Susan Rabiner was editorial director of Basic Books, then a division of HarperCollins Publishers, when she and Alfred Fortunato opened the agency. She was previously a senior editor at Oxford University Press,
St. Martin
's Press, and Pantheon Books. She was the editor of such bestsellers as Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking, Lawrence Krauss's The Physics of Star Trek, Mary Lovell's Straight on Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham, John Allen Paulos's A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, George Chauncey's Gay New York, and Juliet Schor's The Overspent American, as well as the Pulitzer prizewinner And Their Children After Them by Dale Maharidge. She specializes in history, science, law, politics, business, and narrative nonfiction. She also handles textbooks in these areas and in economics. She works jointly with Al Fortunato on all projects.
Contact Susan Rabiner. Contact Al Fortunato.
Sydelle Kramer joined the agency in 2005 with over twenty-five years of experience in trade publishing, the last sixteen of which have been as an agent. Her clients are a diverse group of academics, journalists, progressive political activists, sportswriters, and memoirists. Areas of interest range from the social sciences to baseball, current events to film, cultural commentary to narrative nonfiction. Among the writers she works with are Cass Sunstein (The Second Bill of Rights and the upcoming Fundamentally Wrong); Martha Nussbaum (the upcoming Democracy in the Balance and The Fixed Star); Dalton Conley (Honky, The Pecking Order, and the upcoming Skin Deep); Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson (the upcoming Off Center); Marya Hornbacher (Wasted and The Center of Winter), Alison Bechdel (Dykes To Watch Out For and the upcoming graphic memoir, My Father's House); Chris Mooney (The Republican War on Science); Helen Zia (Asian-American Dreams and Wen Ho Lee's My Country vs. Me); Sgt. Kayla Williams (Love My Rifle More Than You); Chaplain James Yee (For God and Country); and the sports think tank, Baseball Prospectus (the annuals Baseball Prospectus and Football Prospectus).
Contact Sydelle Kramer.
Helena Schwarz joined the agency in 2005. She has held senior marketing positions at Oxford University Press, Basic Books, Pantheon Publishers, and Harper Collins Publishers. Most recently, she was Director of Sales and Marketing at Columbia University Press. She has worked with such bestselling authors as Iris Chang (The Rape of Nanking), Juliet Schor (The Overworked American), Stephen L. Carter (The Culture of Disbelief), Alexander McCall Smith (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency), John Paulos (A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper), and many others. Areas of interest include memoir, current affairs, linguistics, Jewish studies, and culinary arts.
Contact Helena Schwarz.
Holly Bemiss joined the agency in 2007, bringing with her over a decade of book industry experience. She began her career as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble and later worked at the legendary independent store, A Clean-Well Lighted Place for Books, before assuming the position of manager of San Francisco's A Different Light Bookstore. She has held publicity positions at Avalon Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster, Perseus Books, and most recently at Houghton Mifflin, where she was the Assistant Director of Publicity. She has worked with a diverse group of bestselling authors, including Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Natalie Angier (The Canon), Harvey Pekar (The Best American Comics), and Pamela Anderson (Star). Specific areas of interest include politics and popular culture and innovative books—from graphic novels to web-originated ideas to serious nonfiction.
Contact Holly Bemiss.
