JENNY BENT

In a career spanning 15 years, I have made a practice of making bestsellers - either by spotting new talent or developing careers for multi-published authors. My list is varied and includes commercial fiction and nonfiction, literary fiction and memoir. All the books I represent speak to the heart in some way: they are linked by genuine emotion, inspiration and great writing and story-telling.

I was born in New York City but grew up in Harrisonburg Virginia in a house full of books where I spent many lazy afternoons reading in a sunny window seat. I went on to England to get a BA/MA with first class honors from Cambridge University. After graduation I worked in magazines, bookselling and agenting, most recently at Trident Media Group, before founding THE BENT AGENCY in 2009. I now live in Brooklyn in an apartment full of books and while there are not quite so many lazy reading afternoons, I manage to fit one in now and then.

SUSAN HAWK

For the past 15 years, I've worked in Children's Book Marketing, most recently as the Marketing Director at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, and previous to that as the Library Marketing Director at Penguin Young Readers Group. I've been pleased to work on many different books during that time ranging from Eric Carle's Baby Bear, Baby Bear to Betsy Partridge's This Land Was Made for You and Me, to Nancy Werlin's Black Mirror, as well as the work of Mary E Pearson, Richard Peck and Joan Bauer.

While at Penguin, I also worked for a time in Dutton Editorial, acquiring projects for that list. My favorite part of that time was being able to read new submissions -- I love the thrill of finding something wonderful and imagining where it can go. I am looking for young adult and middle grade books; non-fiction and fiction (especially literary fiction), as well as fantasy, science-fiction, historical fiction and mystery.

I was born and grew up in Washington, DC, and was an avid reader from an early age. I remember fondly summer days when my sister and I would make the trek to the local library, carrying the biggest bags we could. Lugging that big bag of books home through a humid DC summer's day was no fun, but, oh, the excitement of a new stack of books to read! When 14 years old, I found my first job re-stocking shelves at the Cheshire Cat Bookstore, one of the first children's only stores in the country, and children's books have been a happy home for me, one way or another, ever since.