Our Team
David Gernert
David is the President and Founder of The Gernert Company. He spent the first fourteen years of his publishing career at Doubleday, the last six as Editor-In-Chief. He left Doubleday in 1996 to start The Gernert Company, believing his experience as a publisher would give him some unique insight into the representation of authors. He lives in Pound Ridge with his wife and four children.
Sarah Burnes
Sarah began her career on the editorial side of publishing, first at Houghton Mifflin, then in the Knopf Group, and last at Little, Brown. She became an agent in 2001, joining The Gernert Company in 2005. As an editor, she acquired and edited literary fiction and non-fiction, and as an agent, she has added children's fiction to her list. Sarah sits on the board of non-profit progressive publisher the New Press and her writing has appeared on The Paris Review's blog. She lives with her husband and three children in Brooklyn.
Ellen Coughtrey
A graduate of Davidson College, Ellen landed in New York without a plan and serendipitously found her way into publishing—and the Gernert Company—in 2013. Her reading taste is broad: women's upmarket and commercial fiction, smart original thrillers and mysteries, historical fiction that sweeps the reader off her feet or turns history on its head, and clever, witty Young Adult fiction that trusts the reader with big topics. She's also looking for narrative nonfiction and books on parenting and relationships. Ellen lives with her husband and son in Harlem. Ellen is currently closed to queries.
Seth Fishman
Head of the Los Angeles office, Seth is a Vice President and agent at The Gernert Company, which he joined in 2010 after beginning his career as an agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Born in Midland, Texas, he graduated from Princeton University and earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. His interests are wide-ranging, but in particular he's looking for the new voice, the original idea, the entirely breathtaking creative angle in both fiction and nonfiction. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children, and is the author of the award-winning picture book, A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars, along with Power Up and The Ocean In Your Bathtub, as well as two YA books. Seth is currently closed to queries.
JOY FOWLKES
Joy began her career in publishing first at Foundry Literary + Media, then at CAA. Around the same time, a little podcast called Serial was taking the United States by storm, and after listening, Joy had never felt so inspired or had an apartment so clean. When she relocated to the West Coast, she pivoted to audio production, working as a showrunner for Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls and The Yes Theory Podcast. In 2021, she joined The Gernert Company as a podcast agent, working out of the LA office.
Rebecca Gardner
Rebecca is a Vice President and the Rights Director of The Gernert Company, which she joined in 2009. She spent four years at Penguin Random House, Inc., first as the Director of Foreign Rights for The Doubleday Publishing Group, and then as Vice President & Director of Subsidiary Rights for The Random House Publishing Group. She has worked for BBC Books and for Maria B. Campbell Associates, where she scouted books for foreign publishers and film. Rebecca takes a boat to work and lives with her husband on the Jersey Shore. She is not open to queries.
Courtney Gatewood
Courtney joined The Gernert Company's Foreign Rights team in 2006 after several years at Maria B. Campbell Associates, where she scouted US books for foreign publishers and film. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Courtney works exclusively on translation rights and is not open to queries.
Jack Gernert
Jack is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he double majored in Economics and American Studies with a focus on popular culture. A former intern, Jack spent time chasing snow drifts and sunshine as a ski bum in Utah and an events coordinator in Miami before joining The Gernert Company full time in 2016. He loves stories about heroes -- both real and imagined -- and is often hooked by writing with a sense of humor or an unforgettable narrator.
nora gonzalez
Originally from New York City, Nora graduated from the University of Chicago, where she majored in English Literature with a focus on Modernism. She joined The Gernert Company in 2020, after working as an assistant book scout at Del Commune Enterprises. Nora is interested in representing narrative nonfiction, memoirs, cookbooks, illustrated works, poetry, literary and upmarket fiction. As a member of the foreign rights team and a Spanish reader, she has a particular interest in translation, and is also seeking Spanish-language authors, as well as other international writers.
Alia hanna habib
Alia is a Vice President and literary agent at The Gernert Company, which she joined in 2017 after starting her publishing career as a publicist at HMH and working as an agent at McCormick Literary. Her tastes include narrative nonfiction, memoir and literary fiction. Alia graduated from Barnard College and earned an MA in English Literature with a concentration in the nineteenth-century novel from Rutgers. She lives in Brooklyn.
ARU MENON
Born and raised in Kerala, India, Aru started at The Gernert Company as an intern before joining full-time as an assistant in 2023. Her tastes include literary fiction and cultural criticism, and she enjoys writing that is bold and transgressive. She graduated from King’s College London with a B.A. in English.
ALI PARK
An LA native, Ali joined The Gernert Company’s West Coast office in 2022. After receiving her degrees from Harvard, she first worked in education, teaching English in Boston, Denver, and Seoul. She transitioned to publishing by following the thread that led her to the classroom — a love of words, books, and stories.
Chris Parris-Lamb
Chris is a Vice President and literary agent at The Gernert Company, which he joined in 2005. He was born in Alabama and grew up in North Carolina, where he attended UNC-Chapel Hill on a Morehead-Cain Scholarship. His nonfiction tastes encompass a wide variety of genres and subjects, and his fiction tastes incline toward the literary; in both categories he’s looking for great writing by smart writers, and prefers queries to be accompanied by a sample chapter or two. He sits on the Board of n+1, and lives with his family in Brooklyn.
Sophie Pugh-Sellers
Sophie Pugh-Sellers joined The Gernert Company in 2019. Raised in Oakland, California and Charlottesville, Virginia, her literary palate is as eclectic and complex as her two hometowns. She is interested in representing smart narrative and journalistic nonfiction; memoirs from radical new voices; commercial and literary fiction, particularly with sci-fi, folk tale, or speculative elements; and works of poetry that are urgent and unafraid to play with genre. She loves deep dives, anything melancholy, and stories that challenge her to think more critically about the world. All of her favorite writing includes language and worlds so powerful that she misses them long after closing the book. She serves on the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Fête Committee, and holds a BA in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Barnard College. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Will Roberts
Will is the Associate Director of Foreign Rights and a literary agent at The Gernert Company. He joined the team in 2008 after working at Vintage Books, and, before that, at a newspaper in Jackson, WY, covering the courts and police department. He is looking for suspense novels, both literary and commercial, that are original and unpredictable, as well as nonfiction projects focused on current affairs, politics and history. A graduate of Middlebury College, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and children.
MEREDITH KAFFEL SIMONOFF
Meredith joined The Gernert Company in 2022 after ten years as an agent at DeFiore and Company, preceded by six years at the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. Her tastes encompass literary and crossover fiction, creative nonfiction, and the occasional illustrated work. She inclines toward bold, humane storytelling that rivets the heart and sharpens one’s ability to make sense of the world. This especially includes works as geographically, historically and emotionally specific as they are resonant, as well as literary-leaning narratives that incorporate ‘genre’ elements to electric result. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Meredith graduated from Yale University. She is proud stepmom to two daughters.
Erika Storella
Erika is the Chief Operating Officer and a literary agent at The Gernert Company. She joined in 2005 after completing a MA in social science at the University of Chicago. Her graduate work sparked an interest in how new ideas are brought to the public and led her to pursue a career in publishing. Originally from Boston, she now resides in Brooklyn with her husband and children and is looking for nonfiction projects that make an argument, narrate a history, and/or provide a new perspective.
NICOLE TOURTELOT
Originally from Los Angeles, Nicole graduated from Columbia University and worked in journalism before transitioning to publishing. She started her agenting career in 2009 at International Creative Management in New York and went on to work as an agent at Kuhn Projects (now Aevitas Creative Management) and then at DeFiore and Company Literary Management. Her eclectic list of narrative and prescriptive nonfiction reflects her many interests, including food, lifestyle, advice, pop culture, and memoir. She joined The Gernert Company in 2020 and works out of the LA office.
Anna Worrall
Anna is a Vice President and literary agent at The Gernert Company, which she joined in 2010. Her fiction tastes include smart literary and commercial fiction and psychological thrillers, and on the nonfiction side she’s interested in practical, narrative, food & drink, and lifestyle. She also sells audio rights for the agency. Anna lives with her husband and sons in Portland, Maine.