Reagan Arthur

Reagan Arthur is Executive Vice President, Publisher of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House, which she joined in February of 2020, after nearly 20 years at Little, Brown. Writers she’s worked with include Kate Atkinson, Ian McEwan, Tina Fey, Ian Rankin, Attica Locke, Megan Abbott, Joshua Ferris, Nathan Hill, and Bono. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Community of Writers.

Photo credit: Brett Hall Jones

Elise Capron

Elise Capron is an agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, which was founded over 40 years ago, and which is known for representing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction authors, including literary icons such as Amy Tan. Elise has been with SDLA for 16 years, and focuses primarily on adult literary fiction, as well as non-fiction such as cultural histories, science, medicine, and environment-focused projects by journalists and historians. She is keen to work with writers who are telling stories she has not heard before, and who have developed a strong narrative voice in their work.

Michael V. Carlisle

Michael Carlisle, a founder of InkWell Management, has been involved with the Community of Writers for many years. His fiction and nonfiction client list includes prize-winning as well as debut authors. A former director of the Association of Author’s Representatives, a not-for-profit organization of independent literary and dramatic agents, Michael is an active member of PEN. He directs the Nonfiction Program of the Community of Writers and serves on the Board of Directors.  http://inkwellmanagement.com/staff/michael-v.-carlisle

Ann Close

Ann Close has been a senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf Publishers for almost fifty years, where she publishes fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. Writers she has worked with include Alice Munro, Norman Rush, Mona Simpson, Jayne Anne Phillips, Philip Levine, Brad Leithauser, Gish Jen, Lawrence Wright, and Tony Hiss.

Laura Cogan

“Laura Cogan is the Editor and Executive Director of ZYZZYVA. In 2011, she moved from her role as ZYZZYVA’s Managing Editor to take on stewardship of the journal. Since then, she has spearheaded a significant redesign of the print journal and two website redesigns; championed the continued excellence of its content; and expanded the journal’s live programming. She has been an invited panelist at a number of conferences, including The Community of Writers, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Litquake, and LA Times Festival of Books. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. from New York University. In 2022, ZYZZYVA was awarded a Whiting Literary Magazine Prize.”

Photo Credit: Alix Klingenberg

Joy Harris

Joy Harris established her own literary agency in 1990. She works primarily with literary fiction, strongly-written commercial fiction, narrative nonfiction across a broad range of topics, memoir and biography, and is drawn to a clear, original voice, an engaging point of view, and strong characters. She takes great pleasure in finding new literary voices, and over the course of her career has had the joy of representing many bestselling and acclaimed authors from the time of their first published work. www.joyharrisliterary.com.

Joy Johannessen

Joy Johannessen has been an editor at Chelsea House, Grove Press, and Oxford University Press; a senior editor at HarperCollins Publishers; and the executive editor of Delphinium Books. She has worked with hundreds of writers, among them Rabih Alameddine, Dorothy Allison, Amy Bloom, Harold Bloom, Michael Cunningham, Larry Kramer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur Miller, Ralph Nader, and Héctor Tobar. She is the co-editor, with Roxanne Coady, of The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them. She currently freelances.

Photo Credit: Brett Hall Jones

Calvert D. Morgan

Cal Morgan is an executive editor at Riverhead Books. His authors include Akwaeke Emezi, Eula Biss, Lidia Yuknavitch, Kristen Arnett, Esmé Weijun Wang, and Edward Carey. Previously with HarperCollins and St. Martin’s Press, he also serves on the board of the Center for Fiction, the only organization in the country devoted exclusively to the promotion of fiction.

Photo credit: Cassie Jones Morgan

BJ Robbins

BJ Robbins established her Los Angeles-based agency in 1992 after a multifaceted career in book publishing, from publicity at Simon & Schuster to Marketing Director and later Senior Editor at Harcourt. She represents commercial and literary fiction, as well as a wide array of nonfiction, including memoir, history, pop culture, and science. Her client list includes award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, Renee Swindle, Nafisa Haji, Max Byrd, J. Maarten Troost, James Donovan, John Hough, Via Bleidner,, Mary Volmer, Mel Watkins, Adam Nimoy, and the late James D. Houston.

Peter Steinberg

Peter Steinberg was an agent at Fletcher & Company until its 2023 purchase by the the Hollywood talent agency United Talent Agency (UTA). Now he is an agent at UTA. He has represented numerous New York Times bestsellers (including three #1 New York Times bestsellers) and clients have been nominated for or awarded Edgars, The Pulitzer Prize, The Story Prize, The Paris Review Discovery Prize, PEN/Faulkner and National Book Awards. Most recently, The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont was selected for Reese’s Book Club, and The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award. His list includes narrative non-fiction, commercial and literary fiction, memoir, self-help, history, pop culture, humor, and sports. Several of his authors have had their books made into major motion pictures, including Towelhead and I Love You Phillip Morris. Steinberg is a graduate of NYU film school and worked briefly in the film business prior to becoming a literary agent.

Andrew Tonkovich

Andrew Tonkovich is the editor of the Santa Monica Review, and founding editor of Citric Acid. He is the author of two story collections, and co-author with Lisa Alvarez of Orange County: A Literary Field Guide. He has written reviews and commentary in the Los Angeles Times, LA Review of Books, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Ecotone, Juked and OC Weekly. He is also the host of KPFK’s Bibliocracy Radio. [F]

Photo Credit: Brett Hall Jones

Oscar Villalon

Oscar Villalon is the editor of ZYZZYVA, a recipient of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. His work has been published in several publications, including The Believer, Stranger’s Guide, Alta, and Lit Hub, where he is a contributing editor. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their son.

Photo credit: Brett Hall Jones