The Ampersand Review Industry Talks

This November we're joined by Melanie Little, Léonicka Valcius, Hollay Ghadery, and Jack Illingworth for our first Industry Talks event! Join us as we sit down with four professionals from across the publishing industry to get all of your burning questions answered.

Melanie Little is an award-winning author and editor of fiction and non-fiction. She was the inaugural editor of Calgary’s Freehand Books, for which she was awarded the Book Publishers’ Association of Alberta’s Award for Editorial Excellence, and has been a senior editor of Canadian fiction for House of Anansi Press. Books she has edited have won the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and have twice been finalists for Canada Reads. She is now a freelance editor and writing mentor in Toronto whose regular clients include Coach House Books, Penguin Random House, and Diaspora Dialogues. She is currently completing a novel that draws on her experiences as an editor.

Léonicka Valcius is a Literary Agent at Transatlantic Agency who specializes in commercial and genre fiction for children and adults. As one of the founding organizers of The Festival of Literary Diversity in Brampton, amplifying marginalized creatives is a core part of her ethos. As a lawyer licensed in Ontario, Léonicka also offers detailed contract reviews and contract negotiation services to protect the creative labour and intellectual property rights of writers who do not have or want literary agents. Léonicka draws on over 15 years of sales and marketing experience and her work at multinational publishers to help her clients build sustainable and intentional careers.

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