
Dawn Michelle Hardy has been described as a “literary lobbyist” by Ebony magazine for her ability to help authors reach their readership using strategic and creative promotions, award recognition, along with national and local media attention. She is a member of WMG (Women in Media Group) a New York-based nonprofit association of women who have achieved prominence in many fields of media. She uses her business acumen to guide and develop the writing careers of an assortment of authors in her role as literary agent with Serendipity Literary Agency, a member of A.A.R. (Association of Author Representatives). Dawn facilitates workshops on platform building, writing book proposals and the art of creating a memoir at conferences nationwide. She has been interviewed by The Network Journal, BlackEnterprise and other online and broadcast media outlets about her dual role in publishing as publicist and agent. As an agent, Dawn is looking for memoirists and true crime writers who can capture a larger narrative through their personal story, author platform and strong hook; heavily connected music, TV and film, sports (baseball, football) pop culture enthusiasts with a hip idea from an untold vantage point. Sharp, witty, humorous narratives for millenials or LGBT. Best-in-class professionals, Ph.D.s, executives, speaking to society at large (The New Jim Crow; Daring Greatly; Lean In). Some of her work includes a previously self published memoir that garnered SyFy Channel docu-series fame, Forgotten Burial: A Restless Spirit's Plea from Beyond the Grave by Jodi Foster and the 2015 highly publicized biography Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson written by Washington Post sports journalist Kent Babb.
Deborah Grosvenor (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Grosvenor Literary Agency
Deborah Grosvenor has more than 25 years’ experience in the book publishing business, first as an editor, then as an agent. As an editor, she acquired Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October. Her agency represents fiction and narrative nonfiction. For nonfiction she is looking for history, memoir, biography, politics, food, adventure, science, and the environment. She is also looking for quality fiction, literary and commercial, in particular, books with historical settings. Her distinguished client list includes nationally prominent writers, New York Times bestselling authors, and prize-winning historians and journalists. Among them are Stephen Coonts, Eleanor Clift, Thomas Oliphant, Henry Allen, Aaron Miller, Guy Gugliotta, Scott Wallace, Curtis Wilkie, Nina Burleigh, Thomas Fleming, Tom Dunkel, John Sexton, Jay Rubenstein, Willard Randall, Mark Geragos, Peter Cozzens, Daniel De Vise, Meg Noonan, Barbara Dreyfuss, and Elizabeth Pryor.
Diana Finch
Diana Finch Literary Agency
Diana Finch opened her own agency in New York City’s Flatiron District in 2003, after more than 15 years with the Ellen Levine Literary Agency and a start in agenting at Sanford Greenburger Associates. She looks for strong storytelling in fiction — literary, YA, and the occasional genre novel — while most of her list is nonfiction: science, environment, progressive politics, memoir, health, and business. Many of her clients are journalists, foreign correspondents, and memoirists, and she’s proud that three clients were at the 2015 COP21 Climate Summit in Paris. She chairs the AAR’s International Committee and loves selling to foreign publishers. She began her publishing career as an editorial assistant, learning the inner workings of a publishing house at St. Martin’s Press. She has a BA in English from Harvard and an MA in American literature from Leeds University, UK. Diana loves sports — both watching and playing — and lives in the Bronx.
Gerrie Sturman
Goldfarb and Associates
Goldfarb and Associates represents established and debut authors in both the fiction and nonfiction fields. Through our legal work with writers’ organizations, we are constantly adding new and talented writers to our list of literary clients, and matching collaborators with projects in need of authors or editors. Our agents include Ronald Goldfarb, author, lawyer, and veteran literary agent; Robbie Anna Hare, literary agent with experience as a radio and television producer, reporter, and writer; and Gerrie Sturman, with an eclectic background as English teacher, PR and sales executive, and now office manager and agent. Gerrie is building her list, but represents all Goldfarb & Associates agents at the writers conference. Serious nonfiction is our most active area, but a hair-raising thriller, true crime, health/food and living, as well as inspirational subjects also speak to us. No children's literature nor science fiction.
Grace Ross (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Denise Shannon Literary Agency
Grace Ross is a junior agent at Denise Shannon Literary Agency, a boutique agency that represents quality literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, biography, journalism, politics, and social history. She previously worked at Barbara Lowenstein Associates as Digital Marketing Manager and Oxford University Press as Editorial Assistant. Grace is interested in literary fiction that experiments with form and speaks to the current cultural climate; historical fiction; international narratives; and dynamic plots that bridge genres. In nonfiction, she is looking for socially and politically conscious narratives, especially those that engage with cultural conversations about gender, race, and class in an accessible way; but she’s also drawn to popular science, biography, cultural theory, and memoir. Grace was born in Washington, DC and holds a B.A. in English/American Studies from Wesleyan University.
Helen Zimmermann
Zimmermann Literary
Helen started her publishing career about twenty years ago in the marketing department of Random House. She soon became the director of advertising and promotion for one of their divisions, the Crown Publishing Group. After 12 years, she moved to New York's Hudson Valley, where she worked at an independent bookstore as the author events director. 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 well aware of the value of in-house buzz, online marketing, store placement, social media, author platform, etc., and works hard to make sure all of these marketing components are in place for each and every project. She is currently looking to acquire nonfiction in the areas of memoir, pop culture, women's issues, music, sports, and relationships. She does acquire some fiction, the only requirement for that being that it keeps her up at night! Find her on Twitter at @AgentZimmy.
Jennifer Weltz (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Jean V. Naggar Agency
As president of JVNLA, Inc. (the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc.), Jennifer Weltz has made over 2,000 deals domestically, internationally, and for film for over two decades. She represents fiction, nonfiction, genre, young adult, middle, and picture book authors. Her interests are varied with strong writing, plot, and voice married to a unique story as the unifying factor. Jennifer is a board member of the Association of Authors Representatives (AAR), a member of the Women's Media Group, and has served on the board of the BEA Conference Advisory Board, Pace University Masters in Publishing program, and the DBW Conference Council. She has been a keynote speaker as well as moderated and participated in panels on publishing for Digital Book World, the AAR, the BEA, the Romantic Times Convention, the Historical Novels Convention, PNWA, etc. Click here for more information.
Jess Regel (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Foundry Literary + Media
Jess is a literary agent at Foundry Literary + Media. She represents all genres of young-adult and middle-grade books, as well as adult general fiction, women’s fiction, and a select list of adult nonfiction (memoir, humor, pop culture). She’s particularly interested in books that are “conversation starters” and novels that bridge the literary-commercial divide, combining high-concept with beautiful writing. She is not looking to represent practical nonfiction, adult genre fiction (science fiction, westerns, etc.), or picture books. Her recent sales include All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (MacMillan), a love story between two unlikely people — a strong-willed girl and a tattooed motorcycle-riding ex con with a heart of gold — and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives; It's Okay to Laugh (HarperCollins), a hysterical, moving, and painfully honest memoir about love, marriage, work, (single) motherhood, and depression; and the YA debut The Way I Used to Be (Simon & Schuster), which tells the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault.
Katharine Sands
Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency
A literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, Katharine Sands has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye, a collection of pitching wisdom from leading literary agents. Recently contributed “Grey is the New Black” to Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey, a nonfiction look at the cultural phenom of the bestselling novel. Actively building her client list, she likes books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. When reading fiction she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir and femoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed. [email protected]
Kirsten Carleton (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Prospect Agency
Before joining Prospect Agency in 2015, Kirsten learned the agenting ropes at Sobel Weber Associates and the Waxman Leavell Agency. She holds a B.A. in English with a creative writing concentration from Amherst College, and a graduate certificate in publishing from the Columbia Publishing Course. She's drawn to books that capture her attention early on with a dynamic plot and innovative storytelling that blends or crosses genres. In particular, she's interested in novels that bend and blur genres; literary takes on high-concept world-building; diverse characters in stories that are not just about diversity; antiheroes she finds herself rooting for; characters with drive and passion; girls and women in STEM fields; settings outside the US/Europe; well-researched historical settings; YA noir/thriller/mystery; and stories that introduce her to a new subculture and make her feel like a native. Follow her on Twitter at @kirstencarleton.
Paul S. Levine
Paul S. Levine Literary Agency
Paul S. Levine is a lawyer and literary agent. Mr. Levine has practiced entertainment law for over 31 years. In 1996, Mr. Levine opened the Paul S. Levine Literary Agency, specializing in the representation of book authors and the sale of motion picture and television rights in and to books. Since starting his literary agency, Mr. Levine has sold over 100 fiction and nonfiction books to at least 30 different publishers and has had many books developed as movies-for-television and feature films. The fiction which Mr. Levine represents tends to be commercial — thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, “soap opera” in the vein of Danielle Steele or Jackie Collins, and literary fiction. The nonfiction which he represents also tends to be commercial — self-help, how-to, relationships, memoirs, health, women’s issues, pop culture, new age, and business. For both fiction and nonfiction, his biggest successes have been with authors who originally self-publish their books and then wish to have their books republished by a major publishing house.
Peter Rubie (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
FinePrint Literary Management
Peter Rubie is the CEO of FinePrint Literary Management, a New York City based literary agency, as well as a founding partner in Lincoln Square Books, a consulting management company for independent authors and publishers. He is a former BBC Radio and Fleet Street journalist and for several years was the director of the publishing section of the New York University Summer Publishing Institute. He was a member of the NYU faculty for 10 years, and taught the only university-level course in the country on how to become a literary agent. Prior to becoming an agent he was a publishing house editor for nearly six years, whose authors won prizes and critical acclaim. He has also been the editor-in-chief of a Manhattan local newspaper, and a freelance editor and book doctor for major publishers. He was a regular reviewer for the international trade magazine Publishers Weekly, and is a published author of both fiction and non-fiction. He specializes in a broad range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction he specializes in narrative non-fiction, popular science, spirituality, history, biography, pop culture, business and technology, parenting, health, self help, music, and food. He is a “sucker” for outstanding writing. In fiction he represents literate thrillers, crime fiction, science fiction and fantasy, military fiction and literary fiction, middle grade and some boy oriented young adult fiction. He is a member of AAR, and regularly lectures and writes on publishing and the craft of writing, and in his spare time plays jazz guitar.
Regina Ryan
Regina Ryan Publishing Enterprises, Inc.
Regina Ryan has been the head of her own independent literary agency company for nearly 40 years, principally handling adult nonfiction. She has a strong editorial background, including having been an editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and editor in chief of Macmillan Adult Books, the first woman ever to hold that position in a major hardcover publishing house. Her areas of interest are wide-ranging and eclectic and include narrative nonfiction, natural history (particularly birds), science (particularly the brain), gardening, women’s issues, psychology, health, wellness, self-improvement, lifestyle, history, food, popular reference, business, and memoir. Her recent titles include The Sugar Season; What's Wrong with My Houseplant?; The Thinker's Thesaurus, 3rd Edition; So You Think You Know Football?; The Peterson's Guide to Bird Sounds of North America; Wildlife Spectacles; Hair: A Human History; Craft Wine; The Seven Secrets of Successful Persuasion; Jewish Wisdom for Daily Life; and Dr. Petty's Pain Relief for Dogs.
Rita Rosenkranz
Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency
Rita Rosenkranz specializes in adult nonfiction projects. Her wide-ranging list includes health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, popular reference, memoir, cooking, spirituality, sports and general-interest titles. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets. She represents first-time and well-established writers, and looks for projects that present familiar subjects freshly or lesser-known subjects presented commercially. Titles include Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ron Fierstein; A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math Even If You Flunked Algebra by Barbara Oakley; and On the Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine by Cara Bradley.
Roger Williams
New England Publishing Associates
Roger S. Williams has worked in publishing for over 38 years as a bookseller and sales director at major publishing houses. His background has spanned a broad range of successful positions from many publishing industry perspectives. He has been involved in sales, marketing, merchandising, editorial, and product development. Roger bought New England Publishing Associates, Inc. (www.nepagencyinc.com) in 2009. NEPAgency, a member of the Association of Author's Representatives, is focused on non-fiction.
Steven Salpeter (We're sorry, this agent's pitch session schedule is fully booked. Please consider another choice. Thank you!)
Curtis Brown LTD
Steven Salpeter is a literary agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. in New York. A graduate of the University of Florida, Steven was the editor-in-chief of Tea and founder of the Palmetto Prize for Fiction and the Blackbird Prize for Poetry. He began his publishing career at Writers House and Brandt & Hochman before moving to Curtis Brown to help Timothy Knowlton manage many of the agency’s venerable estate clients, including W.H. Auden, John Knowles, Alfred Lansing, Ayn Rand, and Stanley Ellin among other bestsellers and literary award winners. He is actively seeking new clients, building his list in literary fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, historical fiction, thrillers, young adult, and authors who can blend elements of these genres. Steven is also interested in narrative nonfiction, gift books, history, humor, and popular science. He also enjoys a good cup of tea.
Victoria Skurnik
Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency
Victoria Skurnick has been an agent at the Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency since 2007, when she left the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she was Editor-in-Chief. Before that, she was a senior editor at St. Martin’s Press and Pocket Books, Advertising Director at Holt, Rinehart & Winston, and co-author of seven novels. Her clients include Susan Elia MacNeal (Mr. Churchill’s Secretary), Senator Tom Daschle (Critical), Alice LaPlante (Turn of Mind), Harry Dolan (Bad Things Happen), Mary Louise Kelly (The Bullet), Kermit Roosevelt (Allegiance), and Jeff Nesbit (Poison Tea), among many others. Novels with a strong voice, provocative nonfiction, literary fiction, thrillers, great YA – all will be welcome.
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