Leslie Shipman has spent 25 years promoting writers, and creating and managing literary events in New York City, from the National Book Awards Finalist Reading at the New School to Eat, Drink, and Be Literary at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

She spent over a decade at the National Book Foundation, (which presents the National Book Award), where she was instrumental in creating events and programs such as 5 Under 35, a prize for promising young novelists, the National Book Awards After Party, Eat, Drink, and Be Literary at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Innovations in Reading, a prize that promotes community organizations working at the grassroots level to encourage reading across constituencies, and BookUp, an afterschool program for middle school age students, as well as assembling awards juries. She consulted at PEN America, a leading advocate for free expression, and worked on the PEN Literary Awards, and the PEN World Voices Festival.

A poet with an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, her work can be found in the Kenyon Review, BOMB, Tinderbox, Mid-American Review, Cosmonauts Avenue and elsewhere. She serves on the Board of Alice James Books, and the advisory committee for PEN America’s Litcrawl NYC. She lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn with her partner, musician Paul Pimsler, and their dog Junie.

Cassie is a writer and editor currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at The New School. She is a recent graduate of NYU Gallatin, where she concentrated in literary and reader-response theory. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Metropolitan Diary, the Minetta Review, and the Gallatin Review. Cassie lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and their growing family of houseplants.

Katie McDonough is a writer and editor with a background in book publishing and literary nonprofit work. Her writing has appeared in Thrillist, A Women's Thing, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, Used Furniture Review, and other publications. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School and is currently at work on a novel based on her motel childhood. Katie lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, son, and elderly pet rabbit. Visit her at www.thewritekatie.com. 

Annie Dewitt is a passionate writer, editor and literary liaison. She brings to the Shipman Agency ten years of experience teaching at some of the country's leading creative writing programs including: Columbia University School of the Arts, Barnard, Bard, Bennington, Skidmore and The New School where she was nominated for a Distinguished Teaching Award. She has gone on to found and direct Roxbury Writers Residency at her home in the Catskills.

Annie was a Co-Founding Editor of Gigantic, a literary journal of short prose and art carried throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her debut novel WHITE NIGHTS IN SPLIT TOWN CITY was named one of 2016’s “Most Anticipated” debuts by The Millions, was shortlisted by The New York Times Book Review as a debut novel of note and received accolades from BookForum, Interview Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Vogue, amongst many others. It now appears in several languages.

Her debut story collection in progress – CLOSEST WITHOUT GOING OVER – was shortlisted for the Mary McCarthy Prize. Stories in the collection have been translated into Latvian and Swedish and have appeared widely in the U.S. in Granta, Guernica, Esquire, BOMB, Electric Literature, NOON, The Iowa Review, The American Reader, ZYZZYVA, amongst others. Annie holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia School of the Arts.

Annie has also penned nonfiction reviews, essays and interviews for The Paris Review Daily, The Believer, BOMB, Tin House, Guernica, Esquire, BOMB, Bookforum, The LA Review of Books, art+culture, Catapult, The Towner, Rhapsody Magazine, and Poets and Writers. She was the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship.

Annie is looking to acquire literary fiction and nonfiction of extraordinary authenticity, urgency and voice. Please address queries to annie@theshipmanagency.com.

Mike Levine offers developmental, substantive, and line editing for book manuscripts, essays, short stories, and book proposals. Before becoming an independent editor, he was an acquisitions editor at Northwestern University Press for nine years, overseeing a wide range of books, including fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, and scholarly titles. Among his authors were MacArthur Fellows, Guggenheim Fellows, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Tony Award winners. He published work by novelists Thomas Rayfiel, Kathleen Hill, and Ludmila Ulitskaya; poets A. E. Stallings, Rachel Hadas, and Amit Majmudar; playwrights Stephen Karam, Lydia R. Diamond, and David Ives; scholars Annette Insdorf and Brian Boyd; and novelist Jen Beagin and playwright Clare Barron, both winners of a 2017 Whiting Award. In 2015, he was named to New City’s Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago. He has participated in editors’ panels at the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, AWP, and other conferences. Before working at Northwestern, he was a senior editor at the Great Books Foundation in Chicago. Since 2000, he has taught literature and film seminars in several continuing education programs. He also raads scripts for Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He has a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in English from Rice University.

Cali Green is an accomplished publicist, project manager, producer, event director, and writer/editor. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she began her career as a freelance entertainment journalist before progressing to arts and entertainment PR and marketing.

After moving to New York, Cali added project management and event production to her repertoire, before also serving as Managing Editor and Director of Social Media for Okayplayer, the entertainment website founded by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. Most recently, her list of clients has included film director Ryan Coogler, Tarana Burke of the ‘me too.’ Movement, New York Times bestselling author Bassey Ikpi, The Roots' Black Thought, author Rachel Hoffman, comedian Hannibal Buress, actor/rapper Daveed Diggs, Sundance Film Festival, New York University, The Public Theater, Columbia University, Live Nation, and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Cali’s passion for the intersection of the arts and social good has led her to serve as a member of the organization Blackout for Human Rights, founded by Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay. Working with them as a producer on Justice for Flint, they put on a star-studded fundraising benefit honored the community of Flint, Michigan. As a volunteer and Team Leader for New York Cares, Cali teaches youth in programs for creative writing and drama/theater, and leads senior adults in artistic exploration. Cali has also been sought after to moderate panels or speak at events for organizations including The Apollo Theater, New York University, Los Angeles Public Library, Harlem Stage, and A3C Music Festival.

Janet A. Dickerson is a seasoned communications and media relations expert with more than a decade of experience implementing multi-channel PR campaigns, strategic sponsorships, influencer engagement, crisis and rapid response strategies, creative content development, and more. She also specializes in event and video production, editorial writing, and diverse/multicultural outreach.



Dickerson began her career in politics, serving as Press Officer for now-U.S. Senator Cory Booker while he was Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. In 2009, she was the Deputy Press Secretary to former New York City Comptroller William Thompson during his near-upset mayoral campaign against Michael Bloomberg. Dickerson then ventured into the non-profit/advocacy sector by becoming Press Secretary for national research and action institute PolicyLink.

In 2010 Dickerson began working independently as a PR and communications consultant working with a cross-section of individuals and organizations in arts, culture and entertainment, racial and social justice, politics, policy and philanthropy. Her current and former clients include Ava DuVernay/ARRAY, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Decolonizing Wealth Author Edgar Villanueva, Author and Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Executive Director Zachary Norris, Campaign for Black Male Achievement (CBMA), Blackout for Human Rights, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Women's Equality Center, PolicyLink, New York Correctional Association, Schott Foundation for Public Education, and Harry Belafonte's social justice organization Sankofa. Dickerson was a web consultant on Question Bridge, an award-winning transmedia art project executive produced by actor/activist Jesse Williams that is now exhibiting at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.