Learn more about our faculty for the upcoming Pitch and Play Industry Engagement Day!
Executive Editor Melissa Manlove of Chronicle Books: Melissa Manlove is an Executive Editor at Chronicle Books in San Francisco. She has been with Chronicle for 20 years. Her acquisitions encompass picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, graphic novels, and novels in verse. When acquiring, she looks for fresh takes on familiar topics as well as the new and unusual. An effective approach and strong, graceful writing are important to her. She has 23 years of children’s bookselling experience.
Editor Talia Benamy of Philomel: Talia Benamy, editor at Philomel, has been with the Penguin Young Readers imprint since 2013. She is the editor of books including the She Persisted chapter book series, based on the bestselling picture books by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger; National Book Award longlister and Morris Award winner The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum; Cramm This Book: So You Know WTF Is Going On in the World Today by Olivia Seltzer, founder of The Cramm; You Can Be ABCs, based on the viral video sensation by Robert Samuel White II and Robert Samuel White III, and illustrated Robert Paul Jr.; and the Airi Sano, Prankmaster General series by Zoe Tokushige and Jennifer Naalchigar. Talia sees books as having the amazing power to shape the way kids see the world around them, their role in it, and their ability to impact it, and as part of Philomel’s mission to publish books with inspiring, empowering messages for young readers, and she looks for manuscripts that have the potential to do just that. Talia lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Agent Sara Crowe of Sara Crowe Literary: Sara always had a book in her hand, and is still amazed that she gets to help make them. She has 25 years of experience in the publishing world, with 8 in foreign rights, and 20 representing clients. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the Radcliffe Publishing course, she started her career at The Wylie Agency, where she went on to sell foreign rights in Wylie’s London office. She was a foreign rights manager at Trident Media Group, and an agent and foreign rights manager at Harvey Klinger, before becoming a senior agent at Pippin Properties. She represents a diverse group of children’s and adult fiction and nonfiction; everything from picture books to graphic novels to literary fiction and adult romcoms. Her clients include Newbery and Printz medalists and honorees, National Book Award Finalists, Lambda award winners and finalists, and NYT Bestsellers.
Agent Emily Forney of Bookends Literary: Emily Forney is a literary agent for BookEnds Literary, a digital media and rhetoric teacher, cultural critic, and a writer for what feels like an eternity. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona at the mercy of two cats and a dream of owning a goat farm one day. After earning her MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Arizona University, Emily worked in editorial roles for literary magazines, journals, and digital prints before finding her home at BookEnds. She was named a 2022 Publisher’s Weekly Star Watch honoree and was previously a Publishing Fellow with the LA Review of Books. She currently directs the BookEnds Publishing Fellowship, which mentors aspiring publishing professionals from marginalized communities and provides them with hands on education, resources, and workshops for roles throughout the industry. As a writer and former editor, she actively writes about identity, Blackness, and pop culture. When she isn’t reading submissions, working with her authors, or procrastinating her own writing, she’s usually binge watching an unhealthy amount of television and stress baking when deadlines are near.
Agent Jim McCarthy of DG&B: Jim McCarthy interned for Dystel, Goderich & Bourret while studying urban design at New York University. Upon graduating, Jim realized he would much rather continue working with books than make the jump (as he had originally intended) to the field of city planning. Twenty-odd years later, he remains at DG&B as a VP and senior agent. As an avid fiction reader, his interests encompass both literary and commercial works in the adult, young adult, and middle grade categories. He 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. In addition to fiction he is also interested in narrative nonfiction whether it be memoir, history, or pop culture.
Agent Adrianna Domínguez of Aevitas Creative: Adriana Dominguez represents award-winning illustrators including John Parra, a New York Times Best Illustrator and recipient of three Pura Belpré Honors, Kirkus Prize finalist Jaqueline Alcántara, and Orbis Pictus Honor recipient Juliet Menéndez. Her author list includes NAACP Image Award winner Katheryn Russell Brown, Pura Belpré Honor recipient Angela Cervantes and Emmy Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. Adriana has wide-ranging experience in publishing; she began her editorial career at Scholastic in the 1990s, served as Children’s Reviews Editor at Críticas Magazine (Library Journal), and as Executive Editor at HarperCollins, where she led the children’s division of the Latinx-focused Rayo imprint. She has a long trajectory of supporting authors and illustrators from underrepresented backgrounds and always welcomes submissions that offer a diverse point of view. Adriana is interested in illustrators with fresh, unmistakable styles, platform-driven narrative nonfiction from children to adult, and select children’s fiction from picture books to middle grade. She is based in New York.
Agent Jennifer Chen-Tran of Folio Literary: Jennifer Chen Tran is a literary agent at Folio Literary Management. With over a decade of experience in publishing, Jennifer is passionate about nurturing and championing authors and their creative lives. She represents a wide range of talent, including journalists, physicians, entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, chefs, and graphic novelists, among others.
Prior to joining Folio, Jennifer was a literary agent at several west-coast literary agencies and served as Of Counsel at The New Press. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Northeastern School of Law in Boston, MA, and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She is an attorney in good standing in New York and California.
Jennifer is an editorial agent who believes in the art of collaboration and works closely with her authors from concept to publication, and beyond. As a person of color and daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Jennifer is committed to amplifying voices from underrepresented and marginalized communities. Her ultimate goal is to work in concert with authors to shape books that will have a lasting positive social impact on the world – books that illuminate, entertain, and inspire.
Agent Ellen Goff of HG Literary: Ellen graduated from The University of Chicago with a BA in English, a minor in Cinema and Media Studies, and a focus in Creative Writing. Ellen has worked everywhere from The White House under the Obama administration to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At HG Literary, she assists partner and agent Carrie Hannigan on all children’s titles from picture books to middle grade to young adult. Ellen’s own list consists of YA writers and illustrators, as well as middle grade and picture book writers. She is also a member of HG Literary’s foreign rights team. For picture books, Ellen is looking for author-illustrators, and projects that highlight the sparse and simple. She is interested in all genres and formats of YA, especially anything spooky, historical fiction, martial arts, graphic novels, and novels-in-verse. Ellen might be convinced on a nonfiction project if it involves food. She has a soft spot for Shakespeare as well as southern stories that remind her of her home state of Kentucky. Ellen runs a YA writing group and workshop in NYC.
Agent Lori Steel of Red Fox Literary: Lori Steel is a literary agent at Red Fox Literary where she represents illustrators and authors who craft stories for children and YA audiences. Prior to agenting, Lori was an educator and school librarian where she had the special honor of finding just-right books for young readers. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Art’s Writing for Children and Young Adult Program, and is a member of ALA, AALA, and SCBWI. Lori lives with her family in Washington DC.
Agent Marissa Brown of Pippin Properties: Marissa Brown has always been a reader. She is never without a book (or three, just in case). But it wasn’t until high school that she realized she could have a career in books. She studied English Literature at DePauw University in Indiana prior to attending the NYU Summer Publishing Institute. There she was introduced to the world of literary agencies and immediately knew she wanted to become an agent, which led her to Pippin.
Agent Amy Thrall Flynn joined Rubin Pfeffer Content in 2019. A former Editor with Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, she believes in the power of books to connect, inspire, and affirm the lives of young people. In addition to her experience acquiring and shepherding dozens of books to publication while an editor, Amy holds a BA in American Literature from Middlebury College in Vermont; an MA in English from Simmons University, Boston; and an MA in Children’s Literature from Simmons University. Amy has two grown children, and lives with her husband and a pair of lovable scruffy dogs on a farm in Connecticut.
Agent Ammi-Joan Paquette: Ammi-Joan Paquette is the author of eighteen books for young readers, including the PW starred picture book All from a Walnut, and the middle-grade novel The Train of Lost Things, which was a 2019 Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award nominee, a 2020 Rhode Island Children’s Book Award nominee, and is currently being adapted into a major motion picture. Her writing has received recognition from Junior Library Guild, reviewed in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and has been translated into five languages. In her non-writing life, Joan is a Senior Literary Agent with Erin Murphy Literary Agency, where she represents a list of New York Times Bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators.