Rutgers University-Camden Writers House & MFA: Publishers Panel

This annual panel discussion featuring agents and editors sheds light on how a book goes from manuscript to bookstore shelves.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Madison Smartt Bell is a literary agent at Ayesha Pande Literary. Madison is the author of twelve novels, including The Washington Square Ensemble, Waiting for the End of the World, Straight Cut, The Year of Silence, Doctor Sleep, Save Me, Joe Louis, Ten Indians, Soldier’s Joy, Anything Goes, All Souls Rising (National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner finalist), Master of the Crossroads, The Stone That The Builder Refused, Devil’s Dream, and The Color of Night. Matt has also published three collections of short stories: Zero db, Barking Man, and Zig-Zag Wanderer; two biographies: Toussaint-Louverture and Lavoisier in the Year One; and a memoir of travel in Haiti, Soul in a Bottle. With Wyn Cooper, the other head of the two-headed singer songwriter Bell & Cooper, he has released two albums: Forty Words For Fear and Postcards out of the Blue. Born and raised in Tennessee, he has lived in New York, Paris and London. A graduate of Princeton University and the Hollins College graduate creative writing program, he has taught in many other writing programs, including Goucher College, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. He is interested in literary fiction, noir, criminal procedurals, work from the Caribbean basin and other diasporas, and anything genuinely original and fresh.

Alex Higley is the author of Cardinal (nominated for the PEN/Bingham Award) and Old Open. His novel True Failure was recently published by Coffee House Press. He is a founding editor of Great Place Books. Raised in Colorado, he currently lives in North Carolina.

Cara Reilly is an editor at Doubleday/Penguin Random House publishing literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Some of her recent publications include Katherine Rundell’s award-winning national bestseller Vanishing Treasures, Shefali Luthra’s Kirkus Prize finalist Undue Burden, Andrew Boryga’s NPR best book of the year Victim, and Meg Howrey’s New Yorker best book of the year They’re Going to Love You. Other authors she has worked with include Carol Shields Prize and Brooklyn Library Prize finalist Aisha Abdel Gawad, National Book Award and Pulitzer finalist Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Granta’s Best Young British Novelist Eley Williams, and Sperber Prize finalist Judith Mackrell. She gravitates toward fiction with a fresh voice that makes her feel something—particularly stories with a multigenerational narrative, sociopolitical bent, or sense of humor—as well as immersive, investigative works of journalism, history that fills a gap on the bookshelf, and memoirs that add to the cultural conversation. Raised in Maryland, she began her publishing career at Sterling Lord Literistic and Grove/Atlantic.

The Writers House is grateful to Holman for its generous support of this event.

To make a gift to the Writers House in support of future events, please visit rutgersfoundation.org/camdenwritershouse.

Host or Publisher The Writers House at Rutgers University-Camden