Mills College and the Place for Writers Proudly Present:
Pitch Fest 2012 Writer's Conference
Saturday, March 10th
1:00pm-5:15pm
Lokey School of Business
Mills College
5000 MacArthur Blvd
Oakland, CA
Pitch Fest Writer's Conference is a one day event designed to connect writers with local Bay Area Literary Agents, Publishers and MFA Alumni who are working in the Bay Area.
The day will begin with the "Publishing 101"panel where industry executives and a published author discuss what a writer can expect to experience at every stage in the publishing process as well as how we should position ourselves in the rapidly changing industry.
The second panel of the day is "the Business of Being a Writer" where MFA graduates will teach us how to think outside of the box and market our writing skills in the world of business.
The second panel of the day is "the Business of Being a Writer" where MFA graduates will teach us how to think outside of the box and market our writing skills in the world of business.
The final panel of the day, "A Crash Course in Screenwriting" will feature local screenwriter and professor Bob Keats, who will provide nuts and bolts information to anyone interested in breaking into screenwriting.
During the final two panels, pre-registered students will have a 10-15 minute one-on-one appointment to pitch their prose to an agent.
All panels are open to the public! Agent meetings will be set up in advance of the event and are for current Mills MFA students and alumni only. You do not need to register to come to Pitch Fest panels. Only students interested in an Agent meetings need to RSVP.
If you would like more information on Pitch Fest, email event coordinators Kristina at kmiltenberger@mills.edu or Zoe at zrosenblum@mills.edu.
To view information on Pitch Fest 2011, click on the old posts link!
2012 Panelist and Agent Bios
Publishing 101
1:00pm-2:30
1:00pm-2:30
Panelists
Carolina De Robertis:
Carolina De Robertis’ first novel, The Invisible Mountain (Knopf, 2009), received the Rhegium Julii Debut Prize, has been translated into fifteen languages, and was named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, O, The Oprah Magazine, and BookList. Her writings and literary translations have appeared inZoetrope: Allstory, Granta, The San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. Her translation of the contemporary Chilean novella Bonsai, by Alejandro Zambra, was named one of the Ten Best Translated Books of 2008 by the journal Three Percent. She is also the recipient of a 2012 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
De Robertis grew up in a Uruguayan family that immigrated to England, Switzerland, and California. Prior to completing her first book, she worked in women’s rights organizations for ten years, on issues ranging from rape to immigration. Her second novel, Perla–in which the dutiful daughter of an Argentine Navy captain is forever altered when she is forced to confront her family’s role in past crimes and the buried secrets of her own origins–is forthcoming from Knopf in March of 2012.
She lives in Oakland, California, where she is currently elbow-deep in writing her third novel, which explores migration, sexual frontiers, and the tango’s Old Guard in early twentieth century South America.She teaches at Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine.
Brooke Warner:
Brooke Warner is the Executive Editor at Seal Press, publisher of women’s nonfiction books, written for women, by women. Seal Press is fueled by the radical thinking and daring work of its authors, including notable women such as Jessica Valenti, Susie Bright, and Michelle Tea. In 2007, Seal was acquired by Perseus Books Group, allowing it to continue its long tradition of publishing books that matter to women. Brooke is also a writing coach who works with writers to develop their ideas and pursue their creative passion. Her website is warnercoaching.com.
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About Seal Press:
Inspired by the simple yet radical notion that a book can change a woman’s life, Seal Press is devoted to publishing titles that inform, reveal, engage, delight, and support women of all ages and backgrounds. Seal was founded in 1976 as a small DIY publisher to provide a forum for women writers and feminist issues, and since then, Seal has published groundbreaking books that represent the diverse voices and interests of women. Seal’s continually growing list includes books about women’s health, parenting, outdoor adventure and travel literature, popular culture, sexuality, gender and transgender life, sports, relationships, memoir, careers, finance, current affairs, and much more. With each book, we strive to make a difference in women’s everyday lives, and to tell the truth—the real truth—about the issues that matter to women the most.
Other links of interest:
Elizabeth Kracht
Elizabeth Kracht joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates in the fall of 2010 to broaden her perspective on the publishing industry. She represents both literary and commercial fiction as well as nonfiction, and brings to the agency experience as a former acquisitions editor, freelance publicist and writer.
Elizabeth’s career in publishing took root in Puerto Rico where she completed her BA in English and worked as a copyeditor for an English-language newspaper. When she returned to the mainland she found her “vein of gold” in book publishing. She thrives on working closely with authors and researching the potential market for new books.
Elizabeth’s eclectic life experience drives her interests. She appreciates writing that has depth, an introspective voice or that offers wisdom for contemporary living. Having lived in cities such as New York, San Francisco and San Juan, Puerto Rico, she is compelled by urban and multicultural themes and loves settings that are characters unto themselves.
In fiction, she represents literary, commercial, women’s, thrillers, mysteries, and YA with crossover appeal. She is intrigued by untrustworthy narrators, tragic tales of class and circumstance, and identifies with flawed and quirky yet sterling characters. In nonfiction, she particularly loves voice- or adventure-driven memoir, and other nonfiction projects that contribute to the well-being of the self or others in addition to niche projects that fill holes in the market, offer a fresh approach, or make her laugh. She also has a soft spot for nonfiction heroic pet stories.
Faith Adiele
is the author of Meeting Faith (W.W. Norton), a travel memoir about becoming Thailand’s first black Buddhist nun, which received the PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir of 2004. A Publishers Weekly starred review credited it with “a comic’s timing, a novelist’s keen observations about human idiosyncrasies and an anthropologist’s sensitivity to race and culture.” She is also lead editor of the international collection, Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology (The New Press, 2008), and writer/narrator/subject of the PBS documentary My Journey Home. The film documents Adiele’s experiences—similar to President Obama’s—
growing up with a Nordic-American single mother and traveling to Nigeria as an adult to find her father and siblings.
Educated at Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Adiele has taught in the Creative Nonfiction MFA Program at the University of Pittsburgh, held the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Chair at Framingham State College, and served as Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professor at Metropolitan State College; she is presently the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, California. Adiele has published or been featured in such periodicals as O magazine, Ploughshares, Marie Claire, Creative Nonfiction, Essence, Transition, Pink magazine, Tricycle, The Root.com, and in numerous anthologies. The recipient of a UNESCO International Artists Bursary, two Best American Essays shortlists, and the Millennium Award from Creative Nonfiction, she is currently at work on Twins: Growing Up Nigerian/Nordic/American, a social/cultural memoir that will complete the story begun in the PBS documentary. Visit her at adiele.com.
THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WRITER
3:00pm-4:00pm
3:00pm-4:00pm
PANELISTS
Meghan Ward
is an award-winning writer and editor who blogs weekly at MeghanWard.com. She writes book reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle and has been published in San Francisco magazine, 7x7 magazine, the San Francisco Examiner, the Oakland Tribune, and the anthology It’s So You: 35 Women Write about Personal Expression Through Fashion and Style. Currently at work on a memoir titled Paris on Less Than $10,000 A Day, Meghan is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, where she writes and teaches Social Media Madness classes. She holds a BA in English from UCLA and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College.
Laura Joyce Davis
earned a 2010-2011 creative writing Fulbright scholarship to complete research for her novel about sex trafficking in the Philippines, The Low-Flying Dove. She was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize, the 2006 Best New American Voices, and has published stories in A Cappella Zoo, the Cricket Online Review, and elsewhere. She won the Ardella Mills prize for graduate fiction in 2005 and 2006 while completing her MFA at Mills College. She lives in Oakland with her husband, who is also a writer.
www.laurajoycedavis.com
Amy Berkowitz
Amy Berkowitz is an Associate Editor at Living Social. She graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2010. In her free time, she writes poems, goes to readings, and publishes poetry.
SCREENWRITING 101 LECTURE
4:15pm-5:15pm
Amy Berkowitz
Amy Berkowitz is an Associate Editor at Living Social. She graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2010. In her free time, she writes poems, goes to readings, and publishes poetry.
Lauren Ireland
Lauren Ireland is the Editorial Manager for Sephora, Inc. She grew up in southern Maryland and co
4:15pm-5:15pm
Robert Keats
ROBERT KEATS has been writing comedy and drama for film and television for over thirty-five years. Along with selling a number of television pilots, including one co-written and co-created with Academy Award winning screenwriter David S. Ward, Robert has also written for Happy Days, The Ellen Burstyn Show, Buck Henry’s comedy sci-fi Quark, and the television adaptation of Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Mr. Keats was the writer/producer of Women Without Men, an HBO pilot presentation in association with Lorne Michaels’ production company, Broadway Video. Robert created the show with Penny Marshall, who starred in the presentation with Dyan Cannon and Lorraine Bracco. Robert’s work in film includes The Closer, an adaptation of the Broadway play Wheelbarrow Closers. Mr. Keats has sold original screenplays to major studios and independent production companies and has been called in to rewrite numerous other scripts, both in film and television.
ROBERT KEATS has been writing comedy and drama for film and television for over thirty-five years. Along with selling a number of television pilots, including one co-written and co-created with Academy Award winning screenwriter David S. Ward, Robert has also written for Happy Days, The Ellen Burstyn Show, Buck Henry’s comedy sci-fi Quark, and the television adaptation of Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Mr. Keats was the writer/producer of Women Without Men, an HBO pilot presentation in association with Lorne Michaels’ production company, Broadway Video. Robert created the show with Penny Marshall, who starred in the presentation with Dyan Cannon and Lorraine Bracco. Robert’s work in film includes The Closer, an adaptation of the Broadway play Wheelbarrow Closers. Mr. Keats has sold original screenplays to major studios and independent production companies and has been called in to rewrite numerous other scripts, both in film and television.
AGENTS ATTENDING PITCH FEST
Kat Salazar joined Larsen Pomada Literary Agents in February 2011 as an intern for the agency working directly for agency co-founder Elizabeth Pomada. Previously she worked for University of Washington Press as a Marketing Assistant and held internships at University of California Press, HarperOne of Harper Collins, and Wales Literary Agency. Currently, she is a Publishing Assistant at Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari Press as well as the agency's newest Associate Agent and the San Francisco Writers Conference Social Media Director. Kat earned a BA degree from University of Washington, double majoring in English: Literature and Communications: Journalism.
As an Associate Agent Kat is actively looking for Children’s Picture books, Middle-grade, and Young adult. For adult audiences she is interested in Literary Fiction and Urban Fantasy.
For more about Kat visit her blog: www.KatLovesBooks.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @KatLovesBooks
Robyn Russell
Robyn Russell is an associate at The Amy Rennert Agency, a boutique literary agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. She began working with Amy in 2005 while completing a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the University of San Francisco. The agency represents a select group of quality fiction and nonfiction writers—many of them award-winners. The agency has had a dozen New York Times and national bestsellers in recent years, including work by Jimmy Buffett, author of the beloved Maisie Dobbs series Jacqueline Winspear, two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, NBC Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Tom Lichtenheld, and the late Terry Ryan, whose memoir, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, was made into a feature film starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. The agency also represents National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart, author of The More I Owe You Michael Sledge, and Amy Franklin-Willis, whose forthcoming debut novel, The Lost Saints of Tennessee, was recently published by Grove/Atlantic. Robyn is actively seeking strong narrative nonfiction, commercial and literary fiction, mysteries, and legal thrillers. She is especially drawn to voice-driven fiction, psychological realism, and rich family dramas in the vein of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections and Freedom, Eric Puchner’s Model Home, and Lily King’s Father of the Rain. She has a soft spot for fiction that brings to mind the work of Jennifer Weiner, short story collections and cycles, and beautifully written memoirs like Robin Romm’s The Mercy Papers and Alison Smith’s Name All the Animals. In general, she is not interested in science fiction, fantasy, cozy mysteries, or the paranormal, but the writing means everything to her so she is willing to consider these projects. Robyn is also a freelance editorial consultant and the founder of Working Title Editorial.
Felicia Eth
Felicia Eth has been a literary agent for an amazing length of time - long enough to see this business change ten fold. starting out in the Story Depts of Palomar Pictures and Warner Bros in NY, she moved over to agenting at Writers House as the agency was fast becoming one of the major players in NY. At Writers House she handled her own clients including Armistead Maupin and Annie Proulx, sold paperback rights for a handful of publishers including Ten Speed Press and Chronicle Books, and was the conduit for the agency's clients to Hollywood agents.
Moving to California found Felicia Eth working a brief stint asWest Coast acquiring editor for
st. Martina's Press, before going out on her own with Felicia Eth Literary Representation.
As her own boss Felicia picks and chooses books that excite her -handling a small array of literary fiction complimented by provocative, or timely nonfiction that spans the gamut from narrative nonfiction, travelogues, psychology and social issues or quirky books that appeal to her. Among clients Felicia has handled are Arlene Blum, Chris Philips, Dashka Slater, Linda Kohanov. Felicia's focus is on books for adult readers. Hers is a one woman shop combining NY savvy with San Francisco style.
Minju Chang
Minju Chang joined BookStop in 2006, and represents middle-grade and young adult writers of all genres. She has a particular interest in smart adventure/mystery novels, magical realism, and intense literary fiction, but her real weakness is for funny, clever, and gutsy characters with big attitudes.
BookStop clients and their work have earned national recognition from such organizations as the American Library Association’s Notable committee, the American Booksellers and from ‘Young Reader’ committees in a number of states.
Elizabeth Kracht
Elizabeth Kracht joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates in the fall of 2010 to broaden her perspective on the publishing industry. She represents both literary and commercial fiction as well as nonfiction, and brings to the agency experience as a former acquisitions editor, freelance publicist and writer.
Elizabeth’s career in publishing took root in Puerto Rico where she completed her BA in English and worked as a copyeditor for an English-language newspaper. When she returned to the mainland she found her “vein of gold” in book publishing. She thrives on working closely with authors and researching the potential market for new books.
Elizabeth’s eclectic life experience drives her interests. She appreciates writing that has depth, an introspective voice or that offers wisdom for contemporary living. Having lived in cities such as New York, San Francisco and San Juan, Puerto Rico, she is compelled by urban and multicultural themes and loves settings that are characters unto themselves.
In fiction, she represents literary, commercial, women’s, thrillers, mysteries, and YA with crossover appeal. She is intrigued by untrustworthy narrators, tragic tales of class and circumstance, and identifies with flawed and quirky yet sterling characters. In nonfiction, she particularly loves voice- or adventure-driven memoir, and other nonfiction projects that contribute to the well-being of the self or others in addition to niche projects that fill holes in the market, offer a fresh approach, or make her laugh. She also has a soft spot for nonfiction heroic pet stories.