Hello, writers,
Fun fact about me: Before I arrived in Texas and at the WLT almost ten years ago, I lived in New York and worked in publishing.
When I’m moderating conversations during our Agents Symposium or teaching a class on query letter writing, I’m focusing on the latter half of those NY publishing days when I was a literary agent, but my career started at St. Martin’s Press where I was an assistant in the Subsidiary Rights Department. I sat at a desk outside of the publisher’s office and had a front row seat to pretty much everything.
At that desk (on the 15th floor of the Flatiron Building which was as cool a place to work your first job as you might think), I met Jennifer Enderlin for the first time. I still remember that first meeting and the many other times I had the pleasure of talking to her during those early SMP days, about manuscripts she was loving, about authors she was championing, about her unique and brilliant perspective on the business. Back then, she was an Editor (with a well earned capital E). Today she is President & Publisher of the St. Martin’s Publishing Group (aka the whole shebang) and I am so excited for you to meet her next week.
For our June Third Thursday, we have quite the dynamic duo lined up. As beyond freaking impressive as it is to have Jennifer Enderlin on our program, it is over the moon thrilling to have her in conversation with bestselling author (and Texan!) Katherine Center. I have had a list of “dream authors to work with” going since nearly my first day at the WLT and Katherine Center is at the tippy top. She is as funny and charming and generous as she is a talented storyteller. Getting an advance copy of her new novel (Hello Stranger, publishing next month) was like Christmas in June for me and it did not disappoint.
This is all to say – every Third Thursday is a must attend event, that’s true. But THIS Third Thursday? This is one you truly don’t want to miss. I. Can’t. Wait.
Becka
Becka Oliver
Executive Director
