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Conference Schedule 2020

Conference Schedule 2020

Friday, February 21, 2020, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Secrets from Agents and Editors: Here's What to Know in Today's Publishing World with Rosemarie Dombrowski, Sally Ball, Kirby Kim, Kevin Mosby

Date(s): Friday, February 21, 2020, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Carson Ballroom, Old Main (view map)
Type(s): Panel
Genre and Form(s): Agents, Business of Writing, Editing, Publishing, Submitting
Tags: Cover Letters, Query Letters, Queries, Small Press

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Meet our Faculty

About the Session

Join literary agent Kirby Kim, founder of rinky dink press and The Revolution (Relaunch), Rosemarie Dombrowski, and Associate Director of Four Way Books, Sally Ball, in a discussion about the intricate dimensions of publishing including acquiring an agent, working with small presses, and what to expect once your manuscript has been selected for publication. Panelists will demystify the submission process, advise on how to best research what types of writing and manuscripts publishers are looking for, and how to submit to local presses or presses with specific genre focuses.

Meet the Presenter(s)

Picture of Rosemarie Dombrowski


Rosemarie Dombrowski

Rosemarie Dombrowski is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Phoenix, AZ, the founding editor of both rinky dink press and The Revolution (Relaunch), a creative revisioning of the weekly women’s rights newspaper founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1868. Her collections include The Book of Emergencies (2014), The Philosophy of Unclean Things (2017), and The Cleavage Planes of Southwest Minerals [A Love Story], winner of the 2017 Split Rock Review chapbook competition. She’s the recipient of a 2017 Arts Hero Award, the Carrie McCray Award in Nonfiction (2017), a fellowship from the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, five Pushcart nominations, and a Whiting Fellowship nomination (2019). Her poem, “Atypical” was named a finalist for the Brooklyn Poets Whitman Bicentennial Poetry Contest.


Learn more about Rosemarie Dombrowski

Photograph of Sally Ball


Sally Ball

Sally Ball is the author of three collections of poems, Hold Sway, Wreck Me and Annus Mirabilis. An associate professor of English at Arizona State University, Ball is also an associate director of Four Way Books. She has been with the press for 23 of its 26 years. She has received fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, CAMAC Centre d’Art, and elsewhere. Her long poem “HOLD” has been made into a large-format artist’s book by the Czech printmaker Jan Vičar (2018) and will be featured at an exhibit at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris in December 2019.


Learn more about Sally Ball


Kirby Kim

A native of Los Angeles, California, Kirby Kim attended Pomona College and got his JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. Kim got his first job in publishing working for Charlotte Sheedy Literary, at that time an affiliate of Sterling Lord Literistic, then moved to Vigliano Associates and WME before joining Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

Kim represents both literary and commercial authors. He’s most interested in receiving manuscripts that straddle the fence a bit, with upmarket expression combined with a genre element or plot device. When it comes to straight literary work, he’s alternatively drawn to rich, sweeping stories that try to encompass a time or a place or tightly written, narratively innovative stories or voices with award potential. His commercial interests include thrillers and mysteries, speculative fiction, and young adult. He also represents a range of nonfiction working with leaders and journalists in the areas of science, culture and current affairs.

Kim is currently a board member of the Asian American Writers Workshop. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife and two kids.


Learn more about Kirby Kim

Photograph of Kevin Mosby


Kevin Mosby

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Kevin Mosby is an instructor and MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona. A poet and essayist, Kevin is Editor-in-Chief of Sonora Review, and is the former Editor of Westwind: UCLA's Journal of the Arts. With Ander Monson he is editor of the forthcoming anthology Best of the West: 40 Years of Sonora Review, to be published in 2021 by the University of Arizona Press.


Learn more about Kevin Mosby