Secrets of Publishing Panel

P&T Knitwear, in conjunction with PEN America, is pleased to welcome back award-winning author Susan Shapiro for a panel discussion of insider tips and tricks for navigating the publishing world!

Susan will be joined in conversation by literary agents Alia Hanna Habib, Kate McKean, and Pronoy Sarkar; Emi Ikkanda, executive editor at Penguin Random House; and Lester Fabian Braithwaite, author of .

• This is a ticketed in-store event with limited amphitheater-style seating. Doors open at 6:30pm.
• Cost of a $5 general admission ticket can be applied towards your purchase of any book or product in our café the night of an event.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS
For some sadistic reason known only to him and his therapist, has been a professional writer for almost fifteen years. He has contributed to The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and The Advocate, among other publications, and has also served as senior editor for Out magazine. His debut essay collection came out from the Penguin Random House imprint Tiny Reparations Books in 2024.

is a literary agent at the Gernert Company. She represents narrative nonfiction, memoir and literary fiction including Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times’ 1619 Project book series; Judy Batalion's New York Times bestselling , which was optioned by Dreamworks Pictures, and Hanif Abdurraqib's . Her authors have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and have been nominated for the Edgar Awards, PEN Awards and National Book Awards. Her debut book, Take It From Me: An Agent’s No-Nonsense Guide to Building a Nonfiction Career from Scratch , comes out from Pantheon in 2026.

is an Executive Editor acquiring nonfiction and select fiction projects at Tiny Reparations Books, Dutton, and Plume at Penguin Random House. Highlights on her list include #1 New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo’s , Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s National Book Award finalist , Josephine Baker’s memoir , Michael David Lukas’s novel , and Sanaë Lemoine’s novel .

is a literary agent at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency in Brooklyn, New York, who handles fiction, nonfiction and kidlit. She earned her MA at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Electric Literature, Catapult, and her first book, , will be published by Simon Element in 2025, followed by a picture book from Sourcebooks in 2026. She writes the newsletter on Substack.

is a literary agent at Borchardt Agency, which represents numerous luminaries, from Anne Applebaum and Ian McEwan to Samuel Beckett and Tennessee Williams. A graduate of Duke University, he previously worked as a senior editor at Little, Brown, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster specializing in science, history, journalism, business, pop culture and economic nonfiction.

is the bestselling author/coauthor of books her family hates like , , , and . A long-time member of PEN America, she freelances for The New York Times, Washington Post, WSJ, Slate, Salon, The Cut, Elle, Oprah and The New Yorker magazines online. An award-winning writing professor at NYU, The New School and Columbia University, she now teaches her popular “Instant Gratification Takes Too Long” writing/publishing classes on Zoom. You can follow her on Insta at @profsue123 or email [email protected].

ABOUT PEN AMERICA
stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

P&T Knitwear Books & Podcasts, 180 Orchard Street, New York, United States