Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novel Appleseed (a New York Times Notable Book) and the craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, and revision. He is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Tin House, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, Orion, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Amy Bishop-Wycisk joined Trellis Literary Management in 2023 after eight years with Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. She represents a wide-ranging list in fiction, nonfiction, and YA. Across the board, she has a special interest in underrepresented voices, especially from the AAPI community. In fiction, she’s seeking upmarket and book club fiction (to her, this means a high concept, commercial hook with more upmarket or literary writing), stories with an element of mystery or suspense, and is always looking for a propulsive plot married with beautiful writing. She’s eagerly looking for historical fiction, literary horror, and grounded SFF (she is not the best fit for epic sci-fi or fantasy) written by women of color, coming-of-age-stories, and retellings from around the world. In nonfiction, her tastes trend toward expert-driven narrative nonfiction, cultural criticism, history, and pop culture; regardless of genre, books that are engaging with a contemporary conversation are always of interest. In YA, she’d love books with murder and intrigue, featuring unexpected places and unexpected heroines; more immigrant stories; queer stories; girls quietly (or loudly) working for justice, and of course, a light-hearted contemporary romp to balance out all the murder. Her incredible clients have been NYT, USA Today, and Indie Bestsellers, Indie Next picks, a Reese’s Book Club pick, and winners of the James Beard Award and Edgar Awards.

Susan Breen is the award-winning author of The Fiction Class and the Maggie Dove mystery series. She is the 2024 winner of the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition. Her new novel, Merry, is forthcoming from Alcove Press in Fall 2025. She teaches novel writing at Gotham Writers Workshop.

Linda Camacho is a senior agent at Gallt & Zacker Literary, where she has the pleasure of representing an incredible roster of writers and illustrators. Over her two decades in publishing, she's held various positions at Simon & Schuster, Writers House, and Penguin Random House. Linda received her MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has a short story published in the YA anthology Every Body Shines by Cassandra Newbould.

Christopher Combemale is an associate agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. He is looking for literary fiction and bold upmarket fiction with an unexpected hook. He represents the 2023 Carnegie Medal winner Manon Steffan Ros, Polish radical Agnieszka Szpila, scholar Thomas Dai, among others. As a Singaporean/French/American born and raised in London, he is interested in international, cross-cultural perspectives and work in translation. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar.

Naomi Eisenbeiss graduated with a dual degree in Political Science from Sciences Po in Nancy, France and Freie University in Berlin, Germany. Prior to InkWell, she spent three years as Manager of the Shanghai International Literary Festival in China. She speaks English, Japanese, German and conversational French and Mandarin.

Her interests range pretty broadly, but she is always looking for strong voices that play with perspective and sense of place. She’s particularly interested in writers who are strong on the line level, but have a big, commercial hook. On the literary end, she’s interested in writers who tell darkly funny stories or question society’s norms or expectations. And she’s always on the lookout for books that take place internationally or immerse the reader in a different world/environment.

Kate Fagan is a novelist, Emmy-award winning journalist, and the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of What Made Maddy Run. Her debut novel, The Three Lives of Cate Kay, was the January 2025 pick for Reese Witherspoon's book club. Kate previously spent seven years as a columnist and feature writer for espnW, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. She was also a regular panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn and host of Outside the Lines. Kate covered the Philadelphia 76ers for three seasons and played college basketball at the University of Colorado. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her wife, Kathryn Budig, and their dog, Ragnar.

Melissa represents award-winning and best-selling fiction and nonfiction. In fiction, she gravitates towards page-turners with intellectual and emotional heft. In nonfiction, she is particularly interested in conversation-changing books including journalism, science, technology, business/finance/economics, memoir/narrative, essays and cultural criticism.  Melissa’s authors have won numerous awards including the Pulitzer, the National Book Critic Circle Award, the Whiting Award, the Windham Campbell Prize, the Rona Jaffe Award, the Hugo Award, n + 1 writer’s fellowship and The Nation’s Ridenhour Prize among others.

Amina Iro is an editor at Legacy Lit, Hachette Book Group where she edits and publishes fiction and non-fiction books. Her titles include A More Perfect Party by Juanita Tolliver, Blues in Stereo by Langston Hughes, curated by Danes Smith, Al Roker’s Recipes to Live By by Al Roker and Courtney Roker Laga, No Justice No Peace by award-winning photographer Devin Allen, and Sing a Black Girl’s Song by Ntozake Shange, edited by Imani Perry. She has held fellowships at the Watering Hole and the Hurston/Wright foundation. Amina is also a writer and performance poet from Prince George’s County, Maryland. 

R. Dean Johnson is the author of the novel Californium (Plume Books) and the short story collection Delicate Men (Alternative Book Press). His short stories and essays have appeared in Ascent, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Louisville Review, New Orleans Review, Natural Bridge, Ruminate, Santa Clara Review, Slice, and Southern Review, and in the anthologies Agave (Ink Brush Press) and A Tribute to Orpheus (Kearney Street Books). He served as fiction editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review and editor of the anthology Teachable Moments: Essays on Experiential Education (University Press of America). He has taught at Arizona State University, Prescott College, Cameron University, and Eastern Kentucky University. He holds a BS from California State Polytechnic, an MA in English from Kansas State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.

K Hank Jost is the editor of A Common Well Journal. He is also the author of the novel MadStone and the novel-in-stories Deselections (both Whiskey Tit Books). His short stories and poems have appeared in Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, the Burning Palace, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, and BULL, among others, and he is a regular contributor to the New Haven Independent. He has taught for the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research.

Natalie Kimber has worked with The Rights Factory since 2014. She appreciates authors who incorporate a strong vision into their writing, writers who fully understand the WHY of their book, and she encourages strong author connection with the writing community and broader readership. In fiction she is looking for: literary, commercial, and upmarket, LGBTQ+, international diversity, speculative, action/adventure, animal stories, modern mythology, nostalgic, transnational, historical, and collections with a strong theme. 

Sasha Landauer is a junior agent at Writers House, building her list of literary and upmarket fiction. She is particularly drawn to stories with intimate narrative voices and those that capture fraught relationships, building empathy in unexpected ways. Sasha began her career working alongside Susan Golomb, providing support to her clients who include Jonathan Franzen, Rachel Kushner, Vauhini Vara, Nell Zink, and Yvon Chouinard. Sasha is also a founding editor of Notch Magazine. She studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy at Stanford University and now lives in New York.

Alexandra Levick (she/her) is currently a senior literary agent at Writers House, LLC. developing her picture book, middle grade, young adult, and adult lists. Previously, she worked with the agency at large as the Media Rights Manager for film and tv, helping to match clients to coagents, negotiating film deals, and taking meetings with producers, studios, and co-agencies. Prior to that, she worked with Writers House Senior Vice President, Merrilee Heifetz, Senior Agent Rebecca Sherman, covered for Senior Agent Stephen Barr's paternity leave, and covered for Senior Agent Brianne Johnson’s family leave. She has worked as a bookseller in both the adult and children’s markets, as well as on the house side of the publishing business in publicity. She holds a Masters of Science in Publishing: Digital and Print Media, with a specialization in Media Content Development from New York University and a Bachelor of the Arts in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Rochester.

Chad Luibl is an agent at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. He comes from the workshop model of creative writing and has a hands-on editorial approach to agenting. For fiction, he is particularly drawn to novels that are more character or plot-driven, thrillers that are as inventive as they are suspenseful, speculative and historical fiction that offer a nuanced perspective on place, and graphic novels that push the boundaries of the genre.

Jim McCarthy is an agent and vice president at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, where he’s been for over 20 years. He represents adult, young adult, and middle grade fiction, both literary and commercial, and is particularly interested in literary fiction, underrepresented voices, fantasy, mysteries, romance, anything unusual or unexpected, and any book that makes him cry or laugh out loud.

Cleyvis Natera is the author of Neruda on the Park. She was born in the Dominican Republic, migrated to the United States at ten years old, and grew up in New York City. She holds a BA from Skidmore College and a M.F.A. from New York University. Her writing has won awards and fellowships from the International Latino Book Awards, PEN America, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, The Kenyon Review’s Writers Workshops, the Vermont Studio Center, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Rowland Writers Retreat, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is currently a Fulbright Specialist. She lives with her husband and two young children in Montclair, New Jersey. The Grand Paloma Resort is her second novel.

Sharon Pelletier joined Dystel, Goderich & Bourret in 2013 after working for Europa Editions and Barnes & Noble. While her interests are broad, Sharon is especially seeking upmarket fiction, including unexpected suspense fiction and smart, complex women’s fiction. On the nonfiction side Sharon is eager for compelling, fierce narrative nonfiction by journalists, experts, and emerging voices with a growing platform. In all categories she particularly welcomes marginalized voices.

Mason Rowlee is a literary agent at DeFiore & Company. He previously worked as an assistant literary scout at Jenny La Plante, Inc., where he developed an eye for the type of books that appeal to international publishers and film production companies. Mason is from upstate New York and a graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

Dani Segelbaum is an agent at Arc Literary. She previously worked as an agent at the Carol Mann Agency and a literary assistant at New Leaf Literary & Media, and as an editorial assistant at HarperCollins Publishers. Dani has worked on bestselling and award-winning books by authors including Justin Timberlake, Iris Apfel, Ann Patchett, and Jacqueline Winspear. She lives in Washington D.C. 

J. L. Stermer is the owner and CEO of Next Level Lit. She's previously worked as a literary agent representing both fiction and nonfiction at New Leaf Literary & Media, UTA, and the Donald Maass Literary Agency. She holds a BA from Columbia University. 

Katherine Taylor is the author of the novels Valley Fever and Rules For Saying Goodbye (both Farrar, Straus, and Giroux). Her essays and short stories have appeared in Elle, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Ploughshares, ZYZZYVA, Southwest Review, Town and Country, Prairie Schooner, and Shenandoah. She holds a BA from USC and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.

Michelle Tessler has worked in the publishing industry for over twenty years. Before forming her boutique agency in 2004, Michelle worked at the William Morris Agency and the prestigious literary agency Carlisle & Company (now Inkwell Management). She also spent seven years working in content and business development in the Internet industry, beginning in 1994 when she was hired by best-selling author James Gleick to help launch The Pipeline. In light of the digital opportunities that are transforming publishing, Michelle’s experience in the Internet world is of great benefit to her authors, both as they navigate ebook opportunities, and as they look for creative and effective ways to market their books to niche communities that can be targeted online. She represents a select number of best-selling and emerging authors in both fiction and non-fiction. Clients include accomplished journalists, scientists, academics, experts in their field, as well as novelists and debut authors with unique voices and stories to tell. She values fresh, original writing that has a compelling point of view. She represents, among many others, Paul Collins, Frans de Waal, Mira Jacob, Amy Stewart and Amanda Eyre Ward.

Arlaina Tibensky is the author of the novel And Then Things Fall Apart (Simon & Schuster). Her short stories and nonfiction have appeared in One Story, SmokeLong Quarterly, McSweeney's, Madison Review, The Dinner Party Download, New Stories from the Midwest 2018 (New American Press), the New York Times, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University.