Dr Elizabeth Dearnley is a writer, artist and folklorist whose work explores fairy tales, horror and interactive storytelling. Elizabeth is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University, and also teaches at the Freud Museum London. She has previously taught at the University of London, UCL and the University of Cambridge, and leads workshops at universities, festivals and cultural organisations around the world. Current projects include a folk horror reimagining of Tam Lin and a 1940s choose-your-own-adventure-style retelling of Red Riding Hood.

Julie Fergusson is an agent with the North Literary Agency.

Ciara Finan is an agent with Curtis Brown.

Ciara joined Curtis Brown in early 2018, originally working alongside CEO Jonny Geller. She now is building her own list of authors across fiction and non-fiction. She would consider her reading tastes to be quite expansive, but she is constantly drawn to books that have a decisive voice, unforgettable characters, an unexpected story, or can subvert and reconstruct the conventional narratives of love, friendship, family, loss and coming-of-age. She is particularly interested in finding and championing stories by writers from underrepresented backgrounds and communities.

Laura Heathfield is an agent with Greenstone Literary.

Laura studied law at university and spent over 20 years with Virgin Atlantic which allowed her to indulge her passion for reading whilst travelling. On deciding to pursue a career in publishing, Laura joined the Darley Anderson Agency where she worked across the Women’s Fiction list, reading submissions, handling contracts and supporting authors on their path to publication and beyond.

Angela Jackson is an award-winning writer and a former psychology lecturer. Her debut novel, The Emergence of Judy Taylor, won Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award, was selected as Waterstones’ Scottish Book of the Year, and reached number one in Comic Fiction on Amazon. She completed her second novel, The Darlings, after workshopping two of its key characters in a one-woman show format, which enjoyed a sellout run at Edinburgh Fringe. She is currently completing her third novel, Learning to Thrive, and co-writing a musical about the work of Cole Porter.

Louise Lamont is an agent at LBA.

After studying English Literature and Medieval Studies at university, she joined the literary agency AP Watt Ltd after a brief spell in the world of film development. She worked with Caradoc King and his clients for seven years, while also building her own list. In 2013, she moved to LBA.

Lina Langlee is an agent at The North Literary Agency.

Lina is originally from Sweden but has been living in Scotland since 2008. After working in publishing, notably at Canongate and Black & White, she became a literary agent in 2018. She was shortlisted for the RNA ‘Agent of the Year’ award in 2019 and 2020.

Rachel Morrell joined the world of books after a master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh and a small stint in the magazine industry. She is now an editor for Black & White Publishing and has worked on titles including Donna Ashworth’s Sunday Times bestselling poetry collection and Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month, The Ghost Cat, by Alex Howard. Rachel loves to commission poetry, literary and crime fiction from diverse perspectives and this year was named one ofThe Bookseller’s Rising Stars. Her own writing has been published in various places including The List, Speculative Books and Scottish Field magazine.

Tanera Simons is an agent at Greenstone Literary.

Tanera has worked in the publishing industry for 10 years and, after seven years as a literary agent, co-founded Greenstone Literary with Laura Heathfield. Tanera’s authors are based both in the US and UK and include Beth O’Leary, Sally Page, Mandy Baggot, Sophie White, Ally Zetterberg, and Emma Steele. Collectively, her clients’ work has been adapted for television and film; received Nielsen Bestsellers Awards; and featured on the Sunday Times Top Ten list in both hardback and paperback.