Your Host
Amanda Filippelli | Writer, Editor, Book Coach
Amanda Filippelli is an internationally recognized editor, writer, and book coach, and author of Blue Rooms. She started her career as an associate editor for the Oyez Review in Chicago, and has studied under a number of industry titans. An award-winning writer herself and publishing industry expert, Amanda has done it all from freelance to copy editing to content editing to ghostwriting and book coaching to co-founding One Idea Press.
Amanda’s work has also been widely published and featured, including in Barzakh Magazine, TEDxWomenPittsburgh, ACA/PCA, Pittsburgh in the Round, and WHIRL Magazine. She was the recipient of Pittsburgh Magazine’s 40Under40 award, and is the co-founder of Pittsburgh’s first premier writers’ conference, Pitch, Publish, Promote.
Speakers
Gabriela Pereira | DIY MFA
Gabriela Pereira is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur who wants to challenge the status quo of higher education. As the founder and instigator of DIYMFA.com, her mission is to empower writers, artists and other creatives to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth.
Gabriela earned her MFA in writing from The New School and speaks at college campuses and national conferences. She is also the host of DIY MFA Radio, a popular podcast where she interviews bestselling authors and book industry professionals and author of the book DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community.
Damon Brown | Master Authorpreneur and Bestselling Author
Damon Brown helps side hustlers, solopreneurs, and other non-traditional creatives bloom. He co-founded the popular platonic connection app Cuddlr and led it to acquisition within a year, all while being the primary caretaker of his infant first son. He now guides others through his consulting/coaching, his Inc.com column, and public speaking on platforms including TED.
Damon has his Masters in Magazine Publishing from Northwestern and is author of the best-selling series The Ultimate Bite-Sized Entrepreneur on his Bring Your Worth independent publishing imprint. His 25th book, Build From Now: How to Know Your Power, See Your Abundance & Nourish the World, is available now.
Holly Eve | Forbes Contributing Writer and Founder of Madame Lemy
Holly Eve is a contributing writer for Forbes and a frequent public speaker at conferences and on college campuses. She uses her platform to support female entrepreneurs, raise awareness about animal advocacy, and have candid conversations about mental health. She practices a vegan lifestyle, and has a rescue dog, Violet.
With a decade-long career as a celebrity and TV makeup artist, Holly Eve saw every diet, skin care, and workout fad, as well as the growing demand for clean products and ingredient transparency in the beauty industry. After educating herself about the dangerous ingredients present in everyday personal care products and testing dozens of natural brands, she discovered the powerful use of lemons for deodorant. With the help of an Oxford-trained chemist, and a former VP of Retail and Distribution for Elizabeth Arden, they perfected the formula that Holly’s company, Madame Lemy, is built on.
Jordan Corcoran | Listen, Lucy and The Corcoran Collective
Nationally recognized motivational speaker, mental health advocate and author, Jordan Corcoran, founder of Listen, Lucy, is a Mercyhurst College graduate with a story to share. During her freshman year, she was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. After going through a difficult struggle with coming to terms and learning to cope, Jordan created an outlet where people can openly and candidly share their own personal challenges and struggles- an outlet where she can also use her lived experiences to end the stigma surrounding mental health.
Now Jordan’s time is spent touring around the country speaking to college, high school and middle school students about her story and the importance of acceptance - of others and of yourself. She is the author of Listen Lucy Volume 1 and Write It Out, and Little Lucy and the Little Butterflies, has been featured on Forbes, Today.com and UpWorthy for her self-love campaigns and was a keynote speaker at NAMI and other mental health organizations. Her mission is simple: she wants to create a less judgmental and more accepting world.
Olivia Dolphin | Wizards in Space Literary Magazine
Olivia Dolphin is a poet, writer, and oversharer from Providence, Rhode Island. Her work ranges from dealing with current events, the resiliency of landscapes such as the ocean or the desert, and a constant obsession with Harry Potter. She is also the Founder and Editor in Chief of Wizards in Space Literary Magazine which aims to create safe and inclusive publishing spaces for writers to share their original works and true magic. You can follow her on twitter and instagram at @lividol or @wizardsinspacemag.
Kate Juniper (she/her) | Juniper Editing & Creative
Kate Juniper (she/her) is the founder and CEO of Juniper Editing & Creative: A boutique editing and writing-coaching house dedicated to nurturing, supporting, and empowering women writers to believe in their creative desires and make them a reality.
In her career as an editor she has worked with traditional publishers including Routledge Press, House of Anansi Press, Nimbus Publishing, and Vagrant Press. She also works privately with promising authors through the various phases of writerhood: from finding their voice, to writing their book, to taking their first draft and making it agent-ready. She is the creator of the holistic online program A Writing Life of Your Own, designed to help writers consciously reclaim the fierce feminine writer within and embody the author they seek to become.
She says: “It’s my desire to reconnect every disempowered writer to who they truly are and why they truly write—capitalist, patriarchal values be damned—because great writing is not only the goal, it is the medicine, the tool, the means of healing that will deliver you to the goal.”
Literary Agents
Mary C. Moore | Kimberley Cameron & Associates
Mary C. Moore earned her MFA in Creative Writing and English from Mills College, Oakland. She joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates as an intern in 2013, becoming an agent a few years later. To find out more visit marycmoore.com.
Mary is looking for: Mary is interested in middle grade, young adult and adult fiction, especially whimsical MG and adult bookclub fiction with a speculative element.
Dan Milaschewski | United Talent Agency
Dan Milaschewski works in the publishing department at UTA and is actively building out his own list. UTA represents a wide array of books including recent bestsellers from Chip and Joanna Gaines, Mary Trump, Emmanuel Acho, Guy Raz, My Favorite Murder, Patricia Cornwell, Rachel Bloom, and Tiffany Haddish, among others. Before coming to UTA, Dan grew up in Massachusetts and majored in English at Harvard University. He now lives in Brooklyn.
Dan is looking for: mostly just fiction with thrillers, horror, speculative fiction, mystery, comedy, coming-of-age stories, commercial, upmarket, but I’m what I’m always looking for is just good writing. For nonfiction, I’m just looking for history, true crime, and comedy.
Emmy Nordstrom Higdon (they/them) | Westwood Creative Artists
Emmy Nordstrom Higdon (they/them) is a literary agent with Westwood Creative Artists, a blogger at Books Beyond Binaries, and a member of the planning team for the Festival of Literary Diversity. They are a queer, trans, non-binary colonizer originally from Newfoundland, now based in Tkaronto (Toronto, Ontario). They keep busy with finishing up their PhD, spending time in the outdoors and with their family (including adopted dogs and cats), embroidery, playing uneventful video games, and obviously, a lot of reading. They grew up on fantasy novels and 90’s kidlit horror like Bunnicula and Goosebumps. Murder is their comfort read.
Emmy is looking for: Click HERE to learn more about Emmy and for a full description of what Emmy is interested in being pitched.