Kelly Caldwell has written for Vox, Pacific Standard, Entropy, New York Newsday, House Beautiful, Time Out New York, The Writer, and Essay Daily, among many others. One of her essays was named a Notable Essay by the editors of the Best American Essays series and anthologized in If These Walls Could Talk: Thoughts of Home. She is also dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop.

Jennifer Chen Tran is a literary agent at Glass Literary Management. She previously worked as an agent at Folio Literary Management and Idea Architects and served as Of Counsel at The New Press. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Northeastern School of Law and a Bachelors in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She is an attorney in good standing in California and New York, a member of the Authors Guild, and a member of the Association of American Literary Agents.

Jon Darga is a literary agent at Aevitas. Prior to Aevitas, he worked as an editor at Crown, a division within Penguin Random House. Jon attended the Columbia University Publishing Course and holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.

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. 

Catherine Jones is a literary agent at Union Literary. She has worked as a reader for The Kenyon Review and Sweet Literary and continues to work as an international literary scout for Emison/Harper. She holds a degree from Kenyon college in Film and English with a concentration in creative writing. 

Rax King is the author of the essay collections Sloppy: Or Doing It All Wrong and Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer. Her essays, articles, and opinion have appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Glamour, Vulture, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Slate, and Harpers Bazaar, and she wrote the Store Bought is Fine column for Catapult magazine. She co-hosts the podcast Low Culture Boil, and taught for Catapult. She holds a BA from St. John's College.

Cassie Mannes Murray is the founder and director of Pine State Publicity and a former literary agent. She has been published in Slice Magazine, StoryQuarterly, Reckon Review, Joyland, The Rumpus, Passages North, Fugue, and others. She has received a notable in Best American Essays, as well as Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. Cassie holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

Michael Mungiello is an agent at Inkwell Management. His list centers on literary fiction, biography, history, science, and narrative non-fiction. He's from New Jersey. 

Mary Noorlander is an agent at Tanenbaum International Literary Agency. She is also an an Editor-at-Large at Asymptote Journal and a Proofreader/Translation Editor for Europa Editions. She has previously worked as an editorial assistant at the Center for Writers and Translators, editor-in-chief of the literary arts journal Paris/Atlantic, and reader at The White Review. Mary graduated from the American University of Paris and the Columbia Publishing Course. 

Melissa Petro is the author of the narrative nonfiction book Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification (Penguin Random House). She is also a regular contributor to Business Insider and has published nonfiction in Allure, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, the Guardian, InStyle, the Kitchn, Marie Claire, Narratively, New York Magazine, Pacific Standard magazine, Real Simple, Salon, the Washington Post, and The Writer. She is the editor of two anthologies: Pros(e): Writings by Individuals with Experiences in the Sex Industries and Corner Stories: Writings by the Washington Heights CORNER Project Community, and one of her essays was included in the anthology Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo (Simon & Schuster). She has been a finalist for the PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize. She holds a BA from Antioch and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The New School.

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. 

Emma Stephenson is Gotham’s Director of Communications & Events, the editor of Gotham’s literary magazine The Razor, and a co-creator of The Writer’s Mind course. She has published prose poems in Bullshit Lit’s 2nd Anthology, Masks Literary Magazine, and Passing Through. Her flash fiction was shortlisted for Fractured Lit's 2025 Elsewhere Prize. She has also served as education coordinator for Symphony Space’s Thalia Kids Book Club Camp. Emma holds a BA from Emerson College.

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. 

Donna Talarico is the editor of six anthologies, including the book Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. She's published in The Los Angeles Review, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times' Tiny Love Stories, and The Writing Disorder, from which her essay “A Prequel to My Sister’s” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022. Donna is also a content strategist for colleges and universities. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University and an MBA from Elizabethtown College. 

Atash Yaghmaian is the author of My Name Means Fire. Atash has been published in LitHub, Ms. magazine, The New York Daily News, The Mighty, and Thrive Global among others. Born in Tehran, Atash is now a psychotherapist.