Tracy Bernstein fell in love with publishing as a college sophomore when she worked as a summer intern in the publicity department at Houghton Mifflin. The following summer she returned as an editorial intern and discovered her life’s work. Two weeks after graduating, she began her career with the position of editorial assistant at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She has since been an editor at such publishing houses as Henry Holt, Kensington, and Pocket Books. Currently, she is Executive Editor at New American Library, a division of Penguin Random House, where she is seeking commercial fiction, cozy mysteries, memoir, parenting, health, and pop culture projects. She also runs the Signet Classics imprint, allowing her to boast of being Jane Austen’s editor! Besides books, she is passionate about her family, theater, chocolate, and her amazing hometown, New York, NY.
Brenda Copeland is an Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Press, where she has worked since 2010. Brenda publishes a vibrant mix of fiction and non-fiction, from the commercial to the literary, and looks for strong stories told with a strong voice. Current authors include Matthew Dicks, author of Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Ann Leary, author of The Good House, and Amy Sue Nathan, whose debut novel The Glass Wives will come out in summer, 2013. Over the course of her career Brenda has published such bestselling authors as Dean Koontz, Claire Cooke, Cecily Von Ziegesar, Melissa de la Cruz, as well as Gotham and Deepak Chopra. Brenda teaches book editing at New York University and has a weakness for cheese. At Words & Music, 2013, Ms. Copeland will be conducting a workshop on how to write a memoir.
John Koehler is the president and publisher of Koehler Books. He is an award-winning graphics designer, and the author or five books. He and his staff publish a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, as well as books for Latinos and emerging authors. John’s professional career includes being creative director of a major advertising agency and running a design studio. He made an international splash in 1991 by winning the Boomerang World Championship in Perth, Australia and was a member of the Foster’s Boomerang 2000 Team, a touring troop that taught professional athletes, and others, the gospel of boomerangs. He has helped run a ministry for special needs children, and lives in Virginia Beach, VA with his family.
Andra Miller is a Senior Editor at Algonquin Books, and has worked in the company’s New York office for the past 12 years. Andra acquires and edits both literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Recent favorites include Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, by Amy Stewart, which hit the New York Times Bestseller List; Susan Hand Shetterly’s stunning collection of nature essays, Settled in the Wild; and Lucky Girl, a memoir by Mei-Ling Hopgood about what happens when an American girl’s life is thrown topsy turvy when her boistrious Chinese birth family come calling. Next year will see Algonquin’s debut of Caroline Leavitt’s next novel, which has already garnered much excitement: Pictures of You, as well as The Silver Girl, a novel by award-winning writer Tayari Jones.
Will Murphy is a Senior Executive Editor at Random House, where he has worked for eight years. Previously, he was a senior editor at the University of Minnesota Press, and the literary editor at the University of California Press in Berkeley. Will has been named one of “50 Under 40,” who matter in publishing by Publishers Weekly. He has become known for editing books that matter, such as the powerful Finn by Jon Clinch and the beautiful work by Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence; as well as The Second World: Enemies and Influence in the New Global Order by Parag Khanna. Also on his list are How Success Happens by David Brooks and The Battle of the Crater by Richard Slotkin. Other authors include include Jeff Shaara, David Brooks, Bernard-Henri Levy, Philip Zimbardo, and Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, which was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 16 weeks.
Julian Pavia is a Senior Editor at Crown Trade. He began his editorial career at Crown eight years ago, after a brief stint in literary scouting at Maria B. Campbell Associates. Julian primarily acquires fiction and is most drawn to upmarket thrillers, suspense, and books with science-fiction/fantasy elements, although over the years he’s also published non-fiction in numerous categories spanning sports, science/technology, history, celebrity, and humor. Julian’s recent books with Crown include Andy Weir’s The Martian and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, both of which were New York Times and USA Today bestsellers; Edgar award-winning author Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs; Chris Beckett’s Arthur C. Clarke award-winning novel Dark Eden; Peter Stenson’s addiction-memoir-meets-zombie-novel Fiend; and several techno thrillers by New York Times bestseller Scott Sigler.