Consultations
Alan Rinzler, Executive Editor, Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons
Alan Rinzler is an acquisition and developmental editor who began as Robert Gottlieb’s assistant at Simon and Schuster in 1962. He then worked as a Senior Editor at Macmillan and Holt, as the Editorial Director for Trade Publishing at Bantam Books, as West Coast Editor for Grove Press, and as the VP and Associate Publisher of Rolling Stone magazine and president of its book company, Straight Arrow Books. For the past 15 years he has been Executive Editor of Jossey-Bass, the west coast imprint of John Wiley & Sons. Along the way, he has edited and published Toni Morrison, Claude Brown, Hunter Thompson, Tom Robbins, Jerzy Kosinski, Irvin Yalom, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Ludlum, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and Clive Cussler.
Carol Houck Smith, Editor, W.W. Norton & Co.
Carol Houck Smith is an editor at large at W. W. Norton, specializing in literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and poetry. Authors with whom she has worked include Andrea Barrett, Stanley Kunitz, Gerald Stern, Charles Baxter and Rita Dove, to mention only a few. She is a trustee of Ploughshares, a former board member of AWP, and has received an award for career achievement from PEN.
Jane von Mehren, Senior Vice President, Random House
Jane von Mehren is Senior Vice President and Publisher of Trade Paperbacks and Modern Library at the Random House Publishing Group. She is in charge of the Random House Trade Paperbacks, Ballantine, One World, Presidio, and Villard Trade Paperback lines; Modern Library a hardcover and paperback imprint; as well as a working editor who acquires both hard covers and paperbacks.
Kimberly Witherspoon & Alexis Hurley, Agents, Inkwell Management
Alexis Hurley started her career at Sterling Lord Literistic before joining Witherspoon Associates in early 2000. At InkWell Management she works in the dual capacity of Co-Director of Foreign and Subsidiary Rights as well as agenting domestic works in the areas of commercial fiction, women's interests, and popular non-fiction. She is a graduate of Dickinson College where she received her BA in English and Art History and a minor in Italian.
Kimberly Witherspoon, at age 26, founded her own literary agency, which quickly became one of the most prestigious and successful agencies in Manhattan, with clients who are frequently published around the world. Over the past 15 years, she has represented critically acclaimed and bestselling authors of both fiction and nonfiction, including: Kate Atkinson, Anthony Bourdain, Robert Olen Butler, Susan Cheever, Jim Crace, Cindy Crawford, Eloisa James, Neil Jordan, Sophie Kinsella, Richard Marcinko, Edna O’Brien, Arundhati Roy, Lionel Shriver, Lalita Tademy, and Rebecca Wells. She graduated from Brown University in 1984 with a BA in International Relations. She is a founding board member of a new public charter high school, The Bronx Academy of Letters, a member of the Authors Guild and the editor of two anthologies, including: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME: Culinary Catastrophes From the World’s Greatest Chefs.
Are you interested in talking to an editor or agent about your manuscript?
Participants registered for a workshop(s) at the Conference may register for one publishing consultation with an editor or an agent. We require a $150 fee at the time of registration for the publishing consultation.
Publishing consultations are 30 minutes and will take place Monday-Friday, July 14-18. Scheduling of consultations will be done on-site.
Cancellation Policy: For cancellations made before June 2, 2008, your fee will be refunded. No refunds will apply to cancellations made on or after June 2, 2008.
Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Space is limited and acceptance will be determined by lottery if necessary. To register, complete the form provided below and send this form with your payment (check, credit card, or money order); a pitch letter; author background and brief summary of work; and 15-20 pages of your manuscript, consecutive from the beginning, to the following address:
Publishing Consultations
Taos Summer Writers’ Conference
Sharon Oard Warner, Director
MSC 03 2170
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Registration form (pdf)
Registration form (word)
