- From left to right:
Erin Murphy, Sara Sargent,
Heather Alexander, Victoria Wells Arms
Heather Alexander
Heather is an Associate Editor at Dial Books for Young Readers. Some of her favorite projects have been My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve, Nerve by Jeanne Ryan, and Manners Mash-up, A Goofy Guide to Good Behavior. Heather led a fabulous interactive session exploring voice and in our “How to Write a Scene” session, she shared a great scene from Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys.
Victoria Wells Arms
Victoria was an Editor-at-large at Bloomsbury Children’s Books, but a few months before the workshop, left Bloomsbury to start her own literary agency. Before Bloomsbury, Victoria was an editor at Putnam BFYR and Dial BFYR. She and Erin Murphy led an insightful session on the elements of plot.
Erin Murphy
Erin is the founder of Erin Murphy Literary Agency. She cut her teeth in regional publishing at Northland Publishing/Rising Moon Books for Young Readers. Since founding EMLA in 1999, she has focused on publishing books, building careers, and creating a sense of community. In addition to the session on plot she led with Victoria, Erin brought us excellent insight on everything from macro-editing to agency trends.
Sara Sargent
Sara is an editor at Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster. She has worked with New York Times bestselling authors Candace Bushnell, Mo Willems, and Doreen Cronin as well as exciting debut authors Sangu Mandanna, Rosamund Hodge, and Kiki Sullivan. Before joining Simon Pulse, Sara worked at Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency, Disney/Hyperion, and Miramax Books. Sara led a fabulous session on character and world building. During our scene session she shared a moving piece from Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post.