This page will be updated as more faculty members are
confirmed for the 2026 Writing Workshop of San Francisco.
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Joel Brigham is the founder of Brigham Editorial, a fiction editing service that has helped writers find agents and agented authors prepare for submission and publication.
He also is an editorial consultant for The Purcell Agency, a literary agency based out of Chicago, Illinois. As an author, he writes YA contemporary fiction and has two books on submission, both represented by agent Tina P. Schwartz.
He also edits content for Basketball News and spent 12 years covering the NBA as a senior sportswriter for HoopsWorld and Basketball Insiders. He has a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and a master’s degree in English Education and has taught high school English for 18 years.
At the event, he is offering add-on optional manuscript critiques for attendees.
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Chuck Sambuchino (@chucksambuchino) is a freelance editor, bestselling book author, and former longtime staffer for Writer’s Digest Books.
For many years he edited the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog was one of the largest blogs in publishing, and he wrote the platform guidebook CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.
He is the lead director of Writing Day Workshops writers conferences, and he has taught at more than 175 writers conferences throughout his career. He is the co-coordinator of the Writing Workshopof San Francisco.
His humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures. Chuck’s books have been mentioned in Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, New York Magazine, Buzzfeed, Mental Floss,New York magazine, and many more media outlets.
All his latest books are about pickleball, including ULTIMATE PICKLEBALL, a 2026 tear-off desk calendar due out in August 2025 (Sellers Publishing). His picture book, GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL, released from Hachette in August 2025, as was carried in Target, and hit the USA Today bestseller list.
He is a successful freelance editor of queries, synopses, and manuscripts—seeing dozens of clients get agents or book deals following his consultations/edits. He loves meeting new writers.
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Wesley Chu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twelve published novels, including Time Salvager, The Rise of Io, and The Walking Dead: Typhoon. He won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. His debut, The Lives of Tao, won the Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award.
Chu is an accomplished martial artist and a former member of the Screen Actors Guild. He has acted in film and television, worked as a model and stuntman, and summited Kilimanjaro. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Paula, and two boys, Hunter and River.
At the event, Wesley is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
Eve Porinchak is an author, as well as a former literary agent.
At the workshop, Eve is offering add-on manuscript critiques for attendees.
Since earning degrees in Biology and Psychology from UCLA, Eve has lived all over the planet and spent much of her time in and out of jail – as a creative writing teacher for teen inmates. A former agent with Jill Corcoran Literary Agency, Eve also attended medical school, served as a social worker with foster youth and homeless populations, and taught everything from first grade to college courses.
Eve writes stories featuring youth she feels have been underrepresented in children’s literature, such as those born into gang life, the abandoned, and the incarcerated who – ironically – have the most fascinating tales to tell. Her first book, the critically acclaimed ONE CUT – a haunting nonfiction story with a juvenile justice bent – launched Simon and Schuster’s new young adult true crime line, Simon True.
Swati Hegde is a romance and YA author, as well as a freelance editor, mindset coach, and self-proclaimed coffee shop enthusiast. She lives in Bangalore, India, and can often be found at the nearest café with a hot mug of tea or singing her favorite songs off-key at karaoke night. She looks forward to a long career bringing Indian stories and voices to light.
Swati is represented by Rachel Beck at Liza Dawson Associates. Her debut romance novel Match Me If You Can is out now from Penguin Random House, with forthcoming books Can’t Help Faking in Love releasing in February 2025 and As Long as You Loathe Me releasing in 2026.
Find her on Instagram @SwatiHegdeAuthor and Twitter @SwatiHWrites.
At the workshop, Swati is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
Tayler Hill is an editor, author, and publishing professional based in Toronto, Ontario. She works with Inimitable Books, Rising Action, and also runs her own editing company, where she help authors bring their stories to life across Adult, Middle Grade, and Young Adult genres.
“I have a background in both creative writing and publishing, and I’ve also spent time working at a literary agency, which gave me great insight into what makes a manuscript stand out in today’s market. Whether a writer is submitting to agents or planning to self-publish, I love helping them shape their work into the strongest version it can be.
“For me, editing is about more than just fixing grammar or tightening prose — it’s about partnering with the author to make sure their voice shines. I know how personal and vulnerable sharing your writing can be, and I approach every project with care, compassion, and a deep respect for the story you’re trying to tell.”
At the 2026 event, she is offering add-on critiques to attendees.
Carlie Webber is a former literary agent. She is teaching, and also acting as the onsite facilitator for the 2026 Writing Workshop of San Francisco.
Carlie refused to major in English in college because no one would let her read Stephen King or R.L. Stine for class. She took her love of YA and commercial fiction to the University of Pittsburgh, where she obtained a Master of Library and Information Science. For ten years, she worked as a public librarian serving teens and adults, served on book awards committees, and reviewed books professionally for journals including Kirkus Reviews and VOYA.
Wishing to pursue her interest in the business side of books, she then enrolled in the Columbia Publishing Course. Her professional publishing experience includes an internship at Writers House and work with the Publish or Perish Agency/New England Publishing Associates and the Jane Rotrosen Agency. She was a literary agent at Fuse Literary before switching careers into SEO and technology.
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Jeanne De Vita is a literary agent with Martin Literary Management.
Before moving onto the agency side of the business, I worked in publishing for over a decade as an acquisitions editor and developmental editor for traditional publishers and authors. I’ve worked with hundreds of new and aspiring authors as well as established NYT bestsellers across the genres. I understand the mechanics of a great story and am looking for un-putdownable voice, expert structure/pacing, and a premise that I want to stay up late reading.
I still teach writing and editing craft at the college level, so I’m a technician who reads quickly and assesses books based on how successfully the submission meets the expectations of the genre, sub-genre, or niche. Are you a superfan of the genre you are writing? Can we swap excited stories about our favorite books and have honest conversations about the business, the process, and the work that goes into creating great stories? I have an editorial approach, a practical perspective on the business, and a deep passion for this work.
At the 2026 event, she is teaching and meeting attendees one-on-one. See her wishlist here.
Laurie McLean is a literary agent with Fuse Literary.
At the 2026 event, she is teaching and also meeting with attendees one-on-one. (See her wishlist here.)
Laurie is a founding partner at Fuse Literary representing New York Times and international bestselling authors, as well as indie published authors who want to also publish traditionally, and debut authors with promise. She spent 20 years as the CEO of a publicity and marketing agency, and 8 years as an agent and senior agent at Larsen Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco before co-founding Fuse Literary in 2013 with Gordon Warnock.
Laurie was well known in the early days of the Apple Macintosh phenomenon as the CEO of the successful Silicon Valley public relations agency bearing her name. After 20 years there, she switched gears to immerse herself in her personal writing. Laurie had been writing professionally since high school–first as a journalist, then as a public relations agent–but now she could finally spread her wings as a novelist. She penned three manuscripts before deciding that she missed using the shark part of her brain and that the life of a literary agent was her perfect match. Prior to all this, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the State University of New York and a Master’s Degree at Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Journalism.
Fiction
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Andy Ross is a literary agent and founder of Andy Ross Agency.
At the 2026 event, he is teaching and meeting attendees one-on-one. See his wishlist here.
“I represent authors who write books in a wide range of subjects including: narrative non-fiction, science, journalism, history, current affairs, contemporary culture, religion, children’s books and commercial and literary fiction.
“Authors I represent include: Daniel Ellsberg, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Fritjof Capra, Susan Griffin, Erik Tarloff, Daniel Boyarin, Mary Jo McConahay, Mark Goldblatt, David Dayen, Linda Watanabe McFerrin,Daniel Boyarin, and Peter Richardson.
“I am eager to work with projects in most genres as long as the subject or its treatment is smart, original, and will appeal to a wide readership. In narrative non-fiction I look for writing with a strong voice and robust narrative arc. I like books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject.
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Maeve MacLysaght is a literary agent with Aevitas Creative Management.
Maeve is a queer ex-classicist based in Oakland, CA. She holds a B.A in Comparative Literature from Occidental College, a publishing certificate from NYU, and an MLitt in Ancient Greek Monsters from The University of St Andrews in Scotland. The goal of her list is to increase the amount of queer and BIPOC joy in the world, and to make space for marginalized authors to rework the tropes that historically oppressed them.
She is looking for strong commercial genre concepts with beautiful prose in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and graphic novels for all age ranges. She is drawn most to stories with big, campy stakes but surprising emotional cores, lovably immoral characters, queer coded villains, and people kissing while things explode.
She reads widely across genre and age range and is particularly looking for queer and POC authors taking on genre tropes in commercial fiction.
She is NOT looking for:
Nonfiction
Superhero graphic novels
Genre fiction that perpetrates the racist, colonial, imperialistic, sexist, ableist tropes of the past
Non-intersectional representation; no victories at the expense of another group
Low stakes, excessive realism
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Susan Alice Bickford is an author. At the 2026 event, she is teaching.
Susan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Central New York, the setting for many of her stories. Eventually her passion for technology pulled her to Silicon Valley, where she held a wide range of diverse roles and became an executive at a leading technology company.
She is now a full-time author but continues to be fascinated by all things high tech. She is a Past President of the Sisters in Crime Northern California Chapter and splits her time between Silicon Valley and her family’s home base in Vermont.
Bickford writes thrillers and suspense stories that are deeply embedded in the rural areas of New York State and New England, featuring resourceful female protagonists.
Bickford’s debut novel, A Short Time to Die, was published in 2017 and a was nominated for the 2018 Left Coast Crime Best Debut Novel. Her second novel, Edgar-nominated Dread of Winter, was released in October 2019. Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies Fish Out of Water, Fishy Business, The Fish that Got Away, and Invasive Species.
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Lisa Manterfield is the award-winning author of five novels and two works of nonfiction, including All Our Lies Are True, a psychological suspense that Publishers Weekly calls “gut-wrenching…and legitimately gripping.
As a developmental editor and book coach, she has guided many writers through the process of drafting, revising, and publishing a novel or memoir. She has taught writing and publishing through Stanford Continuing Studies and in her small group workshops. Her superpower is coaxing writers to “The End.”
At the 2026 event, she is teaching.