Each year, we invite an array of publishing professionals to campus to talk about the publishing world. These folks participate in a panel discussion about publishing (how it works, how to break in, what not to do, etc.) and then are available for one-on-one meetings with conference participants.
Panelists
Vanessa Aguirre
Vanessa Aguirre is an editor at St. Martin’s Press and a co-director of Latinx in Publishing's Writers Mentorship Program. Prior to landing at St. Martin's, she was a fiction editor at Hugo-nominated magazine Strange Horizons. She hails from Texas and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she originally studied clinical psychology before realizing she could follow her passion for stories (and the people who create them) into a career. Her background in psychology and speculative fiction informs her taste in books: she loves to be transported, whether to a warm magical tavern or the dark, twisty interior world of a character who fascinates. In everything Vanessa does, she is passionate about promoting underrepresented voices.Jeff Bogle
Jeff Bogle is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief, and one-man band behind the quarterly black-and-white literary magazine and colorful book press, Stanchion. He is a dad of two daughters, an avid traveler, an award-winning photographer, an author, and a freelance writer who lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife and their cats. He's written for the Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Cosmo, Travel + Leisure, USA Today, Fodor's, Wine Enthusiast, Food and Wine, and Real Simple, among other print and online publications. His book, Streets Cats and Where to Find Them, will be published by Running Press on August 19, 2025.Arielle Datz
Arielle Datz grew up in Los Angeles and has lived in Chicago, Paris, Vietnam, and New York. An agent at DCL since 2016, she is looking for upmarket fiction, both literary and commercial. While she is a plot-focused reader, she looks for dynamic characters and elevated language and enjoys elements of speculative fiction, magical realism, mystery, and suspense. In nonfiction, she is looking for unusual personal narratives, pop culture and science, and social commentary.Past Panelists
2024
Rae Bryant, editor, Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review
Lauren Cerand, publicist
Richard Peabody, Gargoyle
2023
Barbara Westwood Diehl, editor, The Baltimore Review
Melissa Scholes Young, editor, Grace in Darkness, Furious Gravity, and Grace in Love
Rebecca Bright, editor, Island Press
2020 - 2022
2019
Lea Beresford, Sr. editor, Bloomsbury
Susanna Einstein, founder, E.L.M.
Mark Drew, editor, Gettysburg Review
2018
Jessica Papin, agent, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret
Caroline Casey, editor, Coffee House
Gregory Donovan, editor, Blackbird
2017
Mitchell Waters, agent, Curtis Brown
Naomi Gibbs, editor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Rae Bryant, editor, Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review
2016
Reiko Davis, agent, DeFiore and Company
Nate Brown, editor, American Short Fiction
2015
Noah Ballard, agent, Curtis Brown
Anjali Singh, editor, The Other Press
2014
Mitchell Waters, agent, Curtis Brown
Jon Parrish Peede, publisher, Virginia Quarterly Review
2013
Elisavietta Ritchie, Editor, Washington Writers' Publishing House
Libby O'Neill, Managing Editor, Atticus Books and Atticus Review
2012
Robert H. Pruett president, Brandylane Publishers
Greg Nicholl, assistant editor, Johns Hopkins University Press
Jen Michalski, editor, jmww
Howard Yoon, agent, Ross Yoon Agency