[This is a Virtual Ruby* event, taking place over Zoom. Join us: https://zoom.us/j/377584259?pwd=RlRONzdadG4vY0loeUlnenFEcFNQZz09 Password will be sent to you upon registration.]

Authors, join us for a two-part series demystifying the very mystifying process of getting a literary agent. For Part I (on April 15), we'll have Ruby authors share their personal experiences. Ruby authors include Shruti Swamy, Meng Jin, Gabriela Garcia, and Rachel Khong. Come with questions; we may have answers!

Part II, happening at 5 p.m. PST on April 22, will feature literary agents Marya Spence (Janklow & Nesbit), Sarah Bowlin (Aetivas), Samantha Shea (Georges Borchardt), and Jin Auh (Wylie).

About our agents

Raised in California’s Bay Area, Marya Spence studied literature at Harvard, where she was Fiction Editor for the Advocate and specialized in creative writing. She went on to get her MFA at New York University and teach undergraduate creative writing there. She also spent these years in her 20’s working and interning at The New Yorker, PAPER Mag, Travel & Leisure, Vanity Fair, Publishers Weekly, METROPOLIS Magazine, and more—with a brief stint in equity research.

As someone who values craft from the writer’s perspective, Marya represents a diverse range in fiction and nonfiction, including, but not limited to, literary novels and collections, upmarket commercial fiction, cultural criticism and voice-driven essays, narrative journalism with a humorous or critical edge, and pop culture. She lives in Brooklyn. Clients Include: Angelica Baker, Becky Cooper, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Alex Dimitrov, Hermione Hoby, Jaroslav Kalfar, Rachel Khong, Eugene Lim, Lisa Locascio, Daniel Loedel, Haley Mlotek, Allie Rowbottom, Ashleigh Young

Sarah Bowlin joined Aevitas in early 2017 after a decade as an editor of literary fiction and nonfiction. She has worked on the international breakout novel How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti; the New York Times Notable Book, The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips; the National Book Award-nominated The End by Salvatore Scibona; the acclaimed novels Marlena by Julie Buntin and Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong; and works by the award-winning novelist, Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

Bowlin has a BA in American Literature from New York University. Originally from the South, she got her start in publishing at Riverhead Books and was most recently a senior editor at Henry Holt & Company.

As an Aevitas agent based in Los Angeles, she is focused on bold, diverse voices in fiction and nonfiction. She’s especially interested in stories of strong or difficult women and unexpected narratives of place, of identity, and of the shifting ways we see ourselves and each other. She’s also interested in food history, wine, and dance.

Samantha Shea joined Georges Borchardt, Inc. in 2010 and was made a Vice President in 2016. Her list includes literary fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, journalism, essays, cultural criticism, and history. Samantha’s authors are regularly named for numerous awards and honors, including the “5 Under 35” honor from the National Book Foundation, the Rona Jaffe Prize, the NYPL's Young Lions Fiction Award, the “Best of Young American Novelists” honor from Granta Magazine, the Kirkus Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Awards, the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize, and others. She represents such writers as Lesley Nneka Arimah, Amy Butcher, Jane Delury, Camille Dungy, Lydia Fitzpatrick, Greg Jackson, Casey Michel, Angela Pelster-Wiebe, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Shruti Swamy, Novuyo Tshuma, and Jenny Zhang (among others).

Jin Auh is a literary agent at The Wylie Agency, which has offices in New York and London. www.wylieagency.com

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*While we shelter in place during the Covid19 pandemic, The Ruby's physical location will be closed. As a collective, we'll continue to gather online for virtual workshops, events, and discussions. All are welcome to join us for these events.

For those who can afford it and would like to support The Ruby during this uncertain time, we are offering 3 tiers of virtual membership: $5/week, $15/week, and $25/week. (Though we have some money in our emergency savings account to get us through the next little while, we're pretty nervous about the future, and how long this might go on for.) Please help only if it's feasible for you. If you're in a tough time financially right now, we absolutely get it. Please, take care of yourself and stay connected to this community so we can help.

Here are the tiers of virtual membership (use these links to sign up):

$5/week - https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/aRsJyABygL4FvvEJT

$15/week - https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/o56ggrnNNx9rzn6AA

$25/week - https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/q37HfmWSQMoLzPt4p

Want to make a one-time donation of more or less? We can still accept donations through last year's GoFundMe. Link is here.

Our Virtual Ruby calendar will be updated as events are added.

[Virtual Ruby] Getting a Literary Agent: Part II