Editors & Agents Day 2025

James Burns joined Bright in 2009 and boasts a wide range of experience across the children’s and adult publishing markets. In 2014, he moved from the UK to lead the US office, a display of his ambitious, tenacious, and adaptable traits. Under his leadership, Bright has established itself as a key player in the US and beyond. A proud advocate for traditionally marginalized voices and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, James is naturally drawn to creative work that reflects ownership of style and has strong messaging behind it. As Managing Director, James oversees the overall working of the agency, all of Bright’s divisions and strives to drive new opportunities for all of the agency’s artists.

Ruqayyah Daud is a Senior Editor at Little Brown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. She acquires novels for all ages from picture books through the emerging New Adult category. Her favorite books are those with an emotional core, a vibrant cast of characters, and a unique world. Her list includes the instant #1 New York Times bestseller Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma and critically acclaimed As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh. When not acquiring books she's selling them as an Indie Bookseller at Fonts Books & Gifts in McLean, Virginia.

Caitlin “Cece” Johnson (she/her) is an editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books. She’s began her editorial career at the Balzer + Bray imprint, where she had the pleasure of working on titles by Stacey Abrams, Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam, Sonora Reyes, Maulik Pancholy, B.B. Alston, Jasmine Warga, and Julie Murphy. She is the editor of the NAACP award-winning novel EVERYONE’S THINKING IT and Texas Bluebonnet Award finalist NIMBUS. She now works on predominantly picture books and oversees the backlist publishing program for the bestselling Big Nate series. Her favorite stories are layered, voice-driven contemporary and fantasy narratives that authentically center diverse, intersectional perspectives. She is looking to acquire picture books of all stripes, as well as a select number of young adult and middle grade novels.

Oakland-born law grad, Taj McCoy is a romance author, literary agent, and higher education consultant. Taj joined Rees Literary Agency in 2022 and aims to widen the entryway for marginalized authors and to normalize Black joy, fat joy, celebrations of culture, and love without limitations. She represents Adult Fiction (commercial, romance, rom-coms, women's fiction, mystery/thriller, upmarket), Adult Non-Fiction (memoirs, narratives, cookbooks, self-help, empowerment, cultural tradition and history), Children's Fiction (Picturebooks; MG and YA contemporary, mystery, romance, thriller, fantasy), Children's Non-Fiction (historical narratives, picture books), and illustrators.

Erica McGrath joined Writers House in 2018 assisting Senior Agents Stephen Barr and Susan Cohen. She’s worked with award-winning authors and illustrators like Maggie Thrash, Anna Walker, Gideon Sterer, and F.C. Yee. As a Junior Agent, she is actively building her list and is interested in working with ambitious, funny, and historically underrepresented and little-seen voices in all age ranges across the board. Erica is most eager to read unexpectedly heartfelt and weird picture books, uncanny and adventurous middle grade, gutsy voice-driven YA, and graphic novels and memoirs from all ages. As a New York native, she believes there's no greater joy than being gutted by the ending of an excellent book while riding the M train. Most recently she devoured Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam and would welcome a graphic novel of similarly daring proportions her inbox! Outside of the book world, she enjoys going to concerts and lying in the park (preferably both, when possible). She is currently open to queries and looks forward to reading your work.

Spanish Harlem born and bred, Saribel graduated from Kalamazoo College with a B.S in Anthropology, an embarrassingly long TBR, and a passion for children’s literature. This passion led her to positions at Penguin Random House and W.W. Norton, where she learned about the different sides of the publishing industry. Now at Gallt and Zacker, she loves selling picture books and graphic novels internationally as well as representing her own list of amazing illustrators and graphic novelists.

Eileen Robinson has worked in children’s publishing close to 30 years and is still in love with creating children’s books, and helping authors gain confidence in telling their stories. She published in-house for Scholastic and Harcourt, and in 2019 helped build and launch Reycraft Books children’s imprint under Benchmark Education. As an entrepreneur and independent publisher, her company Move Books strove to get reluctant middle-graders (especially boys) back into reading. This mission was embraced by Charlesbridge Publishing in October 2022 when they acquired Move Books as a new imprint (now Charlesbridge Moves) and she came on as Editorial Director of the imprint. She also teaches for Highlights and mentors young writers and future publishers in underserved communities.

Celina Sun (she/her) is an Assistant Editor at Penguin Workshop, where she edits picture books through young adult fiction, including graphic novels. She looks to champion joyful, escapist stories by underrepresented voices that capture all the tender and thorny emotions of growing up, falling in love, and navigating evolving relationships with friends, family, and oneself. She’s especially drawn to voice-y, character-driven commercial middle grade and YA in the contemporary realistic and grounded fantasy spaces, as well as picture books and graphic novels that take full advantage of their format. She’d love to see fresh takes on beloved tropes, irresistible characters, and sparkly, propulsive writing.

Charlotte Wenger is a literary agent in the Boston area with Prospect Agency. Prior to joining Prospect, she was an associate editor at Page Street Kids. She has her Master of Arts in Children’s Literature from Simmons and has since mentored a number of their MFA in Writing for Children students. When she's not working, you can find her occasionally crafting, randomly breaking into song, and most importantly, being a toddler mom. Charlotte represents authors and illustrators of children's books - ranging from board books through YA, but especially picture books.