AGENTS & EDITORS

 
Donna Bagdasarian

DONNA BAGDASARIAN
Publication Riot Group, Inc.

Donna Bagdasarian established Publication Riot Group, Inc. after 11 years working in the publishing industry as a literary agent. The company is a literary management company, representing their authors in all processes of the entertainment trajectory: from book development, to book sales, to subsidiary sales in the foreign market, television and film. Publication Riot Group, Inc. represents both fiction and nonfiction with special interest in general fiction/mainstream, literary fiction, mystery and suspense, thrillers, historicals, contemporary women’s fiction, biography and memoir, history, business, finance, psychology, and popular science. Publication Riot Group, Inc. believes in career development for authors, taking a long-term approach in planning and editorial assistance. Some twenty plus authors are represented by the agency.

Donna Bagdasarian is a native New Englander who grew up in the suburbs of Boston. After graduating cum laude from Boston University she pursued her Master’s degree in Literature and Philosophy, while editing the prestigious philological journal, Arion. Tired of the Ivory Tower, she left academia to join Addison Wesley Longman as a mathematics textbook acquisitions editor. Wanting to get back to working with books that she was passionate about, Donna moved to New York City in 1998 and joined the legendary William Morris Mailroom as an Agent Trainee. Quickly climbing out of the mailroom, she worked as the assistant to the notable literary agent Mel Berger for two years before she herself was promoted, all in record time.

Experienced selling high-profile fiction and nonfiction as an agent, Donna joined Vigliano Associates in 2002, bringing her academic, editing and agenting skills together with her passion to represent and sell incredible authors and books. Having joined Maria Carvainis Agency in the fall of 2004, Donna brought not just her client list but her experience in managing a boutique agency to compliment the agency’s notable stable of best-selling authors. Currently, she is the President and founder of Publication Riot Group, Inc., where she can apply her many years of agency experience in the management of her own boutique management company. Donna is particularly interested in almost all fiction: literary, women’s, historical, mainstream, ethnic, with the exceptions of sci-fi and fantasy. Her interests in non-fiction range from pop-culture to academic, sociological, scientific, political and memoir.



Michelle Brower

MICHELLE BROWER
Folio Literary Management

Michelle Brower began her career in publishing in 2004 while studying for her Master’s degree in English Literature at New York University, and has been hooked ever since. During that time, she assisted the agents Wendy Sherman and Joelle Delbourgo, and found herself in love with the process of discovering new writers and helping existing writers further their careers. After graduating, she became an agent with Wendy Sherman Associates, and there began representing books in many different areas of fiction and non-fiction. In 2009, she joined Folio Literary Management, where she is looking for literary fiction, thrillers, high-quality commercial fiction that transcends genre, and narrative non-fiction. She enjoys digging into a manuscript and working with authors to make their project as saleable as it can be, and her list includes the authors S.G. Browne, Julia Wertz, Todd Ritter, and Michele Young-Stone among many others.



Paul S. Levine

PAUL S. LEVINE
Paul S. Levine Literary Agency

Paul S. Levine ”wears two hats”–- he is a lawyer and a literary agent. He has practiced entertainment law for over 27 years, specializing in the representation of writers, producers, actors, directors, composers, musicians, artists, authors, photographers, galleries, publishers, developers, production companies and theatre companies in the fields of motion pictures, television, interactive multimedia, live stage, recorded music, concerts, the visual arts, publishing, and advertising. In 1998, He opened the Paul S. Levine Literary Agency, specializing in the representation of book authors and the sale of motion picture and television rights in and to books. Since starting his literary agency, he has sold over 80 fiction and non-fiction books to at least 30 different publishers and has had many books developed as movies-for-television and feature films.

The fiction which Mr. Levine represents tends to be commercial: thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, “ soap opera” in the vein of Danielle Steele or Jackie Collins, and literary fiction. The non-fiction which he represents also tends to be commercial: self-help, how-to, relationships, memoirs, health, women’s issues, pop culture, new age, and business. For both fiction and non-fiction books, his biggest successes have been with authors who originally self-publish their books and then wish to have their books republished by a major publishing house. For the film screen, he represents a wide range of scripts, from romantic comedies to thrillers to historical epics. In television, Mr. Levine mainly represents writers and producers of true life-story movies-for-television, as well as the subjects of those docu-dramas. He also represents writers and writer-producers of network and non-network series television, both dramas and comedies, as well as reality shows, game shows and talk shows.



Neil Nyren

NEIL NYREN
G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Neil Nyren is senior vice president, publisher and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Among his authors of crime and suspense are Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Patricia Cornwell, Robert Crais, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, Randy Wayne White, Alex Berenson, C.J. Box, Ace Atkins, James O. Born and Carol O’Connell.



Barbara Poelle

BARBARA POELLE
Irene Goodman Literary Agency

Originally from the west coast, Barbara Poelle worked for a Bay Area Publisher before accepting the offer to join the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. A voracious reader and award winning debater, Barbara is not only able to devour manuscripts, but fight for them as well. And her very brief stint as a stand-up comic comes in handy for those particularly raucous debates -- both in the office and at home. With her strong background in editing and copywriting, Barbara has no qualms about helping writers turn a “maybe” into a “yes”, and values client communication above all else. Barbara is passionate about thrillers, mysteries, historical romance, and humorous non-fiction, but will be a proud promoter of any writer with a strong, unique voice.



Annette Rogers

ANNETTE ROGERS
Poisoned Pen Press

Annette Rogers became addicted to reading through childhood winters in Juneau, Alaska, when she read the city library from one side to the other. Now Acquisitions Editor of the Poisoned Pen Press, she searches for new, unpublished mystery writers. Recent successes include Carolyn Wall's SWEEPING UP GLASS, Jeffrey Siger's MURDER ON MY KONOS, and Edward Ifkovic's LONE STAR. In addition she evaluates and edits manuscripts, corresponds with writers and agents, and fends off Facebook friend requests. Rogers published a bestselling travel book on Egypt, translated into six languages, wrote for O, the Oprah Magazine, and covered court hearings on the Mormon Bomber case for Time/Life. She has a Masters Degree in History and English.



Shannon Jamieson Vazquez

SHANNON JAMIESON VAZQUEZ
The Berkley Publishing Group

Shannon Jamieson Vazquez is an editor at The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin. She was previously an editor at Bantam Dell, and before that worked with a literary agency and at a university press. She acquires mysteries, women’s fiction, true crime, and commercial nonfiction (including pop culture). When not reading for work, she can usually be found reading for pleasure, watching movies, or in another country.



Paige Wheeler

PAIGE WHEELER
Folio Literary Management, LLC.

Paige Wheeler is a founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC. Over the course of her career, Ms. Wheeler has worked as an agent in both a literary and entertainment capacity. Prior to Folio, Ms. Wheeler founded the literary agency, Creative Media Agency, which she ran for nine years. At New York-based Artists Agency, she repped writers, producers and celebrities for television. Ms. Wheeler has worked with a wide variety of award-winning authors and celebrities, such as Nora Roberts, Robin Leach, Kathleen Eagle, Gordon Elliott, Candace Camp, Bob Vila, Emilie Richards, Karen Salmansohn, Kate Kingsbury, and The James Beard Foundation, to name a few. Currently she represents international and award-winning authors in commercial fiction and upscale fiction, as well as narrative nonfiction and prescriptive nonfiction. She represents Roberta Isleib, Casey Daniels, Kate Kingsbury, Linda O. Johnston, to name a few, and is actively searching for both literary and commercial thrillers.


For general information or questions, please email Chair Linda Hengerer by clicking here.