Publishing Intensive
with Anjali Singh, Peter Mountford, Lisa Lucas and Ethan Nosowsky
Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, The Writing Life
Online
Online Advanced
Advanced 1 Session
1 Session This full-day class offers an introductory overview of the publishing business and is geared toward writers of literary fiction and nonfiction. The class will feature guests who are leaders in the publishing business. While the lineup isn't finalized, recent guests have included literary agents Ayesha Pande and Michelle Brower, as well as senior editors from Random House, Pantheon, and Graywolf presses. Students will be broken into small groups to pitch their books to one another and offer feedback on those pitches. All students will receive an extensive packet with resources.
Guest Speakers
– Anjali Singh is a literary agent at Pande Literary, where she represents Bridgett Davis, Susan Abulhawa, Nawaaz Ahmed, and Rachel Harper, among others. Formerly Editorial Director at Other Press, she has also worked as an editor at Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Vintage Books. She grew up between New Delhi and Alexandria, VA, graduated from Brown University, and holds a diploma in French language and literature from the Sorbonne.
– Lisa Lucas is a senior vice president at Penguin Random House, overseeing Pantheon and Schocken. From 2016-2020, she was the executive director of the National Book Foundation, the organization that runs the National Book Awards and promotes reading and writing. Prior to that, Lucas was the publisher of the beloved literary magazine Guernica.
– Ethan Nosowsky is Editorial Director at Graywolf Press, where he shapes Graywolf’s prose lists and acquires fiction and nonfiction titles. He began his career at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and was most recently an editorial director at McSweeney’s. He has edited books by Jeffery Renard Allen, Hilton Als, Deborah Baker, David Byrne, Geoff Dyer, Dave Eggers, Stephen Elliott, J. Robert Lennon, and Jenny Offill, among many others. He has taught in the creative writing program at Columbia University and contributed to Bookforum, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, and Threepenny Review.
HAPPY HOUR FLASH SALE! All spring classes are 10% off now through Monday, May 15. Discount taken in your cart at checkout.
Registration dates:
March 13: Scholarship Donation Day (Learn more.)
March 14: Member registration opens
March 21: General registration opens
Anjali Singh
Peter Mountford
Peter Mountford is the author of the novels A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism (2012 Washington State Book Award in fiction), and The Dismal Science (a NYT editor's choice). His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Southern Review, The Atlantic, The Sun, Granta, and The Missouri Review. He is currently on faculty at Sierra Nevada University's MFA program, teaches at Creative Nonfiction, Hugo House, and is a writing coach and developmental editor. Peter's former students and clients have gone on to publish numerous books and stories and articles, and include two NYT best-selling novelists (Tara Conklin and Rachel Griffin).
Teaching Style and Philosophy: I believe the best I can do for students is help free them from the tyranny of talent and the whims of inspiration, which are fair-weather friends. Instead, I want you to hone your personal aesthetic, and to develop an authorial voice, and most importantly develop fluency with the elements of craft. One you can control what's happening on the page with ease, producing publishable work is no longer a mysterious fluke, but a familiar and non-scary process.
Website: petermountford.com
Lisa Lucas
Lisa Lucas is a senior vice president at Penguin Random House, overseeing Pantheon and Schocken. From 2016-2020, she was the executive director of the National Book Foundation, the organization that runs the National Book Awards and promotes reading and writing. Prior to that, Lucas was the publisher of the beloved literary magazine Guernica.
Ethan Nosowsky
Ethan Nosowsky is Editorial Director at Graywolf Press, where he, is responsible for shaping Graywolf’s prose lists; he acquires fiction and nonfiction titles. He began his career at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and was most recently editorial director at McSweeney’s. He has edited books by Jeffery Renard Allen, Hilton Als, Deborah Baker, David Byrne, Geoff Dyer, Dave Eggers, Stephen Elliott, J. Robert Lennon and Jenny Offill, among many others. He has taught in the creative writing program at Columbia University and contributed to Bookforum, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, and Threepenny Review.
FAQ
Complete FAQMost classes are offered at a general and member tuition rates based on instruction hours, with Hugo House members receiving a 10% discount on classes fewer than six sessions.
Early bird discounts are available during the first two weeks of registration and apply to both general and member tuition rates.
To help provide financial accessibility to our class offerings, some classes each quarter are offered with a sliding-scale tuition model, allowing students to pay what they can for the class. For these classes, tuition increments starting at $5 and going up to 125% of the standard pricing will be listed on the page.
Hugo House will only process refund requests that are submitted 5 business days or more before the class start date. To request a refund, log in to your account, go to “My Account,” select the “Orders” tab on the left-hand side, click the appropriate order, and request a refund for your specific class. Administrative fees apply. Please see our full refund policy here.
We do not record classes. However, an exception if a student has specific access needs.
We encourage students to only sign up for classes that fit with their schedule.
We do not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic or any other oppressive behaviors, regardless of who commits them. Please check out our full community guidelines by clicking here. If an instance of community guidelines are violated and not resolved within the classroom, students may let us know by filling out the student incident report.
Classes may be cancelled if less than the minimum number of students are enrolled within ten days before the class start date. If Hugo House needs to cancel a class for any reason, students can choose between receiving a full credit toward future classes or full refund.
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