2025 Speakers

2026 details are to be announced

Nneoma Amadi-Obi is an Associate Editor at W.W. Norton where she publishes literary fiction and nonfiction. Before joining Norton, she was a bookseller at Politics and Prose, Duende District, and WORD Bookstores.

Helen Atsma is VP, Publisher of Ecco, which she joined in 2019. She oversees the Ecco team and list, and for her own list acquires literary and book club fiction, along with memoir and some narrative nonfiction. Previously, she was Editorial Director at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and she also published a number of bestselling and prizewinning authors in roles at Grand Central Publishing and Henry Holt. She began her publishing career in 2002 at Little, Brown.

Sofia Alvarez is a playwright, screenwriter and director. Her directorial debut film, Along for the Ride, was released on Netflix in May 2022. She is best known for writing the screenplays for To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and To All the Boys 2: P.S. I Still Love You. In 2018 she was named one of Variety Magazine’s ten screenwriters to watch. She is a graduate of Bennington College and The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. She has taught screenwriting at NYU Tisch and served as a panelist for the Austin Film Festival and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sarah Barley is Editorial Director of Sarah Barley Books, a new imprint of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers dedicated to vibrant, innovative, literary and commercial books for readers eight and up launching in spring 2026. Sarah was most recently at Flatiron Books, where she published over a dozen New York Times bestsellers and her books received recognition from the Printz, Morris, Stonewall, and Walter Award committees, among others.

Cara Bedick is an Executive Editor at Little, Brown Spark where she focuses on health and wellness, self-help and personal growth, lifestyle, science, spirituality, and more. She is always on the lookout for original voices and emerging trends. Some of her recent titles include Justin Gregg’s Humanish and Emily Austen’s Smarter. Other bestsellers and lead category titles include the #1 New York Times bestselling series Stay Curious and Keep Exploring by Emily Calandrelli, Fit Men Cook by Kevin Curry, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking, and Roxie Nafousi’s international bestseller, Manifest. She previously held senior editorial roles at Chronicle Prism, Touchstone, and William Morrow.

Georgia Bodnar is the founder and principal agent of Noyan Literary, a New York–based agency representing authors of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—from debut and prizewinning novelists to acclaimed journalists, historians, scientists, memoirists, entrepreneurs, and faith leaders. She began her publishing career after five years in the nonprofit sector and spent nearly a decade at major houses—first in managing editorial at Macmillan, then eight years as a senior editor at Penguin Random House. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, she holds a BA in English from the University of Minnesota and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children.

Brandi Bowles began representing authors in 2007, transitioning from Penguin Random House to represent fiction and nonfiction across a wide range of genres. She has had the pleasure of working with culinary icons ranging from Phil Rosenthal to Nick DiGiovanni, influencers such as Emma Chamberlain and Delaney Rowe, actors like Yvonne Orji and Jennifer Coolidge, and writers and journalists like Baynard Woods, Jeannine Amber, and Kelly Williams Brown. She also represents around two dozen novelists. Brandi is a graduate of the University of Louisville, summa cum laude, and lives with her husband and two children just outside of New York City.

Jacob Bronstein is a publishing and media strategist with deep experience at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and audience growth. He spent over a decade at Random House, producing acclaimed audiobooks with Judy Blume, Michael Chabon, Martha Stewart, and Grammy-winning recordings with Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. He also led early digital marketing campaigns for major bestsellers, and in partnership with Lucasfilm, conceived the first Star Wars podcast. In 2011, Jacob joined Apple, where he launched and led marketing for Apple Books. Most recently, at ByteDance, Jacob led 8th Note Press and MyTopia. He is now EVP, Head of Content at QCODE Media, the premium content studio and podcast network, leading development across podcasts, TV, film, and books.

Regina Brooks is the CEO of Serendipity Literary Agency, the largest African American–owned agency in the U.S., and President of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA). She co-produces the People of Publishing Conference, helped found Literary Agents of Change, and serves on the boards of AWP and the National Book Foundation. Highlighted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, Brooks represents  NYT bestsellers and clients  who have earned Newbery, Caldecott, Edgar, and National Book Award honors. A Publishers Weekly “Top 5 Publishing Professional of the Year,” she also holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from The Ohio State University.

Michelle Brower began her career in publishing in 2004 and co-founded Trellis Literary Management in 2021. Her list spans a range of literary and commercial fiction, as well as some story-driven narrative non-fiction. Her clients include many award-winning and bestselling authors, such as Jason Mott, Riley Sager, Rufi Thorpe, and Vanessa Chan as well as many others. She has an MA in English Literature from NYU and lives in Seattle with her family.

Danielle Burby has been agenting for over a decade and is the founder of Mad Woman Literary Agency and a co-chair of the AALA membership committee. She represents a diverse list of critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling authors with stellar voices, incredible storytelling skills, and fresh narratives to share.

Tess Callero is a highly editorial agent who specializes in building platform-driven proposals from the ground up with clients across the nonfiction space, from self-development and memoir, to spirituality, health/wellness, and more. Tess also represents mystery, thriller, suspense and romance authors in the adult space. She is on the Board of the AALA and is the Chair of the Media and Digital Innovations Committee. She currently lives in Chicago.

Leila Campoli has 15 years of experience. After championing authors from the publishing side of the business, she took the plunge into agenting in 2015. Spurred by a desire to say “yes” and a love of early-stage idea development, she started building a list of authors poised to change the world with shared vulnerability and groundbreaking ideas. Leila joined Calligraph in 2025. Calligraph’s clients have won prizes like the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Nobel Prize for Economics, and the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Leila works with writers of science, business, economics, lifestyle, current events, pop culture, and literary and upmarket fiction.

Sarah Cantin is VP, Editorial Director at St. Martin’s Publishing Group, where she oversees the hardcover fiction program and edits a list of upmarket commercial fiction, narrative nonfiction, and pop poetry. Her bestselling and critically-acclaimed authors include Emilia Hart (Weyward), Rachel Hawkins (The Wife Upstairs), Carola Lovering (Tell Me Lies), Jessica George (Maame), Laurie Albanese (Hester), Mikki Brammer (The Collected Regrets of Clover), Loretta Rothschild (Finding Grace), and Andrea Dunlop (The Mother Next Door). Prior to joining SMPG, Sarah spent nine years at Atria Books. She is a native of the Boston area, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and lives in Manhattan with her husband and son.

Brian Carlesimo is the Senior Vice President of Finance at Dow Jones, where he oversees all financial reporting, technology initiatives, and strategic projects. He has more than 20 years of financial leadership experience across News Corp’s global businesses, with deep expertise in financial planning, analysis, and corporate strategy. Prior to joining Dow Jones, Brian served as Global Head of Financial Planning & Analysis at News Corp, partnering closely with the CEO, CFO, and divisional leadership on Board reporting, earnings preparation, M&A, and capital market transactions. Earlier in his career, he spent over a decade at the New York Post in senior financial roles, driving operational reporting, digital monetization strategies, and long-range planning.

Farley Chase has worked as a literary agent for over twenty years, is a member of and has served on the Board of the AALA, and owns and operates Chase Literary Agency. Before becoming an agent he worked at Talk Miramax Books, The New Press, and The New Yorker magazine.

Angelica Chong is an editor at Orbit Books where she acquires science fiction, fantasy, and horror titles and edits a range of authors including Fonda Lee, Antonia Hodgson, Megan Bannen, and Tessa Gratton. Before joining Orbit in 2022, she worked in the contracts departments at Macmillan and Astra Publishing House. She is a graduate of New York University.

Nicholas Ciani joined One Signal at Atria Books in 2019. In the past, he has worked at The New Yorker, Macmillan, and Vigliano Associates, where he represented and helped develop projects in fiction and nonfiction. Among his books are Jason Stanley’s Erasing History, 2025 New York Times bestseller Uncommon Favor by Olympic gold medalist Dawn Staley; and Kim Kelly’s 2022 New Yorker and Esquire Best of the Year honoree Fight Like Hell. Nick was a 2020 Publishers Weekly Star Watch nominee.

Catherine Clarke joined Felicity Bryan Associates as an agent in 2001 and since 2010 has been Managing Director. She represents a broad range of writers of serious non-fiction, including biography, philosophy, science, and history. She also represents a number of bestselling and prizewinning writers for children and young adults. In 2017 she was named Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards. She was President of the UK Association of Authors’ Agents from 2022 to 2024.

Debbie Clayman is the Director of Global Rights and Speaking Services at Lynn Johnston Literary, where she is dedicated to amplifying authors’ voices and bringing their work to audiences around the world. She began her career in finance and media before transitioning to publishing, bringing with her a unique perspective on the business of books. She is an active member of AALA and serves on the People of Publishing Conference Committee. Outside of publishing, Debbie coaches runners with the Ulman Foundation’s Cancer to 5K program, helping young adult cancer survivors regain strength, confidence, and community through movement.

Sara Crowe has over 25 years of experience in the publishing world. 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 founded Sara Crowe Literary in 2023. She represents children’s and adult fiction and nonfiction; everything from picture books to graphic novels to literary fiction and adult romcoms. 

Sean deLone holds a B.A. in economics with high honors from Guilford College and is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course. He publishes a wide variety of books including literary fiction, mystery and thrillers, narrative nonfiction, pop culture, and memoir. His authors include the bestselling authors Steve Cavanagh and Jake Tapper, Jill Gutowitz, Nick Fuller Googins, Lincoln Michel, Kashana Cauley, Emily Austin, Paul Bradley Carr, and Mark Edwards among others.

Nikhil Deogun is CEO of the Americas and U.S. Senior Partner for Brunswick Group, a global critical issues advisory firm. Before Brunswick, Nik spent nearly a decade at CNBC, serving as Editor in Chief and Senior Vice President of Business News. Earlier, he built a distinguished career at The Wall Street Journal, where he rose to Deputy Managing Editor and International Editor. Nik serves on the boards of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, Muskingum University, the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. He holds a BA from Muskingum University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Amar Deol joined Grand Central in January 2024. He acquires a broad range of nonfiction, including current affairs, sports, politics, history, film, and memoir. Amar has published eight New York Times bestsellers, with his titles having received citations from the Whiting Foundation & J. Anthony Lukas Prize Committee, selected for inclusion on Barack Obama’s Summer 2022 Reading List, and longlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

Jared DiPalma is chief financial officer at Dow Jones where he leads the global finance & print operation teams. He joined the company in January 2024. Prior to Dow Jones, Jared was the chief financial officer of the NBCUniversal News Group. During his decade-long tenure, the business diversified and expanded its revenue through investments in digital publishing, streaming, commerce and global collaboration with Sky News. At NBCU, he also served as the CFO of various entertainment and commercial divisions. He began his career at GE Capital and advanced to the highest levels of GE’s internal audit & consulting program. Jared is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross where he majored in economics.

Lucienne Diver joined The Knight Agency in 2008, after spending fifteen years at Spectrum Literary Agency. With her sharp eye and gift for spotting original new voices, Lucienne is one of the most well-respected agents in the industry. She has sold well over a thousand titles to every major publisher, and has built a client list of more than forty authors spanning commercial fiction genres. Her authors have been honored with the Hugo, Nebula, Colorado Book, BSFA, and National Readers’ Choice Awards, and have appeared on The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. A publishing veteran, Lucienne has superb industry knowledge, and a keen understanding of the foreign rights market.

At his core, Scott Dickey is a highly skilled operator with a depth of experience and successful track record building and remodeling organizations from the ground up. Over the past 25+ years, he has become an industry leading CEO across media, content, event entertainment and publishing operating in both the private equity and public sectors. In 2019, Scott partnered with Presidio Investors to take the helm as the CEO of Podium Entertainment. Prior to Podium, Scott was the CEO of The Enthusiast Network, which he reorganized and ultimately sold to Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Skip Dye serves as the Senior Vice President of Library Sales and Digital Strategy, as well as Senior Vice President of Sales Operations at Penguin Random House (PRH). In May 2023, he established and chairs PRH’s Intellectual Freedom Taskforce, which has led major 1st Amendment lawsuits in Iowa, Idaho, and Florida. Publishers Weekly recognized him as a notable figure in 2024, and PRH was named one of TIME100’s Most Influential Companies for their work fighting book bans. Dye’s dedication to libraries is reflected in his leadership roles within the American Library Association (ALA), including serving as president of United for Libraries and as a current Board member. In 2025 he received the Friends of the Delaware Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award, was named to the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Honor Roll and was bestowed ALA’s highest honor, Honorary Lifetime Membership.

Susanna Einstein started her publishing career in editorial at Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing), and then worked as a literary and film scout for Maria B. Campbell Associates before becoming an agent in 2005, working first at LJK Literary, then at Einstein Thompson Agency, and then running Einstein Literary Management for ten years. She grew up in NYC and now lives in NJ with her family.

Sally Ekus is a Senior Literary Agent at JVNLA where she spearheads The Ekus Group, a boutique culinary division specializing in cookbook and lifestyle titles. Sally hosts an online community called How to be a Cookbook Author and writes the best-selling Substack Not So Secret Agent newsletter. She currently sits on the board of Happier Valley Comedy, is on the advisory council for The Julia Child Foundation and is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Women’s Media Group, The Association of American Literary Agents, and the Cherry Bombe Bombesquad among other organizations. She is a mom, taco lover, and improvisor.

Kelly Farber is the owner and president of KF Literary Scouting. She founded it in 2013 after previously working at Sterling Lord Literistic and Barbara Tolley and Associates. KF Literary Scouting now partners with more than 25 different companies around the world in the publishing and film/tv spaces, and has offices in New York City and London. She lives on the North Fork of Long Island with her husband and two dogs.

Since founding BookEnds in 1999, Jessica Faust works tirelessly to create a more inclusive and diverse publishing community by advocating for those she works with, from clients to the team at BookEnds. Jessica began her career as an acquisitions editor at Berkley Publishing, Macmillan, and Wiley. Jessica has a regular role on the BookEnds YouTube channel, Instagram account, and Tiktok, has taught at New York University’s Continuing Education Program, and has been honored by several publishing organizations. Jessica hosts workshops and speaking engagements throughout the world and is a member of AALA. While her heart will always be in Minnesota, Jessica now lives in New Jersey with her family.

Erica Finkel (she/her) is an Executive Editor. Before starting at Abrams in 2010, she was, among other things, an English teacher in France, a theater-camp counselor, and an ice-cream scooper. Erica focuses primarily on chapter books, middle grade novels, graphic novels, and the Questioneers series, and she is honored to work with many bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators, including Andrea Beaty, David Roberts, Tom Angleberger, and Saadia Faruqi. She lives in Port Washington, New York, with her husband and two sons.

Sarah N. Fisk is a literary agent at the Tobias Literary Agency, representing MG, YA, and most genre fiction and select nonfiction. Sarah is a former mechanical engineer who made the switch to publishing in 2011. They have worked in the publishing industry as an editorial assistant, author’s assistant, publicist, and art director. Sarah is a former Pitch Wars mentor, board member, and Agent Liaison. They host the podcast Queries, Qualms, & Quirks and are one of the founding members of Disability in Publishing.

Alexandra Franklin joined Curtis Brown in 2023 as an associate in the dramatic rights department and as an associate agent in the books department. She was previously an assistant at Writers House and then an associate agent at Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. Alexandra serves on the AALA’s Communications committee as well as the People of Publishing Conference planning committee.

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World. She is the author of The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (University of Chicago Press, 2025), which received a starred review from Library Journal. Learn more at JaneFriedman.com

Gabrielle Gambrell is Chief Communications Officer of Hachette Book Group. As an Executive Management Board member she leads all branding, corporate, internal, and executive communications, media relations, strategic communications, trade fairs, philanthropy, social impact, and environmental programs. She teaches graduate courses as a Columbia University and New York University. She’s a board member of her alma mater, Iona University, and has been named to PR Net’s “Marcomms’ Most Influential List,” Color Magazine’s POWER 40 Under 40, Advertising Week’s AWNewYork Future is Female Shortlist, PRNEWS’ list of Top Women in PR, and PRWeek’s Hall of Femme. A Los Angeles native, she currently resides with her husband, son, and daughter in Westchester County, N.Y.

Cristina Garces (she/her) is a food and lifestyle editor at Ten Speed Press, a division of the Crown Publishing Group at Penguin Random House, specializing in food & drink, décor, health & wellness, beauty, style, and creativity titles with an emphasis on diverse and underrepresented voices. Previously at Chronicle Books, HarperCollins, and ABRAMS Books, some of Cristina’s titles include the upcoming Asian Americana by Frankie Gaw, Turkuaz Kitchen by Betul Tunc, Islas by Von Diaz, Bright Cooking by Camille Becerra, Masa by Jorge Gaviria, Tin to Table by Anna Hezel, and Homebody by Joanna Gaines.

Brian Geffen is an Executive Editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. He has worked with wonderful creators such as Dhonielle Clayton, Remy Lai, Dan Gemeinhart, Xan Kaur, John Flanagan, Rex Ogle, and others. Brian acquires a variety of young adult and middle-grade fiction, particularly fantasy, realistic contemporary, and action/adventure, as well as select graphic novels and humorous picture books. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Brian is a fan of traveling, eating, late ’90s hip hop, and learning foreign languages.

Marc Gerald is entering his 25th year as a literary agent, and helps some of the most visionary authors, creators and artists navigate the changing marketplace in publishing for premier, next generation storytelling.

Josh Getzler is a partner and Agent at HG Literary, where he represents authors who mostly write books where death is caused, occasionally prevented, and investigated to varying degrees of success. He started out on the editorial side in the early 1990s, then got an MBA because he thought publishing contracts were opaque and confusing. He then took a hiatus from publishing to run minor league baseball teams for 11 years, before returning as the oldest assistant in publishing at Writers House in 2007. He moved to Russell & Volkening in 2009, then co-founded the agency that would become HG Literary in 2011.

John Glynn is the Editorial Director of Hanover Square Press, an imprint of Harlequin/HarperCollins. He edits and acquires across a broad range of categories in both fiction and nonfiction. He began his publishing career in the editorial department at Scribner where he worked on a number of New York Times bestsellers including Murder in Bayou, Sleeping Beauties and The Opposite of Loneliness. He is the author of Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer. Under the pen name J.T. Kelliher, he published the children’s book A Very Merry 90s Christmas with Penguin Workshop. His debut novel The Lost Book of Lancelot is forthcoming from Grand Central in 2026.

Susan Graham joined DCL Agency in January 2025 after nearly a decade as an agent at Einstein Literary Management. They hold a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature and a Master’s Degree in English from Simmons College. They represent illustrators across format and age categories, genre and speculative fiction, select nonfiction, and children’s and young adult prose. They are a member of the AALA Board and the Royalties Committee.

Alia Hanna Habib is a literary agent and Vice President at The Gernert Company. She is on the board of n+1 literary magazine and the creative council of Aspen Words. Her authors have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the MacArthur “Genius Grant,” and the LA Times Book Prize, among others. She was profiled by New York Magazine for their special issue on “The 49 Most Powerful New Yorkers (You’ve Never Heard Of).” Alia is the author of the forthcoming book Take It From Me: An Agent’s Guide to Building a Nonfiction Career from Scratch and of the publishing-themed Substack Delivery & Acceptance. She lives in Brooklyn.

Jordan Hamessley joined JABberwocky as an agent in 2023 with over 15 years of publishing experience both as an agent and an editor at Penguin Young Readers (Grosset & Dunlap), Egmont USA, and Adaptive Studios. She represents a list of diverse children’s fiction from picture books through YA and select adult genre and pop culture writers. She also represents a growing list of graphic novelists and illustrators. She is always looking to find stories that bring the queer experience to the children’s space across all age ranges.

Michelle Herrera Mulligan (she/her/ella) is founder, VP, and associate publisher of Primero Sueño Press/Atria Books. She has published influential non-fiction works including international bestseller The Shadow Work Journal; and several instant New York Times bestsellers. A long-time editor and writer in her own right, Michelle’s essays and articles have reached more than one million people in publications ranging from The New York Times to Elle.com. She was the founding editor in chief of Cosmo For Latinas and a founding editor of Latina magazine. In 2020, she was named one of the top 100 most influential Latinas in the United States by Latino Leaders magazine.

Martha Hickson recently retired after 20 years as a high school librarian. Her work has been featured in School Library Journal, Booklist, and CNN Online. Her defense of intellectual freedom has been recognized with awards from the NJ Association of School Librarians, the NJ Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, and the National Council of Teachers of English. The National Coalition Against Censorship presented Martha with the Judith Krug Outstanding Librarian Award, and the American Library Association awarded Martha with the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity.

Connie Hsu is VP, Executive Editorial Director of Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Book Publishing. Authors and artists from her list include Vera Brosgol, Ruth Chan, Shannon Hale, Rainey Hopson, Angela Joy, Kevin Noble Maillard, LeUyen Pham, Dan Santat, Steve Sheinkin, Tillie Walden, and Janelle Washington. Books she’s edited have included New York Times bestsellers, Caldecott Medal and Honor books, a Newbery Honor book, and a National Book Award winner. She was born in Taiwan, raised in Alabama, and now lives in Brooklyn.

Over his career Chris Jackson has published a wide range of bestselling and award-winning authors. He is the recipient of the Center for Fiction Medal for Editorial Excellence, the Authors Guild Publisher Award for Literature that Inspires Change, and the Asian American Writer’s Workshop Editorial Achievement Award. His own work has appeared in magazines and journals including The Paris Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, Callaloo, and The Atlantic.

Eleanor Jackson has been agenting since 2002. She is a graduate of Colby College and the Columbia Publishing Course. Her list includes writers of fiction and nonfiction in a wide range of categories, including David Wroblewski (Familiaris), Susan Straight (Sacrament), Paul R. Ehrlich (Life), Susie Steiner (Missing, Presumed), and Hallie Rubenhold (Story of a Murder.) She has a B.A. in English from Colby College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.

Lynn Johnston has been a literary agent for more than 20 years, specializing in serious and practical nonfiction. Her clients include Pulitzer Prize winners, thought leaders from top universities, and prominent journalists such as Kyra Phillips, Elizabeth Cohen, and Tara Parker-Pope. She has represented numerous New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, with books earning recognition from The Washington Post, Porchlight, IACP, and the Audie Awards. Lynn serves on the board of the Association of American Literary Agents, where she co-founded the People of Publishing Conference. She holds an MBA and lives in New York City.

Jonathan Karp is President and CEO of Simon & Schuster. Since joining the company in 2010, he has overseen the publication of landmark bestsellers including Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, What Happened by Hillary Clinton, Fear by Bob Woodward, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen, and The Library Book by Susan Orlean. He previously founded and led Hachette’s Twelve imprint, publishing acclaimed titles by Edward M. Kennedy, Christopher Hitchens, Dave Cullen, and Sebastian Junger. Earlier, Karp spent 16 years at Random House, where he acquired Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and works by John McCain, Susan Orlean, and Mario Puzo.Karp serves on the boards of the Association of American Publishers and the National Book Foundation. He holds degrees from Brown University and New York University.

Academy Award and two-time Emmy Nominee Simon Kinberg has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most prolific filmmakers, having written and produced projects for some of the most successful franchises in the modern era. He has written, produced, and/or directed more than twenty-five films, including shepherding the X-Men/Deadpool/Logan cinematic universe for 20th Century Fox. In addition, he has been the Executive Producer of seven different television series. Currently, he is writing and producing the next trilogy of films in the Star Wars franchise for Lucasfilm/Disney. Among other current projects, his original script, Here Comes the Flood, will be filmed this fall, directed by Fernando Meirelles, and starring Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Daisy Edgar Jones, for Netflix. 

Christine Kopprasch is the Publisher of Pine & Cedar Books, an imprint of Flatiron Books. In her decade at Flatiron Books, she has acquired and edited bestselling novels by S. A. Cosby, Alice Feeney, Jane Harper, Kate Alice Marshall, and Sarah Pinborough, among others. Books she has acquired and edited have been New York Times bestsellers, #1 international bestsellers, Goodreads Choice Award Finalists, New York Times Notable Books, Reese Witherspoon Book Club and GMA Book Club picks, and have won awards including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, ITW Thriller Award, Lambda Literary Award, Barry Award, and many more.

Kimberly Laws lived a few lives before moving into publishing. Having spent time as a hairdresser, a teacher, a bartender, a frontwoman, and an office manager, she joined Gallery Books in 2021 as assistant to the publisher after graduating from the Denver Publishing Institute. With a background in sociology, psychology, and art, she is fascinated by human behavior and the ways in which we use art and literature to explore our relationship with and response to fear, trauma, and anxieties.

Oriana Leckert is the Head of Publishing at Kickstarter, where she helps creators bring a marvelous array of literary projects to life. She’s written and edited for Vice, MTV News, Slate, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Atlas Obscura, and many more. Her first book, Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture and Creativity (Monacelli, 2015), grew out of a multi-year project chronicling the rise and fall of under-the-radar creative places across New York City. Follow her at @orianabklyn on most social platforms.

Franklin Leonard is a film and television producer, cultural commentator, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Black List. He has been a juror at the Sundance, Toronto, and Mumbai Film Festivals, one of Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Under 35, Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future,” and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” The recipient of the 2019 WGA East’s Evelyn Burkey award for elevating the honor and dignity of screenwriters and the 2024 Gotham Anniversary Tribute, he is a member of BAFTA and AMPAS. His TED talk, “How I Accidentally Changed the Way Movies Get Made,” has been viewed more than 1.8 million times.

Christina Loff is a creative strategist, storyteller, and community builder with two decades of experience helping artists, writers, and entrepreneurs bring their work into the world. At Substack, she leads strategy for the Lifestyle and Culture categories, working with creators and brands to grow their presence and shape how these communities thrive on the platform. She also writes The Dry Down Diaries, a Substack dedicated to fragrance and olfactory storytelling. With a background in marketing, publicity, and content strategy at Chronicle Books, Minted, CreativeLive, and more, she’s spent her career supporting creative people and helping their work find the audience it deserves.

Alex Lu is an Editor at Random House Graphic, acquiring graphic novels for young readers through young adults. Previously, he was a Contributing Editor at First Second, where he worked on acclaimed titles including Gene Luen Yang’s Dragon Hoops, Thien Pham’s Family Style, and Beawolf by Zach Weinersmith and Boulet. He loves difficult puzzles and loud colors.

David Moldawer began his publishing career as an editor at leading imprints including St. Martin’s Press, Portfolio, McGraw-Hill Professional, and Amazon Publishing New York. He later transitioned to collaboration, becoming one of the most sought-after ghostwriters and proposal specialists in the business and personal development space. His collaborations secured multiple seven-figure deals and helped produce bestselling books, including James Clear’s Atomic Habits and Ali Abdaal’s Feel-Good Productivity. Now an agent at Writers House, Moldawer brings expertise across every stage of the publishing process, from shaping breakthrough concepts to positioning authors for long-term success.

Dan Mandel represents both literary and commercial fiction, as well as memoirs and non-fiction about business, art, history, politics, sports, and popular culture. His clients write for The Economist, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others, and the books he has worked on have been New York Times Bestsellers, and short-listed for both the Booker and the FT Business Book of the Year. A graduate of Cornell University, he interned at The New Yorker and attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course.

Alana Mayo, head of Orion Pictures, veteran industry executive and producer, oversees the label’s day-to-day operations, including development, acquisitions, physical and post-production. Orion Pictures, a division of Amazon MGM Studios, is dedicated to underrepresented voices and authentic storytelling in film with a focus on developing and producing theatrical feature films that amplify underserved voices. Under Mayo’s tenure, Orion has released several Academy Award-winning and nominated films, including Women Talking, American Fiction, Nickel Boys, and Bottoms. This year, Orion will release Hedda, directed by Nia DaCosta and starring Tessa Thompson, and Preparation for the Next Life, directed by Bing Liu.

Jim McCarthy began working at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret more than 25 years ago while still in school. After graduation, he stayed on full-time and began representing his own clients in 2002. Jim represents New York Times bestsellers, Printz Honorees, Lambda Award winners, a Stonewall Honoree, a Coretta Scott King Award winner, and recipients of numerous other awards and honors. Always on the lookout for a new favorite read, Jim is perpetually hungry for new fiction, regardless of genre. He lives with his husband and their beloved dog in Astoria, Queens.

Cameron McClure joined the Donald Maass Literary Agency in 2004. She represents a small and select group of authors and specializes in fiction. She is especially looking for projects that combine genre style plotting with literary quality writing. She loves anything speculative, and is interested in seeing science-fiction and fantasy, mystery and suspense, horror, and projects with multi-cultural, international, environmental, and LGBTQIA+ themes. Some of her clients include Robert Jackson Bennett, Ada Palmer, Jo Walton, Micaiah Johnson, Tashan Mehta, Robert McCammon, Jonathan French, S.B. Divya, Molly Tanzer, Andy Marino, Eden Robins, and Ronald Malfi.

Jean McGinley has been in the publishing industry for over 25 years with rights roles at Penguin Random House, Disney Publishing and Sterling Publishing (now Union Square Press), and is currently the Senior Vice President of Rights & Permissions at HarperCollins, Inc. She oversees the strategy for licensing out rights for the many imprints of HarperCollins and Harlequin, carving out new revenue streams for both the exciting frontlist and the industry lauded backlist. She also works with key colleagues around the world on shared global publications in translation and in English.

Andrew Miller joined Holt as President and Publisher in January 2024. Before coming to Holt he was VP and Editorial Director for Nonfiction at Alfred A. Knopf, where he was an editor for more than twenty years, working with authors such as Michael Finkel, John Carreyrou, Casey Cep, Ken Burns, Kory Stamper, George Packer, John Vaillant, Peter Frankopan, and Cat Bohannon.

Mary Ann Naples is the COO & Publisher of Publishers Marketplace, the essential news and information service for publishing industry professionals, and has been a publisher at the Hachette Book Group, The Walt Disney Company, and Rodale. Naples has also had extensive experience in other areas of publishing including agenting and startups, and she began her career in editorial.

Christy Ottaviano is VP and Publisher of Christy Ottaviano Books at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She launched her imprint at Hachette after leading her eponymous line at Macmillan for over a decade. Christy has edited numerous New York Times and Indie bestsellers across age categories. Her authors and illustrators have received the National Book Award, Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Award, Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Ezra Jack Keats Award, E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, Edgar and Agatha Awards, Orbis Pictus Award, and many more. She holds graduate degrees from Boston College and Columbia University

Tara Parker-Pope is the Chief Content Officer for Thrive Global. Before joining Thrive, she was an award-winning editor and columnist for The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Her work has been honored with an Emmy Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Parker-Pope has a Masters of Public Health from Yale University and is the author of three books, including For Better: The Surprising Science of Happy Couples from Dutton.

David Patterson is a literary agent specializing in narrative nonfiction and literary fiction, representing Pulitzer Prize winners, finalists, and recipients of the Polk, Livingston, Whiting, and Lukas Awards. His clients publish widely in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, New Yorker, and beyond. Previously an editor at PublicAffairs and Henry Holt, David began his career at Algonquin Books and Politics & Prose. A UNC Chapel Hill graduate, he teaches at the Goucher MFA program in nonfiction and serves on the board of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Colleen Prendergast is the Associate Director of Audiobook Publishing at Spotify, where she currently leads the company’s audiobook publishing division. Previously, she oversaw the audiobook publishing and international content strategy for Findaway and has served on the Board of Directors for the Audio Publishers Association since 2022. She has worked in the book publishing industry for more than 10 years.

Kelley Ragland started as an editorial assistant at St. Martin’s Press in 1993, became an editor in 1998, and took part in the creation of the St. Martin’s Publishing Group’s crime and suspense imprint, Minotaur Books, which launched in 1999 and received ITW’s Thriller Legend Award in 2023. She is now Vice President, Publishing Director of Minotaur Books. She received the MWA’s Ellery Queen Award in 2020. Over her thirty plus years at SMPG, Kelley has worked with such authors as Jeffrey Archer, Steve Berry, C.J. Box, Allison Brennan, Andrew Gross, Charlaine Harris, Louise Penny, Olen Steinhauer, Stacy Willingham, and others.

Mary Rasenberger is the CEO of the Authors Guild and the Authors Guild Foundation where she oversees all aspects of the combined organizations. Together, the organizations protect the rights of authors to free speech, fair contracts, and just treatment under copyright and other laws. Prior to joining the Guild in 2014, Mary practiced law for over 25 years in roles that spanned private practice, the federal government and corporate sector, as a recognized expert in copyright and media law. From 2002 to 2008 Mary worked for the U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress as senior policy advisor and program director for the National Digital Preservation Program.

Hilary Redmon is the Editorial Director of Nonfiction at Knopf. Before joining Knopf in February of 2025, she worked at Random House, Ecco, Free Press, Penguin Classics, Penguin, and Viking. Her authors and their books have been recognized by the National Book Awards, the NBCC, the Pen Literary Awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, the Kirkus Prize, and the Goodreads Choice Awards. They have won Pulitzer Prizes, Carnegie Medals, the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, Whiting Nonfiction Grants, Royal Society Prizes, the Wainwright Prize, and have been chosen as favorite books of the year by President Obama, Bill Gates, and The New York Times Book Review’s Top Ten.

Emilia Rhodes is an Executive Editor at Atria Books/Simon & Schuster where she publishes romance and fantasy. Emilia’s list at Atria includes New York Times bestselling authors Penn Cole and Elsie Silver, as well as Lauren Blakely, Chelsea Curto, Ellis Hunter, Mallory Kass, Veronica Lancet, Haley Pham, and more. Prior to joining Atria, Emilia previously held positions at HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Alloy Entertainment, and Simon Pulse.

Janique L Robillard is an Academy Award® nominated documentary producer and independent filmmaker. Her recent credits include producing two films with Peabody Award-winning Director Kim A. Snyder: Death By Numbers, which was nominated for the 2025 Academy Awards: Best Documentary Short Film, and The Librarians, which will be released theatrically in the UK and North America Fall 2025 and broadcast in January 2026. Previous credits include Associate Producer on The Fix docu-series and Impact Producer on Snyder’s Us Kids feature documentary. Janique earned her B.S. in Journalism from S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and her M.F.A. in Film at Maryland Institute College of Art.

Tamar Rydzinski is the founder and president of Context Literary Agency where she represents bestselling and award-winning authors. She is a member of the AALA Board and the International Committee. Tamar has always had a strong love for the written word. Her goal for her authors is to reach their audience wherever they are, and she is proud of helping them stay ahead of the curve.

Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel is co-founder of Full Circle Literary based in San Diego. Children’s books Stefanie represents have been awarded the Sibert Medal, Caldecott Honor, Schneider Book Award, Ezra Jack Keats Award, Charlotte Zolotow Award, Christopher Award, Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, New York Times Best Illustrated, Pura Belpré Awards and Honors, NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor, Agatha Award, and the Edgar Award. Prior to agenting, she worked in editorial, publicity and trade marketing with Penguin and Harcourt Children’s Books. She currently serves as Fundraising Director for Latinx in Publishing. Visit fullcircleliterary.com

Manuel Sansigre has been Chief Financial Officer of Penguin Random House since January 2024. Manuel oversees the management and coordination of all fiscal planning, reporting, and analysis for Penguin Random House U.S. and provides financial leadership and support across all territories. In his latest role, Manuel was Deputy CFO and EVP of Global Mergers and Acquisitions, which he continues to lead. Manuel holds a JD in law and business administration from the Carlos III University and a Master in Advanced Finance from IE Business School. He also has a Master of Science in Business Analytics from NYU, Stern School of Business.

Rakesh Satyal is an Executive Editor at the HarperOne Group, where he works with a number of bestselling and award-winning authors in both fiction and nonfiction. He held previous positions at Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House. He is also the award-winning author of the novels Blue Boy and No One Can Pronounce My Name.

Eva Scalzo has a B.A. in the Humanities from the University of Puerto Rico and a M.A. in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. Eva has been reading romance since the fifth grade when she discovered the Sweet Valley High series. She has been with Speilburg Literary since 2013, and started accepting clients in 2017. Eva is a member of the AALA and SCBWI. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the AALA Newsletter, co-chair of the Social Media Subcommittee and is also a member of the Communications and People of Publishing Committees.

Ellen Scordato is a partner at Stonesong, where she has spent more than three decades building a diverse and successful list. She represents narrative and prescriptive nonfiction, literary and commercial fiction, and pop culture, and her authors include New York Times–bestselling, award-winning, and widely acclaimed writers. Her nonfiction clients include Caroline Manzo, William Dissen, Benedetta Guetta, Jill Dearman, Ann Tashi Slater, Jillian Pransky, and Ethan Nichtern; her fiction authors include Victor Suthammanont, Alex Myers, Jennifer Williamson, and Elena Hartwell. Ellen began her publishing career at Charles Scribner’s Sons, later working at Chelsea House and Random House/Smithsonian Books before joining Stonesong in 1996. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Wellesley College.

David Shelley is Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Book Group. He also serves as CEO of Hachette UK. He began his career in 1997 at Allison & Busby, an independent UK publishing house, and led the company from 2000 to 2005. He joined Little, Brown UK in 2005 as Editorial Director and became Publisher in 2011, publishing bestselling authors including Mitch Albom, Mark Billingham, Patricia Cornwell, Carl Hiaasen, Dennis Lehane, Val McDermid, and J.K Rowling. In 2015 he was named CEO of Orion and Little, Brown, and in 2018 was appointed Group CEO of Hachette UK.

Kim A. Snyder is an Academy Award® nominee and Peabody Award-winning Director/Producer whose latest feature, The Librarians, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and will release globally in late 2025. Her Oscar-nominated short Death by Numbers, co-created with gun-violence survivor Sam Fuentes, has won multiple awards. Snyder’s acclaimed films include Us Kids (Sundance 2020), Lessons From a School Shooting (Netflix Original), and Newtown (Sundance 2016, Peabody Award, PBS). She also Associate Produced the Oscar-winning short Trevor, which spawned The Trevor Project. Snyder holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS and lives in New York City.

Esi Sogah (she/her) joined Berkley as an executive editor in 2022, acquiring commercial fiction and romance, working with authors like Kate Clayborn, Ashley Jordan, and Amelia Ireland. Her twenty-year career began at William Morrow and Avon Books before moving to Kensington Publishing in 2013, where she worked on a variety of fiction and nonfiction. Currently, she is looking to acquire high-concept commercial fiction and romances that aren’t afraid to take big risks.

Adriana Stimola is a Literary Agent at Stimola Literary Studio, representing nonfiction in food, mind-body-spirit, art, pop culture, and lifestyle, as well as select upmarket fiction. Her clients include James Beard and IACP Award winners, multi-award-winning memoirist Elissa Altman, Jungian analyst Lisa Marchiano, and viral sensation “TherapyJeff.” Her authors have been featured in New York Times, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and on major broadcast outlets. A graduate of Emerson College, Adriana lives on Martha’s Vineyard, where she also serves as Poet Laureate.

Christina Sullivan is a finance executive who has spent the last eight years obsessively searching for margin in the podcast industry. She is currently the CFO of Pushkin Industries, an audio production company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell, which develops, produces, and distributes podcasts and audiobooks. Previously, she served as the finance director at Gimlet and was part of the team that sold Gimlet to Spotify. She did a year-long stint with Spotify’s financial planning and analysis team before joining Pushkin in the fall of 2020.

Merry Sun is a Senior Editor at W.W. Norton, where she primarily acquires and publishes in the categories of business, economics, and technology. Before joining Norton in 2024, she worked at Portfolio/Penguin Random House. She has acquired and edited works by acclaimed academics, journalists, and leaders including Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Erin Griffith, Will Guidara, Ethan Mollick, Zoë Schiffer, Simone Stolzoff, and Gregory Zuckerman.

Michelle Tessler 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. 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 is a member of the Association of Author’s Representatives and Women’s Media Group.

Mary Van Akin is the Executive Director of School & Library Marketing at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group where more than a decade of working on marketing and publicity campaigns for frequently challenged books like All Boys Aren’t Blue and Flamer helped inspire a dedication to safeguarding access to books for all readers. She is a member of Macmillan’s Yours to Read Committee and helps facilitate the Right to Read Working Group.

Ever since reading Norma Jean Jumping Bean, Diana Ventimiglia has been obsessed with the power of books and their ability to help people feel seen. For the last 18 years, Diane’s passion has been working with authors who speak to the diversity of our lived experiences. She is drawn to strong voices in spirituality, identity & sexuality, relationships, psychology, mental health, female empowerment, and LGBTQ+ rights. When not working with authors, you’ll find Diane working through the 5+ books on her nightstand and yelling at her cat, Phillip, to stop knocking things off the shelf.

Marisa Vigilante is an Executive Acquisitions Editor at Hay House, an independently-operated imprint of Penguin Random House, with nearly two decades of experience publishing bestselling and award-winning nonfiction books in the health, wellness, psychology, self-help, and lifestyle space. Prior to joining Hay House in 2024, she held editorial roles at Little, Brown Spark, Rodale, Avery, and Random House Publishing Group. With a master’s degree in public health and a brief stint as a healthcare policy consultant, Marisa brings a mission-driven lens to publishing. Her passion for wellbeing, equity, and practical transformation fuels her work acquiring books that inspire people to live more meaningful, empowered lives.

Doug Wallace is from Edinburgh and read History at University College London. He worked in publishing and cultural relations for sixteen years before joining the ANA in 2017. He has a passion for experimental literature, literature in translation, serious non-fiction and graphic novels. Based out of the UK, he is Managing Director of Andrew Nurnberg Associates International Ltd, an international network of twelve literary agencies specialising in translation, and a Director and Agent at Andrew Nurnberg Associates, London. He has previously contributed to the boards of independent publisher Penned in the Margins, welfare charity The Book Trade Charity, and the UK national literature agency Pop Up Projects CIC.

David Walter is in his seventeenth year in the publishing and data space, during which time his roles have covered metadata, business development, research and commercial functions. Currently David leads the team at Circana that delivers book industry data and insights to publishers, retailers and content creators. He has worked with NYU School of Professional Studies since 2022 on various courses including the Publishing Masters course, Summer Publishing Institute and Advanced Publishing Institute. Originally from the UK, David has been a New York resident since 2015.

Holly West is an Executive Editor at Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. She edits books for kids and teens of all ages (and even the stray adult here and there), with a focus on fantasy and other genre titles. She likes to describe her job as being a professional fangirl, since, at its core, it revolves around finding stories to fall deeply in love with, nitpicking over them obsessively until they are as close to perfect as possible, and then shoving them at others with great enthusiasm.

Jamia Wilson is a Vice President and Executive Editor at Random House, where she edits stories that reimagine power and rewrite the rules. While Executive Director and Publisher of the Feminist Press at CUNY, the press received Lambda Literary and PEN Faulkner nominations, as well as Whiting, National Book Critics Circle, and PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel awards. Jamia has previously worked at Planned Parenthood, TED, the Women’s Media Center, and as an adjunct professor at John Jay College. She is the author of Young, Gifted, and Black, Together We Rise, Make Good Trouble, and several other books for readers of all ages.

Jaime Wolf, general counsel of AALA and a transactional attorney, chaired the New York City Bar’s Entertainment Law Committee from 2016 to 2019. He has wide experience in the publishing business. He has worked with a variety of authors, illustrators, literary agencies, publishers and packagers, handling archive sales, contract negotiations, intellectual property matters and pre-publication legal review of manuscripts.

Jon Yaged is Chief Executive Officer of Macmillan Publishers. He previously served as President, Macmillan Publishers, and President & Publisher, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. Jon began his publishing career at The Walt Disney Company, reaching the level of VP, US Publisher, Disney Book Group. He also served as Chief Operating Officer of a social media marketing company and practiced entertainment and technology law. Jon currently serves on the Boards of the Association of American Publishers, National Coalition Against Censorship, and National Book Foundation, where he is also Treasurer. He has a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the George Washington University. Jon lives with his family in New York City.

Courtney Young is an editor specializing in idea-driven non-fiction with a focus on natural and social science, business, technology, culture, and narrative journalism. She has edited books by a number of award-winning and bestselling authors, including Randall Munroe, James Nestor, David Epstein, Jing Tsu, Carlo Rovelli, Deb Chachra, Gretchen McCulloch, and Michael Lewis.

Sarah Younger is an Executive Agent at the Nancy Yost Literary Agency. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she began her publishing career at Press53 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she helped launch the company’s digital publishing program. She went on to earn a graduate certificate from the University of Denver’s Publishing Institute before relocating to New York City. Since joining NYLA in 2011, Sarah has built a dynamic and diverse list of authors, with a focus on bestselling adult commercial fiction. To learn more, visit http://www.nyliterary.com.

Marietta B. Zacker has worked with books, authors and illustrators throughout her career—studying, creating, editing, marketing, teaching and selling. She supports independent bookselling, believes in libraries and takes pride in her work as a Latina in the world of publishing. She is always on the lookout for visual and narrative stories that reflect the world we live in, not the bubbles in which we put ourselves. She is thrilled to shine the spotlight on soulful, insightful, well-crafted projects aimed at any age group from young adult to the youngest of readers