the muse & the marketplace 2010
manuscript mart
We are pleased to offer our sixth annual Manuscript Mart, where an established literary agent or editor will give you direct feedback on your work, which they will have read in advance. A one-on-one, 20 minute critique session will be scheduled for you during the conference. Manuscript Mart sessions do not overlap with other sessions and panels, and are allocated before the conference on a first-come, first-served basis. Your place in the queue is held when you submit your payment (online or by phone) AND your first and second choices. We urge you to research agents and editors in advance of the submission deadline and register early for the Manuscript Mart if you know you want to participate, as critique sessions sell out very quickly.
Your application will be complete when you submit one hard copy of your manuscript and one electronic copy (see below for specific instructions on how to prepare and submit your manuscript). Both copies are due at the Grub Street office by Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 5:00 pm. Please note that this is NOT a postmark date! By 5pm on March 31st, 2010, you must have registered and paid online or via phone, and the two copies of your manuscript submission (one hard copy, one electronic) must be received in our office. Again, please be aware that we can not accept any Manuscript Mart registrations or manuscripts after Wednesday, March 31st at 5pm. We regret that we are not able to offer any refunds or credits if you do not submit your manuscript by the due date.
All confirmed Manuscript Mart participants will be notified by e-mail of their agent and/or editor placements and the times of their meetings by Friday, April 23rd, 2010.
- how to apply
- application guidelines
- application fees
- participating agents & editors
- making the most of your manuscript mart session
how to apply
You may sign up for the Manuscript Mart when you register for The Muse and the Marketplace conference. See below for fees and application guidelines. You must register for one or both days of the conference in order to register for the Manuscript Mart.
application guidelines
- A complete submission consists of up to 20 pages of a fiction or non-fiction manuscript AND a 1-page query letter. Participating agents and editors will not read beyond 20 pages, so please keep your manuscript to this length. For book-length projects, please add an additional one-page synopsis of the work as a whole.
- Your manuscript pages must be double-spaced, numbered, titled, in black 12-point Times New Roman type on white 8 1/2 X 11-inch paper with a 1-inch minimum margin all around. Submissions that do not conform to this format may not be read. Your name and the genre in which you are submitting (fiction, non-fiction, memoir, etc.) must appear at the top of each page of your submission.
- Your 1-page query letter must be single-spaced. For suggestions on how to format an effective query letter, see this useful site. Because you will not know the name of the agent or editor to whom the query letter will be addressed, simply address the letter "Dear Editor" or "Dear Agent."
- Your 1-page synopsis must be single-spaced. For useful advice on writing a synopsis, click here.
- Select your first and second choices for agent or editor from the list provided (see below for names). While we will make every effort to accommodate your first choice, we cannot guarantee availability. Registration is strictly first-come, first-served, so you are strongly encouraged to register early. The Manuscript Mart has completely sold out every year it has been offered.
- After you register, submit ONE hard copy of your submission (manuscript pages and query letter) to:
- Grub Street Writers
- ATTN: Manuscript Mart
- 160 Boylston Street
- Boston, MA 02116
- You may drop off your manuscript in person as well. Keep in mind that we are open from 10am to 6pm, Monday through Friday, and that the deadline is 5:00pm sharp on Wednesday the 31st.
- All submissions must be received by Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 5:00pm. THIS IS NOT A POSTMARK DEADLINE—we must have your hard copy manuscript in hand by this time or we may be forced to cancel your appointment.
application fees
- Grub Street Writers
- ATTN: Manuscript Mart
- 160 Boylston Street
- Boston, MA 02116
application fees
The registration fee for the Manuscript Mart is $130 over and above your Muse and the Marketplace registration fee. Participation in the Manuscript Mart is open only to conference attendees. In other words, you must register for the entire conference in order to participate in the Manuscript Mart.
The Manuscript Mart portion of your registration is a fully tax-deductible donation to Grub Street, NOT a reading fee. Participating editors and agents are providing their editorial services free of charge.
If you wish to register for the Muse and the Marketplace online with a major credit card, but pay for the Manuscript Mart separately by check, you may do so, but your conference registration fee must be paid before we can secure your place in the Manuscript Mart.
If you are registering and paying by mail, please include a separate check for $130 made out to "Grub Street" along with your full conference registration form and payment. If the Manuscript Mart fills, your check will be mailed back to you. If you had registered online by credit card, the $130 will be credited to your account.
Please direct all questions regarding the Manuscript Mart to sonya@grubstreet.org or call 617.695.0075.
participating editors and agents
Click here to read contributor bios. Though these bios are recent and comprehensive, we strongly encourage you to do some research on your choice of editor or agent before making your Manuscript Mart choices. We have provided a very useful chart below, which lists the genres of writing each agent or editor specializes in, will consider, or does not represent.
Again this year, we have invited four editors of prominent literary journals who have also agreed to read manuscripts. These editors (Jeanne Leiby, Ladette Randolph, Nathaniel Rich and Christina Thompson) are excellent choices for writers of short stories, non-fiction personal essays, and authors putting together full-length short-story or essay collections. Please be aware that these journal editors do not work for publishing houses. They will give you feedback on the craft of your submission and consider that submission for their journal. They may also be able to suggest another journal or publication that would be a good fit for your story or non-fiction article.editors
Jofie Ferrari-Adler is a senior editor at Grove/Atlantic, where he acquires and edits both fiction and nonfiction. Previously he worked as an editor at Viking Penguin, the independent house Four Walls Eight Windows, and as a bookseller. Recent titles include Karl Marlantes’s Matterhorn, William J. Bernstein’s A Splendid Exchange, Andrew Ferguson’s Land of Lincoln, Joe McGinniss Jr.’s The Delivery Man, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin’s The Last Stand of Fox Company, Christopher Beha’s The Whole Five Feet, Tim Flannery’s Now or Never, and David Kinney’s The Big One. Jofie serves on the AAP’s International Freedom to Publish Committee and is a contributing editor of Poets & Writers magazine. 
Reagan Arthur is Vice President and Editorial Director of Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown. She began her publishing career at St. Martin’s Press, and also worked for Picador USA. Writers she has worked with since arriving at Little, Brown include Kate Atkinson, Kate Braestrup, Tony Earley, Joshua Ferris, Elin Hilderbrand, Elizabeth Kostova, Denise Mina, George Pelecanos, Josh Bazell, Kathleen Kent, and Joanna Scott.
Tim Bartlett is a Senior Editor at Random House. He worked previously at Oxford University Press, Basic Books, and NYU Press. Among the writers he has worked with are Andrew Bacevich, Donovan Campbell, Anthony Flint, Tim Harford, Jed Horne, June Jordan, Keith Olbermann, Richard Preston, Peter Singer and Rob Walker. Bartlett is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and attended the editorial fellowship programs in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Jerusalem and Turin.Amy Caldwell is an Executive Editor at Beacon Press. Some of her recent titles include Jonathan M. Metzl’s The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease, Kathryn Joyce’s Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, Eboo Patel’s Acts of Faith, Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau’s new anthology, Believer, Beware, and Fred Pearce’s Confessions of an Eco-Sinner. She’s interested in writers with strong backgrounds in their subject area who can translate complex material for a broader audience. She also looks for writers with a solid platform. 
In her more than twenty years at Viking Penguin, Pamela Dorman acquired and edited the multi-million copy #1 bestsellers The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, The Memory-Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding and The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard, which was the first selection of the Oprah Book Club, along with many other fiction and non-fiction bestsellers. In 2006, she became Vice-President, Editorial Director of Voice, a new imprint for women at Hyperion, where she acquired and edited the fiction bestsellers The Physick Book of Deliverance Dance by Katherine Howe and The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, and edited Candace Bushnell’s One Fifth Avenue. She also acquired and edited the bestselling memoirs The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan, and Perfection by Julie Metz. She rejoined the Penguin Group in 2008 to found her eponymous imprint, Pamela Dorman Books, where her inaugural hardcover, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, was selected to launch the Sam’s Club National Book Club. Other new titles from Pamela Dorman Books include The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale, about a girl in eighteenth-century London who becomes apprenticed to a mysterious fireworks maker; and a major international bestseller, The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano that has already sold more than one million copies in his native Italy, where it won the prestigious Premio Strega award. She began her publishing career at St. Martin’s Press. Dorman is a summa cum laude graduate of Wesleyan University.
Amy Einhorn Books’ mission-statement is to publish books that hit that sweet-spot between literary and commercial. Launched in February 2009, the imprint’s first title published was The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a debut novel that was a #1 New York Times bestseller. It was named USA Today’s Book of the Year, and has sold over a million copies in hardcover, receiving critical acclaim from NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, People, and many more. With a boutique list of only 10-12 titles a year, Amy Einhorn Books is backed by the marketing and publicity might of the most successful commercial publishing house in the business, G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Amy Einhorn Books publishes fiction, narrative nonfiction and commercial nonfiction. Upcoming titles include The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, This is Not the Story You Think It Is by Laura Munson, The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni and The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees. Some of Amy’s past New York Times bestsellers include I Like You by Amy Sedaris, The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks, Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman, and the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Red Hat Society by Sue Ellen Cooper. Amy has been in publishing for over 20 years, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Grand Central Publishing, Editorial Director of Washington Square Press, and worked at Poseidon Press, Villard, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Jeanne Leiby is an associate professor of English at LSU and editor of The
Southern Review, which publishes the best literary fiction,
poetry, and creative nonfiction. Poems and fiction are selected with careful
attention to craftsmanship and technique and to the seriousness of the
subject matter. Although willing to publish experimental writing that
appears to have a valid artistic purpose, The Southern Review avoids s
extremism and sensationalism. We do not typically publish genre fiction. Jeanne Leiby is also the author of a story collection titled Downriver, published by Carolina Wren Press and winner of the Doris Bakwin Prize. Her stories have appeared in Fiction, Indiana Review, and New Orleans Review, among other
journals. 
Christine Pride is an Editor at Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc. where she acquires and edits a range of fiction (Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician by Daniel Wallace, The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha, The End of The Alphabet by CS Richardson), memoir (Rattled! by Christine Coppa, The Geography of Love by Glenda Burgess), narrative non-fiction (Teaching Hope by Erin Gruwell, If It Takes A Village, Build One by Malaak Compton Rock) and animal stories (Love is the Best Medicine by Dr. Nick Trout). While her tastes and interests are very diverse, she is committed to finding and nurturing projects that feature strong story-telling and emotional resonance. Christine attended the University of Missouri’s prestigious broadcast journalism program and worked in non-profit management before embarking on career in book publishing. 
Ladette Randolph is editor-in-chief of the literary journal Ploughshares and a professor at Emerson College. Prior to joining the staff at Ploughshares she was an editor and associate director at University of Nebraska Press, and prior to that managing editor of Prairie Schooner. She is the author of the novel A Sandhills Ballad and the award-winning short story collection This Is Not the Tropics and the editor of two anthologies, A Different Plain and The Big Empty. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Rona Jaffe grant, the Virginia Faulkner Award, a Best New American Voices citation, and three Nebraska Book Awards. Ploughshares is well known for its fiction, with work frequently reprinted in both Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart prize volumes. Known for its program of inviting established writers to guest edit each of the three issues it publishes each year, the magazine is committed to maintaining high quality while also showcasing diverse literary tastes in each issue. Half of each issue is solicited from the guest editor, and the remaining half comes from submissions made directly to the magazine. Ploughshares tends not to publish a lot of experimental fiction, nor do they publish genre fiction. As a former book editor, Randolph conceived of and acquired manuscripts for the award-winning series American Lives (memoirs) and Flyover Fiction (novels and short story collections). 
Nathaniel Rich is the fiction editor of The Paris Review, where he has worked for the past five years. Before that he worked on the editorial staff of The New York Review of Books. He's also the author of two books, including a novel, The Mayor's Tongue, and has written essays on literature and film for Vanity Fair, Slate, and Lapham's Quarterly, among other publications. His website is www.nathanielrich.com. When asked what The Paris Review is looking for submission-wise, Rich answers, "to be surprised," and quotes William Styron from the inaugural issue: "The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders. So long as they're good."
Alexis Rizzuto received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Emerson College, where her work won the DuPrey Award. She has taught creative nonfiction at Cazenovia College, Syracuse University, and Grub Street Writers. Alexis learned the publishing business through working at the Kneerim & Williams literary agency and as an editor at Da Capo Press. She currently works on Grub Street's Memoir Project team and at Beacon Press acquiring in the areas of nature/environment and child/family. 
Christina Thompson is the editor of Harvard Review and a lecturer in the Writing Program at Harvard University Extension. She is the recipient of a 2010 NEA Fellowship and a 2010 grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. Her essays and criticism have been published in Vogue, The American Scholar, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and many other newspapers and journals. She is the author of a memoir entitled Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All (Bloomsbury, 2008). More info at www.comeonshore.com. literary agents
Richard Abate has been a literary agent for over fifteen years. He recently joined 3 Arts Entertainment, a premier management company based in Los Angeles, to begin their literary division. He works with many literary writers such as Kate Christensen (a PEN/Faulkner winner), Sana Krasikov (2009 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature winner), Oscar Casares, Chuck Hogan (Hammett Award winner), Dale Peck, Calvin Baker, Attica Locke, and young adult mega stars Lisi Harrison and Melissa De La Cruz. He also works with award-winning non-fiction writers including Evan Wright (two-time National Magazine Award winner), Jeff Tietz (National Magazine Award nominee), Tara Bray Smith, Anthony Flint, Tina Cassidy, Pulitzer Prize winner Tamara Jones, historians James Swanson and Mitchell Zuckoff, Brian McGrory of the Boston Globe, National Book Award nominee David McCumber, music writer Anthony Bozza, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Snyder, and NPR journalist Farai Chideya. He has also worked with top creative talent in other fields, such as Guillermo Del Toro, Tim Kring (creator and executive producer of Heroes), and Howard Gordon (executive producer of 24). Richard has a bachelor’s degree in European History from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in American Studies from NYU.
Jenni Ferrari-Adler is an agent at Brick House Literary Agents. Jenni specializes in representing novels, food narrative and cookbooks, and narrative nonfiction. Recent sales include the debut literary novel A Wonderful Sight From the Air by Sarah Gardner Borden to Vintage, the food memoir Four Kitchens by Lauren Shockey to Grand Central, and the cookbook Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Boston-based journalist Maria Speck to Ten Speed Press. Jenni holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and a BA from Oberlin College. She taught creative writing at the University of Michigan and the Gotham Writers Workshop. She has worked as a reader for The Paris Review, and a bookseller at Housing Works. Her short fiction and food writing have been published in numerous magazines. She is the editor of Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant (http://www.aloneinthekitchen.com/) and a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She is looking for projects with wonderful writing and a new take on an interesting topic. Some books she’s loved recently: Look At Me by Jennifer Egan, The Great Man by Kate Christenson, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, The Book of Daniel by E.L. Doctorow, The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn, One L by Scott Turow, and Heat by Bill Buford. 
Miriam Altshuler established her own agency in 1994 after twelve years as an agent at Russell & Volkening. Her list focuses on literary commercial fiction and nonfiction, but most important to her are the quality of the writing and how the subject is approached.
The range of fiction writers she represents includes Robb Forman Dew, winner of the National Book Award for Dale Loves Sophie to Death (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); Alice Lichtenstein, whose second novel, Lost, will be published this spring by Scribner, Doug Trevor, whose stories have appeared in The Best American Non-Required Reading, Glimmer Train and The Paris Review, and whose collection, The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space, won the Iowa First Fiction Award in 2005; Jennine Capo Crucet, winner of the 2009 Iowa First Fiction Award for her collection, How to Leave Hialeah; and Walter Dean Myers, two-time National Book Award finalist, first Michael Printz award winner, and New York Times best-selling author of Monster. Her nonfiction authors include Andrew Carroll, New York Times best-selling author of War Letters (Scribner) and Operation Homecoming (with the National Endowment of the Arts, Random House); Harriet Brown, whose forthcoming memoir with HarperCollins, Brave Girl Eating, is based on her New York Times Magazine article; New York Times best-selling author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (Dogs Never Lie About Love), and his newest book about the choices behind the foods we eat, The Face On Your Plate (W.W. Norton); New York Times columnist Alina Tugend and her forthcoming book about making mistakes, The Right To Be Wrong (Riverhead); Janna Malamud Smith, author of the 2003 New York Times Notable Book A Potent Spell (Houghton Mifflin), and her memoir of her father, the late Bernard Malamud, My Father is a Book (Houghton Mifflin); B.U. professor, YA novelist, and acclaimed author of Sex and the Soul and The Possibilities of Sainthood, Donna Freitas; and Wednesday Martin, author of Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Stepmothers Think, Feel, and Act the Way We Do (Harcourt Houghton Mifflin). 
Julie Barer established her own agency in 2004 after six years at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Barer Literary is a full-service boutique agency that represents a variety of writers across a literary spectrum, with an emphasis on fiction. Clients include National Book Award finalist Joshua Ferris (Then We Came to the End and The Unnamed), award winning short story writer Gina Ochsner (People I Wanted To Be and the forthcoming Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight), and bestselling historical novelist Kathleen Kent (The Heretic’s Daughter). Writing by her clients has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Best American Non-Required Reading, New Stories From the South, Best New American Voices, Tin House, Granta and various other publications, and has received numerous awards and honors, including grants from The National Endowment of the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the Los Angeles Times First Book Award, the National Book Award finalist medal, the Flannery O'Connor Award and the Orange Prize and Guardian First Book Award long lists. Forthcoming books include Helen Simonson’s debut novel Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand (Random House), City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris (Little, Brown & Co.) and The Great Penguin Rescue by Dyan DeNapoli (Free Press). Before becoming an agent Julie was a bookseller at Shakespeare & Company in New York. 
Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC, based in Brooklyn, New York. Her agency has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature, including: three-time National Book Award finalist, the Coretta Scott King Honor, and the 2006 Michael Printz Honor Award-winning author Marilyn Nelson; winner of the 2008 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award, Sundee Frazier; Nina Jablonski; and Marjorie Greenfield (The Working Women’s Pregnancy Book). Brooks also has a talent for identifying new voices and potential authors like Derrick Barnes, whose first novel, The Making of Dr Truelove, won an American Library Association Award. Serendipity was hailed by Writer's Digest magazine as one of the top 25 literary agencies in 2004. Prior to opening her own agency, Ms Brooks 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. She is the author of the children's book, Never Finished! Never Done! (Scholastic, 2004) and Writing Great Books for Young Adults (Source Books 09). Brooks is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program. Her recent sales include: In the Black: Retirement Planning Guide for African Americans (Harper Collins), Handle Your Entertainment Business (Hachette); Wishing: How to Fulfill Your Dream (Beyond Words/Atria), Girligami (Watson Guptil), Beautiful Ballerina (Scholastic), Imperfections (Clarion), and Sweethearts Of Rhythm (Random House). She is a regular speaker at writer’s conferences and is interested in new and emerging writers. www.serendipitylit.com
Elyse Cheney has been a literary agent for fifteen years, beginning at a small firm, Connie Clausen Associates, and then moving on to Sanford J. Greenburger Associates for ten years. In January 2005 she opened her own company. She studied English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, with a minor in business at the Wharton School and a minor in Art History. Cheney's writers include journalists from all the top magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. Recently published nonfiction and memoir books include Warren St. John’s Outcasts United, Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market, and Reza Aslan’s How to Win a Cosmic War; Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz, Mockingbird Years and Are You Happy? by Emily Fox Gordon, and Ask Amy columnist Amy Dickinson's New York Times bestselling The Mighty Queens of Freeville. Cheney was also the agent for Dave Eggers’ bestselling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Cheney's fiction interests range from the literary to the commercial. She represents Jess Row, author of The Train to Lo Wu, Stegner fellow Suzanne Rivecca, Benjamin Kunkel, author of the highly acclaimed Indecision, and Nathaniel Rich, author of The Mayor's Tongue. She was also the agent for Sister Souljah’s classic novel The Coldest Winter Ever, and is increasingly interested in commercial fiction, thrillers and women’s fiction. 
Elizabeth Evans joined the Jean V. Naggar Agency in January, 2010. Previously, she worked for six years with Kimberley Cameron & Associates (formerly the Reece Halsey Agency). Elizabeth specializes in nonfiction, including memoir, current affairs, pop culture, relationships, journalism, history and popular science. She also represents select titles in up-market women’s fiction, mysteries and young adult novels. She enjoys working closely with her authors to fine-tune their proposals and especially loves launching new authors’ careers. She is always on the lookout for stories of adventure, and books that aspire to foster knowledge and understanding. Elizabeth does not represent thrillers, children's books, essay anthologies, poetry, short fiction or screenplays. 
Stephany Evans, President of FinePrint Literary Management, began agenting in 1990. In 1992 she formed her own agency while serving as editor for wellness and personal growth magazine Free Spirit. For twenty years, she has represented nonfiction writers in the areas of health and wellness, lifestyle (including home renovating, decorating, food & drink, and sustainability), spirituality, memoir and narrative nonfiction. Her clients span an unusual spectrum from meditation 'sitters' to ultra-runners. In fiction, she represents a range of women's fiction, from literary to romance, including mystery, paranormal, and suspense, and the occasional novel not aimed at chicks. Stephany is a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives, the Women's National Book Association, and Romance Writers of America, and member and former co-chair of New York Women in Publishing. She splits her time between her offices in New York City and Marfa, Texas.
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 plenty of one of her favorite kinds of client -- the first-time author. Her tastes in novels tend toward literary fiction, international voices, and women's voices, and the occasional mystery/suspense novel. On the nonfiction side, she is most likely to take on books that tackle current events and societal issues with a narrative treatment. She has a strong interest in women's voices and class and race issues, popular science, quality lifestyle books (food, wine, craft, and home design), and humor(!) and pop culture, which have been exceptionally strong sellers lately. Subjects and genres not of interest include: sci-fi and fantasy, children’s and YA, self-help, romance, sports fiction, or generally 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; Matthew Frederick and his best-selling 101 Things I Learned In _______ School series; the estate of Robin Moore (The French Connection, The Green Berets); Xaviera Hollander (The Happy Hooker); journalist Ethan Gilsdorf (Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks); Darci Klein (To Full Term, A Mother's Triumph Over Miscarriage); Jonathan McCullough's A Tale Of Two Subs; syndicated cartoonist and Georgia Author of the Year Man Martin (Days of the Endless Corvette and Paradise Dogs), Edgar-winner and host of Anatomy Of A Mystery, Rex Burns; Robert McKinnon (Actions Speak Loudest, a collection of essays by such luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Paul Simon, Dave Eggers, Mia Hamm, Richard Louv); essayist Jessica Handler; and Eudora Welty prize in Fiction winner Miroslav Penkov and his debut collection Bulgari, a country, in stories, forthcoming from FSG. Updated information on Sorche Fairbank and Fairbank Literary, their clients, and recent deals can be found at www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SorcheFairbank.
Katherine Fausset is an agent with Curtis Brown, Ltd., New York. She has worked in publishing since 1998. In non-fiction she looks for dynamic, bold voices and subject matter that alters our view of the world. In fiction, she particularly loves rich, atmospheric detail; humor; explorations of family dynamics; anything set during a revolution; and morally-complicated protagonists. Some of her non-fiction clients are Moustafa Bayoumi, Mary Ann Caws, Ioan Grillo, Daniel Hernandez and Chris Rose. Her fiction clients include Benjamin Percy, Laura van den Berg, James Magruder, Katharine Davis, Jerry Gabriel, Janna McMahan, Justin Allen and John Nichols. 
Lisa Grubka spent six years at the William Morris Agency before joining Foundry in summer 2008, and represents both fiction (literary, young adult, and women's) and non-fiction (pop culture, food, and narrative). Lisa has worked with a broad variety of authors, from debut novelists to Food Network stars. She takes a very hands-on approach in working with her authors, and is a thorough editor, ensuring the best possible proposal or manuscript. In addition to representing her authors, she also managed magazine/serial and audio rights for William Morris. She began her career at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
Jill Kneerim a founder of Kneerim & Williams, represents a wide range of authors, including best-selling novelists Brad Meltzer and Sue Miller; ADD expert Dr. Edward M. Hallowell; scholars Pauline Maier, Stephen Greenblatt, Tanya Luhrmann, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Elkins; journalists Larry Tye, Bo Burlingham, and David Laskin; biographers Susan Quinn and Gillian Gill; former poet laureate Robert Pinsky; and leading women thinkers such as Jean Kilbourne, Kitty Dukakis, and Dr. Susan Love. Jill is a former editor and publisher who has worked for Simon & Schuster, American Heritage, and Grossman Publishers, a publishing house that she cofounded. She has overseen the creation of countless books and worked with hundreds of authors. She has served on the board of PEN New England and is a member of the advisory board of Grub Street Writing Center. Boston Magazine named her one of Boston's 100 most influential women. Jill's interests include a good story on almost any interesting subject; serious fiction; American, African, Asian, and European history; religion; psychology and anthropology; biography and memoir; women's issues; the English language; and good writing.PJ Mark has worked in the publishing industry for sixteen years, as an international book scout, a journalist covering the book publishing industry, and as a literary agent since 2002. His clients include Dinaw Mengestu (The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for First Fiction, the Guardian First Book Award, the Prix du Premier Roman, and a “5 Under 35” writer by the National Book Award Foundation, 2007); Samantha Hunt (The Seas; The Invention of Everything Else, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; a “5 Under 35” writer by the National Book Award Foundation, 2006); Josh Weil (The New Valley; a “5 Under 35” writer by the National Book Award Foundation, 2009); Ed Park (Personal Days, a TIME magazine book of the year and finalist for the John Sargent Award for First Novel); Sarah Manguso (The Two Kinds of Decay, recipient of The Rome Prize); Craig Thompson (Blankets; recipient of three Harvey Awards, two Eisner Awards, and the 2005 Critics Choice at Angouleme); and others. His clients have been published in The New Yorker, Granta, the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Harper's, and elsewhere. They have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism, Lannan Foundation fellowships, the MacArthur Foundation Grant, The Narrative Prize, and Fulbright fellowships. They have also been finalists for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Young Lions Fiction Award and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.
Rebecca Oliver moved over to the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment book department when the two companies merged in June 2009. Previous to joining Endeavor as an agent in 2007, she worked in book publishing, first at St. Martin’s Press followed by Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) as the Associate Director of Subsidiary Rights. At WME her client list is diverse and ranges from practical non-fiction (Tracy Anderson, The 30-Day Method Kick Start; Nicole Williams, Girl on Top) to memoir (Eric Poole, Where's My Wand; Janna Cawrse Esarey, The Motion of the Ocean; Michael Cooper, Displaced) to both commercial and literary fiction. Fiction clients include New York Times bestselling author Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places); Susan White, author of the Target book club pick A Soft Place to Land; historical novelist Kamran Pasha (Mother of the Believers and Shadow of the Swords); and women's fiction author Ellen Block (The Language of Sand). 
A literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, Katharine Sands has worked with a varied list of fiction and non-fiction authors who publish a diverse array of books. Highlights include XTC: SongStories; Chasing Zebras: THE Unofficial Guide to House, MD; Make Up, Don't Break Up with Oprah guest Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil; Playwright Robert Patrick's novel, Temple Slave; The Complete Book on International Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Child; Hands Off My Belly: The Pregnant Woman's Survival Guide to Myths, Mothers, and Moods; Under the Hula Moon; Whipped: A Professional Dominatrix's Secrets for Wrapping Men Around Your Little Finger; The Gay Vacation Guide; CityTripping: a Guide for Foodies, Fashionistas and the Generally Syle-Obsessed; Writers on Directors; Ford model Helen Lee's The Tao of Beauty; Elvis and You: Your Guide to the Pleasures of Being an Elvis Fan; New York: Songs of the City; Taxpertise: Dirty Little Secrets the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know; The SAT Word Slam; Divorce After 50; The Complete Book of Bone Health; The Safe and Sane Guide to Teenage Plastic Surgery, to name a few. 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. 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.
Denise Shannon heads her own literary agency in New York City, which she started in 2002. She has also held positions at Alfred A. Knopf, St. Martin’s Press and ICM. Representative titles: Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose, Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen, Alternatives to Sex by Stephen McCauley, The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle and Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood by Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones and Pamela Ferdinand.
Janet Silver, the Literary Director of the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth agency, brings more than three decades of experience as an acclaimed editor and publishing executive to her work as a literary agent. She joined the agency after 25 years at Houghton Mifflin Company, where she was Vice President and Publisher. Throughout her long career, Silver has remained committed to supporting exceptional writers of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Her clients benefit from both her in-depth knowledge of the publishing process and her industry-wide reputation as the renowned editor of many celebrated writers, including Philip Roth, Tim O'Brien, Jhumpa Lahiri, Cynthia Ozick, Monique Truong, and Jonathan Safran Foer. As a publisher, she oversaw the release of such groundbreaking works as Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Silver’s clients at ZSH are writers recognized for their original voices, narrative skill, and proven expertise. Recent major sales include the memoir Wild by novelist Cheryl Strayed (Knopf), recounting her solo trek on the Pacific Crest trail; Brian Christian’s The Most Human Human (Doubleday), an inside look at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence; and award-winning writer Michael Byers’ Percival’s Planet (Holt), a novel based on the discovery of Pluto in 1930.
Joanna Stampfel-Volpe has been with Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation for just over two years. Prior to becoming a full-time agent with Nancy Coffey, Joanna was an assistant and junior agent with FinePrint Literary Management, a publisher's assistant at Blue Marlin Publications, and a book seller at Barnes & Noble. Her previous sales range from children's literature to adult non-fiction, including The Town That Food Saved (Rodale, March 2010) by Ben Hewitt, Deception-- A Haunting Emma Novel (Bloomsbury Children's, June 2010) by Lee Nichols, The Duff (Poppy, September 2010) by Kody Keplinger, Sway (Hyperion, Summer 2011) by Amber Turner, and The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless (HarperCollins Children's, Summer 2011) by Allan Woodrow. She has also sold a number of audio books and has just finished negotiations on her first film option. Joanna is looking for clients who are as enthusiastic about writing and reading as she is, and she is currently building her list. When she's not reading (which is almost never), she enjoys cooking, watching movies, playing Guitar Hero and hanging with her husband and her chihuahua, PeeWee.Rachel Sussman graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a B.A. in English literature. She has worked as an editor at Scribner, where she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, including Dawn Raffel's debut novel, Carrying the Body; Naama Goldstein's debut short story collection, The Place Will Comfort You; Thomas Webber's memoir Flying Over 96th Street; Louis Edwards's novel Oscar Wilde Discovers America; and Jennifer Vogel's memoir Flim-Flam Man. After four years at Scribner, Rachel moved to London, where she worked as an editor with The Literary Consultancy and edited for various U.K. publishing houses on a freelance basis. Rachel joined Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as an agent in the summer of 2005. Some of her recent sales include Two Kisses for Maddy, a memoir by blogger Matt Logelin (Grand Central Publishing); Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight about Animals by Western Carolina University professor of psychology Hal Herzog (HarperCollins); I Thought You Were Dead, a novel by Peter Nelson (Algonquin); Sharp Notes, a personal narrative blending memoir, travelogue, and history by New York Times reporter Doreen Carvajal (Riverhead); and Virtually You: How Online Life is Transforming Offline Reality by Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine (Norton).
Mitchell Waters has been an agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. for fifteen years. He represents an eclectic group of authors of fiction and non-fiction. He is particularly interested in literary fiction, but is not averse to strong plots and some humor. Recent and forthcoming titles include Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre (winner of the 2010 Grub Street Book Prize), Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford, The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier, The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes, Probation by Tom Mendicino, Mile-High Fever by Dennis Drabelle, The Conversion by Joseph Olshan, Cloris by Cloris Leachman, The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper and A Voice from Old New York by Louis Auchincloss. 
Elisabeth Weed is committed to working with writers on individual titles and for the long term. She is dedicated to developing her authors’ careers by guiding them as they fine-tune their work, and build platforms in their areas of expertise. Elisabeth is interested in discovering new voices in up-market fiction, with literary echoes. Drawn to high-concept work and great writing, her list includes best selling and nationally recognized authors, including Martha Moody, Allison Winn Scotch, Lynne Griffin, Trish Ryan, Sara Barron, Therese Walsh and Megan Kelley Hall. For more information, visit www.weedliterary.com.
*first time at the Muse & the Marketplace conference!
making the most of your manuscript mart session
The Manuscript Mart is a rare opportunity to receive meaningful feedback on your work from an experienced industry professional, but sometimes that feedback can be critical and therefore tough to hear. Just because an agent or editor does not respond glowingly to your work and does not offer you a book deal on the spot does NOT mean the work is not valuable; nor does it mean that the critique can not be used constructively to improve it. While a good number of agents and editors do go on to represent clients they meet at the Manuscript Mart, Grub Street can not guarantee that the person you meet will ultimately be the right fit for you. What we try best to ensure is that the agent or editor you meet will have read your work, considered it thoughtfully, and offered you the best advice s/he can give. For a good overview on the manuscript mart experience, check out the article that appeared in our Free Press newspaper: Making the Most of Your Manuscript Mart Session. This document is in PDF format.
Frequently Asked Question #1: Do I choose an agent or an editor for my Manuscript Mart session?
There are arguments on both sides. These days, agents edit their clients’ manuscripts quite extensively, and therefore have a lot of experience with big-picture structural issues as well as more “local” issues, such as word-choice and voice. Therefore, an agent is familiar with the industry as well as the craft, and can guide you responsibly in both areas. Also, an agent is a “gateway” to an editor.
While the role of the editor has lately become more about the marketing and positioning of books, editors do still edit, and it is likely to be their greatest strength. An editor’s eye is trained to notice red flags, redundancies, “easy” writing and will have unique knowledge about the “state of the market” for your work. Also: if you get an editor excited about your book, an agent may be more likely to give it a more serious look.
What is most important is that you choose an editor or agent who, based on your research, is most likely to "get" your work and appreciate your sensibility and/or your argument and/or the urgency of the tale you want to tell.
Frequently Asked Question #2: How do I know if the agent or editor represents the type of book I’m writing?
The agent’s or editor’s bio will give you a strong indication what kinds of books they are looking for and which they have represented recently. You will also want to do some online research and try to read as many of the books by their clients as you can.
We strongly suggest you download the four handy .pdfs below, which we have created exclusively for the editors and agents represented at this year’s conference. Each genre is coded with a letter (S, C or N) to indicate whether or not the agent or editor listed across the top either specializes in that genre (S), will consider that genre (C), or does not represent that genre (N).
- For the Fiction writer looking for an agent: Fiction Agents (PDF)
- For the Fiction writer looking for an editor: Fiction Editors (PDF)
- For the Non-Fiction writer looking for an agent: Non-Fiction Agents (PDF)
- For the Non-Fiction writer looking for an editor: Non-Fiction Editors (PDF)
Frequently Asked Question #3: What are the benefits of a Manuscript Mart with a journal editor?
If you've ever sent your story or non-fiction article to a journal and received either a standard rejection or a handwritten note saying "thanks, but no thanks, and, by the way, send us more stuff" you've known the sting of rejection and the hunger for more information. You've probably wondered why your story was really turned down, and what you could have done to make it better. Or you've wondered if another journal might be a better fit. The journal editors we've invited (Jeanne Leiby from The Southern Review, Ladette Randolph from Ploughshares , Nathaniel Rich from The Paris Review and Christina Thompson from Harvard Review ) have trained eyes and are eager to help you make your story or article as good as it can be. They will also consider it for their publications, which are nationally-recognized and prestigious. As we all know, it's very important for new writers to build publications in such journals, and many agents and editors read those journals looking for new clients.
Please read the bios of the journal editors carefully before making your decision. It's also a good idea to check out a few copies of Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Paris Review and/or The Harvard Review . All of these journals are available for review in the Grub Street office.