BONUS RETREAT!
BONUS RETREAT!
BONUS RETREAT!
2018 Mentors - 2
Natascha Morris, Literary Agent, Bookends Literary
Natascha spent most of her childhood in a leather chair with her nose in a book. Formerly an editorial assistant at Simon & Schuster, her passion for books across genres and her desire to finding amazing talent drove her to make the transition from editorial to literary agent. Her editorial philosophy stems from the idea that all books should be well written and entertaining. Some of her favorite authors include Molly Idle, Sherwood Smith, Ann Rinaldi, Sabaa Tahir, and Meg Cabot. Check out her Pinterest for a quick look at her favorite books. https://www.pinterest.com/nataschamorris/
A Texas native, Natascha can often be found hunting for the best Tex-Mex in New York. Outside of reading, she is interested in urban farming and cooking.
Natascha is primarily looking for picture book, middle grade and young adult manuscripts across most genres, including contemporary, mysteries, thrillers, fantasy, historical fiction, and narrative non-fiction. She is also looking for artists that speak to her creatively.
Tricia Lin, Editor, Simon & Schuster
Tricia joined Aladdin Books at Simon & Schuster in 2016. She acquires picture books and middle grade fiction for Aladdin, as well as young adult novels for Simon Pulse. At S&S, she has had the privilege of working with wonderful authors such as Barbara Dee and Kevin Sands.
Tricia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from New York University. Her original plan was to pursue law, but Tricia has always been in love with stories. She became acquainted with publishing just in time—right before she was due to take the LSAT. And once the opportunity arose, she dove head first into the industry. She hasn’t looked back since.
When she reading, you can find Tricia writing, watching movies, or trying to talk people into playing board games with her. Follow her on Twitter at @triciaelin.
Rachel Orr, Agent, Prospect Literary
Rachel Orr is celebrating her eleventh year with Prospect Agency, where she represents both authors and illustrators in projects ranging from picture books through YA. She previously worked for eight rewarding years at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and uses those editorial skills to help prepare her clients’ work for submission. Her clients include Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen (The Adventures of Caveboy / Bloomsbury), Samantha M. Clark (The Boy, the Beach and the Beast / S&S), Cori Doerrfeld (The Rabbit Listened / Dial) and Emma Wunsch (The Movie Version / Abrams). Rachel loves traveling whenever she has the chance. Her favorite place on earth is the departure lounge (preferably international, but domestic will do) of Newark Airport with a breakfast sandwich, a cup of coffee and a good manuscript. She seldom has time to read for fun, though she’s looking forward to Kristin Hannah’s new novel The Great Alone in February (the 6th, to be exact). You can follow her on Twitter @rachelprospect. Or you can follow her to the local playground, where she spends at least two hours every day after school pick-up.
Tara Sullivan, Author
Tara Sullivan is an award-winning author of MG/YA novels that address current human rights issues. Tara was born in India and spent her childhood living in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic. Her first book, Golden Boy, was selected as a YALSA top-ten book of 2013, a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and the Wall Street Journal, and won the 2014 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Award. Her most recent novel, The Bitter Side of Sweet, garnered five starred reviews and is a Children’s Africana Book Award honor book of 2017. Tara currently lives and writes in Massachusetts.
Charlotte Wenger, Associate Editor, Page Street Publishing
Charlotte Wenger is an associate children's editor for Page Street Kids, the new children’s division of Page Street Publishing. After growing up and attending college in Pennsylvania and Virginia, she worked for a Philadelphia-based publishing services company until shipping up to Boston, where she earned her MA in Children's Literature from Simmons College. Between finishing her master's program and joining Page Street Kids, she did editorial work for literary agent Rubin Pfeffer. She's also spent countless hours playing and reading with the many kids she's nannied and babysat over the years, who are a big motivation and inspiration for her work.
Charlotte is thrilled to be working with debut talent, such as Lindsay Leslie and Kim Chaffee, and collaborating on books that have a personal connection for her, like Adrienne Wright's nonfiction story about the Soweto student uprising of 1976 in South Africa, where Charlotte spent a semester during undergrad.
You can check out her manuscript wish list at http://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/charlotte-wenger/ and find her on Twitter @WilbursBF_Char.