• NYC Workshop Leaders
• Publishing House Editors
• Marketing/Publicity Pros

Ginjer Buchanan is the Editor-in-Chief, Ace/Roc Books, Ace and Roc being the science fiction and fantasy imprints of Berkley and NAL. She also acquires mysteries, historical fiction, pop culture non-fiction, and an occasional paranormal romance.

Kerri Buckley

Kerri Buckley is an associate editor at Bantam Dell, where she began her career working under Tracy Devine on books by perennial New York Times bestselling authors Danielle Steel, Dean Koontz, and Luanne Rice. She now acquires commercial fiction with an offbeat literary edge as well as chick-lit and general women's fiction. Forthcoming titles include Shawn Klomparens' JESSICA Z., Rodes Fishburne's GOING TO SEE THE ELEPHANT, Heather and Rose MacDowell's TURNING TABLES and Sandra Kring's THANK YOU FOR ALL THINGS, as well as the third installment in Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl series, RITES OF SPRING (BREAK).

Jackie Cantor

Jackie is an Executive Editor at Berkley Books, a division of the Penguin Group. Prior to joining Berkley in August 2005, she was a Vice President and Executive Editor at Bantam Dell. She acquires and edits a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles in all formats. Her list of authors includes New York Times bestsellers Diana Gabaldon, John Lescroart, Eloisa James, and Hope Edelman, as well as Helen Fremont, author of the acclaimed memoir AFTER LONG SILENCE. Recent acquisitions include THE ROAD FROM CHAPEL HILL by Joanna Catherine Scott, author of the Booksense Top Ten Pick THE LUCKY GOURD SHOP; PRACTICALLY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY by Brain, Child magazine co-founder Jennifer Niesslein; and WHAT FRENCH WOMEN KNOW ABOUT LOVE AND SEX by journalist Debra Ollivier.

Tom Colgan

An Executive Editor at Penguin, Tom has worked in publishing for over twenty years in publishing. His specialties are general fiction, category fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and military fiction. Authors he has worked with include Tom Clancy, Ed McBain, Clive Cussler, W.E.B. Griffin, and Jack Higgins.

Noah Eaker

Noah is an assistant editor at The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House. He acquires and edits literary fiction and narrative non-fiction. Titles he has worked on include SEND ME by Patrick Ryan, VOODOO HEART by Scott Snyder, and THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS YES by Monica Ferrell, and, forthcoming, THE SLIDE by Kyle Beachy.

Alexis Gargagliano

Alexis joined Scribner in 2002 as the assistant to Nan Graham and had the opportunity to work on such incredible books as BRICK LANE by Monica Ali, LIVING HISTORY by Hillary Clinton, and THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls. Alexis has her own list now which currently includes: Naama Goldstein, Charles Johnson, Julia Markus, Sarah Micklem, Lilian Nattel, and Catherine Tudish. Her interests include literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. She is especially interested in projects about different cultures. Recent acquisitions include EVERYMAN'S RULES FOR SCIENTIFIC LIVING by Carrie Tiffany, GOLDEN COUNTRY by Jennifer Gilmore, THE LIST by Tara Ison, and UNTOUCHABLES by Narendra Jadhav.

Sandy Harding

Sandy Harding joined Berkley Books, a division of the Penguin Group, to assist Tom Colgan and Ginjer Buchanan. With them she had the opportunity to work with many notable authors including Charlaine Harris, Julie Kenner, Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin. As an acquiring editor Sandy has her own list of mystery authors including Kate Kingsbury, Jim and Joyce Lavene, and Mary Ellen Hughes. Her other interests include commercial, general, and serious women's fiction, paranormal, thrillers and narrative non-fiction.

Michael Homler

Michael Homler is an Editor at St. Martin's Press. He acquires in a wide range of areas which include general and literary fiction, mystery/thrillers, graphic novels, narrative nonfiction and biography. He has worked on such books as the NBCC winning biography JAMES TIPTREE JR. by Julie Phillips, THE FAULT TREE by Louise Ure, Lee Child's anthology KILLER YEAR, the Edgar-nominated PYRES by Derek Nikitas, and Don Mattingly's HITTING IS SIMPLE by Don Mattingly and Jim Rosenthal.

Erika Imranyi

Erika Imranyi is an Editor at Dutton, an imprint of the Penguin Group. She edits and acquires fiction and nonfiction for women, literary, and psychological suspense, mainstream fiction, memoir, pop culture, and humor. Her authors include bestselling novelist Eric Jerome Dickey, The Darwin Awards humor franchise, Sarah Strohmeyer, and the highly-acclaimed memoirist Rachel Simon.

Leis Pederson

Leis Pederson is currently an assistant editor at the Berkley Publishing Group. She acquires commercial fiction, including romance and women's fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and general fiction. Forthcoming titles include THE SHADOW WALKER by Michael Walters, LA VIDA VAMPIRE by Nancy Haddock, and THE DANGEROUS DUKE by Christine Wells.

Signe Pike

Signe is an Editor at Plume, a division of the Penguin Group, where she acquires and edits a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles in trade paperback. Prior to joining Plume in February 2008, she spent four years at The Random House Publishing Group where she published the New York Times bestseller A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY by Kurt Vonnegut in trade paperback, BookSense bestseller Marlena de Blasi, and ME AND MR. DARCY by Alexandra Potter. Recent acquisitions include the memoir SOME GIRLS and the novel PRETTY by Jillian Lauren, THE BUTTERFLIES OF GRAND CANYON by Margaret Erhart, BEHIND THE LABEL by Bonnie Taub-Dix, and e2 by Matt Beaumont, which will be the basis of a new television show coming to NBC in Summer 2009. She specializes in main-stream fiction, historical fiction, and up-market commercial women's fiction as well as memoir, food, travel, and pop-culture non-fiction books.

Hilary Rubin Teeman

Hilary is an associate editor at St. Martin's Press. She acquires commercial and literary fiction, historical fiction, thrillers, mainstream romantic suspense, and chick-lit as well as social and cultural histories, narrative non-fiction, popular sociology, playful self-help, and memoir. Recently published and forthcoming titles include: Lenore Hart's BECKY, a novel of the "true life" of Becky Thatcher; Tamar Yellin’s THE GENIZAH AT THE HOUSE OF SHEPHER, an award-winning novel of four generations of a Jerusalem family; Lea Jacobson's BAR FLOWER, a gripping memoir of the decadent, destructive life of a Tokyo nightclub hostess; and Lori Uscher-Pines’s BUYING THE COW IN THE AGE OF FREE MILK: HOW TO GET YOUR MAN TO PROPOSE; and star of VH1’s The Pickup Artist, Mystery’s THE MYSTERY METHOD: HOW TO GET BEAUTIFUL WOMEN INTO BED.

Zachary Wagman

Zachary Wagman is an associate editor at Vintage Books, where he edits and acquires crime fiction, thrillers, general and popular fiction, and pop culture non-fiction. He has worked on the paperback reprints of books by Scott Smith, David Peace, Michael Harvey, Lisa Unger, David Thomson, and Oliver Sacks. Hardcover titles he has edited include SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE by Austin Grossman, SEND by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, and YOUR INNER FISH by Neil Shubin.

Melissa Broder

Melissa Broder is a Senior Publicist at Penguin Group (USA) in the Berkley/ NAL/ Riverhead/ Perigee division. Most recently, she has worked with such bestselling authors as: Harumi Kurihara (HARUMI'S JAPANESE COOKING), Kate Jacobs (THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB) and Sloane Crosley (I WAS TOLD THERE'D BE CAKE). Melissa began her journey in literary publicity at Tor/Forge, an imprint of what was then Holtzbrinck publishers (now Macmillan). Melissa holds a BA in English from Tufts University and is currently getting her MFA in Poetry at The City College of New York, where she is the recipient of The 2008 Stark Poetry Prize in Honor of Raymond Patterson and The 2008 Jerome Lowell Dejur Award in Creative Writing.

Susan Schwartzman

Susan Schwartzman has been in the publishing field for more than 20 years. She began her career in book publicity in 1992 as a freelance in-house book publicist, working for major publishers, including Workman Publishing, William Morrow, Penguin-Putnam, Harcourt Brace, Villard, Wiley, Avon Books, Simon & Schuster, Warner Books, Red Dress Ink, New American Library, and Downtown Press. As an independent book publicist, Susan has promoted a wide variety of literary and commercial fiction and nonfiction titles. Her business, Susan Schwartzman Public Relations, has provided major media placements for her clients in major media throughout the country.

Susan Breen

Susan Breen is the author of the novel THE FICTION CLASS, recently published in 2008 by Plume, an imprint of Penguin Group. Her novel was also published by Headline Review (in the UK), Wheeler Publishing (large print) and is a selection of Reading Group Choices 2009. Susan has been a finalist for the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel and the James Jones First Novel Fellowship Competition. Her stories have been published by a number of literary magazines, among them North Dakota Quarterly, The Chattahoochee Review and American Literary Review. Susan teaches beginning and advanced fiction classes at Gotham Writers' Workshop; she is also a contributor to The Writer and Writer's Digest. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Susan is a graduate of the Spring 2006 NYC Pitch and Shop workshops.

Michael Neff

Michael Neff is a fiction editor, writer, teacher, and publisher. He is the creator and director of WebdelSol.Com, a literary and cinema arts community, and one of the largest publishers of periodical contemporary lit on the WWW He edits the Del Sol Press and publishes several highly acclaimed national literary magazines including 5_Trope, In Posse Review, La Petite Zine, Perihelion, and The Potomac. He also edits the "Paris Review of the Internet," Del Sol Review. His own work has appeared in such classic literary publications as The Literary Review, North American Review, Mudlark, Quarterly West, Pittsburgh Quarterly, Conjunctions, and American Way Magazine. His novel, YEAR OF THE RHINOCEROS, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in early 2009.

Charles Salzberg

A typical day for Charles involves reading, editing, and evaluating novel manuscripts of all genres for students and a wide variety of clients. He has also published books with or edited for the likes of Viking/Penguin, Dell, Simon and Schuster, Henry Holt, St. Martin's, M. Evans, and Hyperion, as well as agencies like Trident Media Group, Peter Rubie Agency, Graybill & English, and the Spieler Agency, among others. Charles has ghostwritten several books, fiction and nonfiction, and his own detective novel is awaiting publication. currently, he teaches at Sarah Lawrence, The New York Writers Workshop, and the Writer's Voice. He is a founding member of the New York Writers Workshop. An interview with him can be found here.

Tina Wexler

Tina Dubois Wexler is a literary agent at ICM, one of the top three literary agencies in the U.S. Her tastes are eclectic--most types of fiction, nonfiction, and even YA. Recent sales include the first two books in Susan Runholt's mystery series, THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD LUCRETIA and RESCUING SENECA CRANE (Viking), and further commercial fiction sales include Donna Gephart's AS IF BEING 12 ¾ ISN'T BAD ENOUGH (Delacorte), Robin Friedman's THE GIRLFRIEND PROJECT (Walker), Sanjay Patel's THE LITTLE BOOK OF HINDU DEITIES (Plume), and many more. Prior to joining ICM over four years ago she worked at the Ellen Levine Literary Agency, Trident Media, and the Karpfinger Agency. She earned an MFA before becoming an agent.

NOTE: NYC Pitch and Shop faculty are subject to change as circumstances dictate, however, new editors will be substituted who are just as qualified and diverse in taste.

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