Fall Harvest Industry Panels

Kaitlyn Sanchez (she/her) is an agent with Bradford Literary Agency and a middle school math teacher. She has been Kaitlyn has been agenting for 5 years and has sold over 60 books with her incredible clients. Kaitlyn is also the proud co-creator and co-host of the Spring Fling Kidlit Contest and Kidlit Zombie Week as well as creator and co-host of the Kidlit Fall Writing Frenzy Contest. In her free time, she loves to play soccer, binge-watch TV shows, and, of course, read. Especially when she's all cozied up with her husband and daughter reading together. Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kaitlynleann17.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KaitlynLeann17 Please follow my clients on social media: https://kaitlynleannsanchez.com/literary-clients/

Alyza Liu is an editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, where she is proud to have worked on books that have been #1 New York Times Bestsellers; William C. Morris Award Finalists; and Kirkus, Horn Book Magazine, Bank Street Best Books of the Year, among other honors. She is looking primarily for books written by authors of colour, queer authors, and disabled authors across all age ranges and formats (excepting board books), as well as translated genre fiction from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and is most drawn to emotionally-driven stories with strong voices, atmospheric writing, and complicated characters with a fresh point of view. She’s also a big fan of monsters, mean girls, and wuxia. Her dream is to become a Jin Yong heroine, but in the meantime she daylights in publishing.

Gabriela Baron is an assistant editor at Charlesbridge, where she works on all sorts of children’s books in English and Spanish, such as A Light for Lucinda by Olga Herrera and the upcoming Lee and the Storm by Janelle Springer-Willms. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College and lives in Boston. When she’s not editing, she enjoys writing her own poetry and taking morning strolls with her dog, Gracie.

Jessica Anderson (she/her) is a Senior Editor at Christy Ottaviano Books and works on a wide range of middle grade and YA fiction and nonfiction, as well as select picture books. She is the editor of the New York Times-bestselling Dream by the Shadows by Logan Karlie; The Last Immortals Epic Axolotls series by Kit Brooks; the Orbis Pictus Award honoree Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Deidre Havrelock and Edward Kay; the Morris Award finalist Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown; and Some of Us: A Story of Citizenship and the United States by Rajani LaRocca, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee, among other titles. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Jessica is a native French speaker. She holds a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Columbia University and is a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree.

Carina Licon (she/her) is an Associate Editor at Holt BYR. She is interested in picture books, middle-grade, and YA with a focus on underrepresented stories and voices. She is especially reeled in by character-driven stories with whip-smart protagonists; spooky and atmospheric MG speculative fiction; contemporary YA thrillers in the vein of Courtney Summers; friendship breakup stories; romance with lots of angst and stories rich with diverse cultural traditions and storytelling. Born and raised in El Paso, TX, Carina enjoys trying local restaurants, movie podcasts, and spending time with her very intimidating 8-pound guard dog.

Stefanie joined Looking Glass Literary & Media in 2025 after spending four years at Ladderbird Literary Agency. She represents picture book through adult, both fiction and nonfiction. Before becoming an agent, she was a technical editor, a senior editor at the literary journal F(r)iction, and a book coach and editor for women of color. She is a board member at Literary Agents of Change. Stefanie is currently seeking MG, YA, and Adult fiction and nonfiction, primarily by BIPOC authors. She’s open to all genres in MG and YA, but prefers gutsy contemporary and grounded fantasy, horror, and mystery with a strong sense of adventure. In Adult fiction, she’s specifically seeking cozy mysteries, grounded fantasy, high-concept + plot-heavy romance, and romantic suspense helmed by BIPOC protagonists. In Adult nonfiction, she’s hunting for cookbooks and baking books from people of color, as well as health/fitness-centric, body-neutral cookbooks; and nonfiction that sits at the intersection of advocacy and the following: sports and exercise science, health and fitness, nutrition, medicine, and animals.