Tanya Byrne is an award-winning author of six contemporary YA novels (Hodder and Hachette), the first of which earned her a nomination for New Writer of the Year at the National Book Awards. Her books have been published around the world and have been translated into Spanish, German, Italian and Polish.

A regular at festivals like YALC, Hay and the Edinburgh Festival, Tanya is passionate about diversity in publishing and encouraging writers from marginalised backgrounds to tell their stories.

Jon Curzon is a literary agent at Artellus Ltd., where he represents writers across fiction and non-fiction. Clients he has represented have been published in the UK, US, Germany, France, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Greece.

In addition to his agenting work, Jon has also worked as a freelance editor for literary consultancies and creative writing courses since 2015. His perspective as an agent allows him to precisely identify what’s working in your manuscript and what needs tweaking in order to take your work to the next level.

Kesia Lupo is currently the Commissioning Editor at Macmillan Children’s Books and a former literary agent at Donald Maass Literary Agency representing children’s fiction, adult fiction and select adult non-fiction. Her 11 years experience in publishing makes her a valuable editor who will expertly advise you on your submission pack to elevate your materials and help you improve your chances with agents.

She has worked with both UK and US based authors, and so is uniquely positioned to answer any questions you may have on the market in either location.

Helen Lane is a literary agent at Ki Agency where she represents adult genre and select YA fiction writers. As an agent, Helen is very hands on developmentally, and works with her clients to perfect their manuscripts before submission, encouraging her authors to push their writing to new levels.

Before becoming an agent, she spent years producing developmental edit reports for the agents she interned under. Her strengths lie particularly in identifying plot holes and pacing, world building, and character development.

Sam Jordison is a publisher, author, and journalist. He is the co-director of the award-winning Galley Beggar Press, publishers of Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport and Alex Pheby’s Mordew. He has written more than a dozen non-fiction titles including Enemies of the People, a commentary on the folks who brought us Brexit and Trump, and Literary London.

Kate Rizzo is a Rights Director at Greene & Heaton.  She has sold translation rights for writers like Laura Barnett, Lucy Clarke, Kate Davies, Joseph Knox, Maria Realf, Holly Seddon, Clare Swatman, and Sarah Waters, and has worked for a number of bestselling writers in genres as broad as crime/thriller, women’s fiction, literary, memoir, narrative non-fiction and the sciences.

Kate’s background in international rights gives her a keen eye for what a manuscript needs to find a publishing home and captivate readers.

Megan Carroll is a literary agent at Watson, Little Ltd with over a decade of experience in the industry. Her tastes span many genres and Megan is keen to read anything across women’s fiction – including novels in the romance, book club and upmarket space – YA, and MG. In her 11 years at the agency, she has read or worked on almost every type of fiction and non-fiction project and is open to looking at everything.

She brings her market experience as an agent to her editorial work and loves discussing pace, themes, dialogue and voice with a particular focus on plot and ensuring that there’s a clear hook to get attention from an agent. editor and eventual reader.