Name: Lunchtime Business Panel: Book Launch, Behind the Scenes
Start: 2025-06-11T12:00:00-0600
End: 2025-06-11T13:00:00-0600

Wednesday June 11, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT

Lighthouse

A book launch is thrilling, terrifying, heartwarming, stress-inducing, satisfying, exhausting—literally everything, everywhere, all at once. In this panel, authors with books scheduled to release near June 2025 break down how they prepared (or are preparing) for their launch, what they hoped/hope happens, what they know of how publishers evaluate launches, and more. Come prepared to take notes and ask questions.

Speakers

Nini Berndt

Nini Berndt's debut novel, There Are Reasons for This, comes out from Tin House Press in spring 2025. She's a graduate of the MFA program in Fiction at the University of Florida, and her work has appeared in The Southampton Review, Subtropics, Adroit, Passages North, Blackbird... Read More →

Shana Kelly

Panelist

Shana Kelly was a literary agent at the William Morris Agency in New York and London for ten years. She currently works as a book editor, writer, and publishing consultant, and teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. In 2024, she won an Emmy for writing A Towering Task: The Story... Read More →

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Instructor

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is an Emmy Award-winning writer, a professor of Constitutional Law and Africa Studies at John Jay College (CUNY), civil rights attorney, and playwright. She is the author of She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power; Race, Law, and American Society... Read More →

Jan Thomas

Instructor

J.E. Thomas spent her early summers stuffing grocery bags with books at the local library, reading feverishly, then repeating the process week after week. So it's not surprising that she thinks books and imagination are the best streaming service around. J.E. is an award-winning writer... Read More →

Samantha Shea

Agent

After graduating from Colgate University, Samantha Shea joined Georges Borchardt, Inc. in 2010 and was made a Vice President in 2016. Her list includes literary fiction, memoir/narrative nonfiction, journalism, popular culture, essays, cultural criticism, and history. Samantha’s... Read More →

Wednesday June 11, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3844 York Street Denver, CO 80205

Publishing/Career

Audience Lunchtime Business Panel

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Lit Fest 2025

Nini Berndt

Shana Kelly

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Jan Thomas

Samantha Shea

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