Becka Oliver
Executive Director
Becka Oliver (she/her/hers) joined the WLT in September 2013 as Executive Director after more than two decades of experience working in newspaper and book publishing. She spent much of her publishing career inside two of the “big five” publishing leaders – Macmillan and Hachette Book Group — licensing domestic and foreign rights on behalf of countless notable authors, including Sandra Brown, Brad Meltzer, Nicholas Sparks, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, and more. In 2007, she made the leap from Associate Director of Subsidiary Rights at Grand Central Publishing to Literary Agent, first at Endeavor and then at William Morris Endeavor (WME) after the two powerhouse talent agencies merged. As a literary agent, Becka represented clients working in both fiction and nonfiction, including Brunonia Barry, Sheryl Crow, Kamran Pasha, Joanna Philbin, Susan Rebecca White, and the popular blog Awkward Family Photos.
Sarah Renee Beach
Program Director
Sarah Renee Beach is an Austin-based poet and writer originally from Southeast Texas. She received a BA in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She is the author of the chapbook Impact, which won Sundress Publications’ 2022 Chapbook Contest. Sometimes you’ll find her writing on-the-spot poems on a 1957 Smith Corona with Typewriter Rodeo. Read more of her writing at sarahreneebeach.com.
