Literary Agents

Lucinda Halpern
Literary Agent, CEO of Lucinda Literary, & Author of Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author

Lucinda Halpern is a literary agent, author, and founder of Lucinda Literary, a boutique agency specializing in fiction and nonfiction by leading experts and cultural voices.

With two decades of experience spanning New York publishing and media, Lucinda operates at the intersection of intellectual rigor, commercial viability, and long-term author partnership. She is known for working deeply with authors from the ground up—helping them sharpen their ideas, define their audience, and build books that perform in the marketplace.

Lucinda began her career in the Publicity Division of HarperCollins, contributing to campaigns for New York Times bestselling authors including Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt (Freakonomics). She later joined Scholastic’s Marketing Partnerships Division, where she developed custom publishing and content initiatives for Fortune 500 companies and global nonprofits—marketing experience that continues to inform her knowledge of building brands and businesses out of books.

She went on to represent authors at Fletcher & Company (now United Talent Agency), where she also served as a marketing consultant to Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project).

Today, Lucinda represents New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and internationally bestselling authors writing in business, health, psychology, popular science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and upmarket fiction. Her clients include Dan Martell (Buy Back Your Time), novelist Jayne Allen (Black Girls Must Die Exhausted)  Susan Peirce Thompson (Bright Line Eating), Chris Bailey (The Productivity Project, Hyperfocus), Cait Flanders (The Year of Less), Paul Jarvis (Company of One), and Jake Wood (Once a Warrior), among others. She also represents leading collaborators and ghostwriters such as Nicola Kraus (The Nanny Diaries), working at the highest echelons of trade publishing.

Chris Bailey has said, “Never mind my books—I’d trust Lucinda, and the entire team at Lucinda Literary, with my life. She is the most resourceful person I’ve ever worked with, and she delivers open, honest, and incisive feedback at every stage of the process.”

Lucinda is the author of Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author (Hay House / Penguin Random House, 2024), endorsed by Adam Grant as “the definitive guide to attracting an agent and laying the groundwork for a book worth publishing.” The book distills her 3-pronged framework for helping authors create groundbreaking books and long-lasting publishing careers.

Craig Pyette
Agent

Craig Pyette is an Agent at Lucinda Literary, where he is building a select list of thought leaders and innovators who bring unique and challenging perspectives to the world of books. He is particularly interested in investigative nonfiction, true crime, psychology, health, and popular science, as well as economics, business, and big-idea nonfiction.

A former senior editor at Knopf and Random House Canada, Craig has over 20 years of experience in publishing. He has worked on bestselling and award-winning nonfiction while developing successful marketing and publicity strategies. At Penguin Random House, he collaborated with investigative journalists, scientists, political leaders, and professional athletes. His projects included nine number-one bestsellers. Among them was the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller 12 Rules for Life. This book has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Books he edited have received over seventy award wins and nominations and have been successfully adapted for stage and screen.

Kelly Bergh
Agent

Kelly Bergh represents adult practical nonfiction, with a particular focus on popular psychology, health and wellness, and self-transformation, as well as select children’s, gift, and fiction projects in these same areas. She is especially drawn to intellectually rigorous, research-driven books that question inherited truths about complex, universal subjects and offer new frameworks that resonate beyond the page.

Kelly worked as an editor in academic publishing after beginning her career as a children’s librarian. She joined Lucinda Literary in 2023 and has since worked closely with journalists, PhDs, and subject-matter experts seeking to bring their ideas into the trade space. She has developed a range of commercially and critically successful projects, including those by Chris Moore, PhD (The Power of Guilt), Lauren LaRusso (Beyond Infidelity), and contemporary poets such as New York Times-bestselling author Josie Balka (I Hope You Remember; Loves of Our Lives) and Joey Kidney (Just Remember).

Projects she represents have been published by Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Bloomsbury, BenBella, Urano, Andrews McMeel, and Hay House.

A certified yoga and meditation instructor, Kelly is interested in books that explore embodiment, resilience, and meaning without sacrificing intellectual depth. She holds a master’s degree in publishing from Drexel University and splits her time between Philadelphia and Seattle.

Lauren Eldridge
Agent

Lauren joined Lucinda Literary in 2022. Authors she’s represented reflect her genre-diverse interests, including memoirist Julie Fingersh (Stay: A Story of Love, Family, and Other Traumas), novelist Olivia Swindler (Break the Glass), and YA novelist Michelle Kulwicki (At the End of the River Styx). She’s passionate about elevating voices and stories that start important cultural conversations and is particularly interested in YA and children’s literature, upmarket fiction, and projects on religion and spirituality.

Before joining Lucinda Literary, Lauren was on the editorial team at Flatiron Books, where she focused on nonfiction and worked on bestselling and award-winning titles from authors including Leigh Bardugo, Oprah Winfrey, and Alicia Keys. She acquired The Unseen Body by Dr. Jonathan Reisman and edited books, including New York Times-bestselling titles El Jefe by Alan Feuer and The Lincoln Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. Most recently, she worked as a freelance editorial consultant with a slate of clients, including corporations, nonprofits, and writers.

Lauren holds a BA in English with an emphasis on creative writing and a minor in religious studies from Kenyon College and is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kate Rizzo
International Rights Representation

Kate Rizzo handles foreign rights for Lucinda Literary, where she focuses on selling an author’s works into as many languages as possible and extending their writing careers beyond the UK and the English language market.

Kate’s experience in translation rights spans both New York and London. She began her career in publishing at The Robbins Office, Inc. before moving to London in 2009, where she continued her work in rights at AM Heath, Ltd. and Mulcahy Conway Associates. Since 2013, she has also served as the Rights Director at Greene & Heaton.

She works both directly with publishers and in partnership with sub-agents across numerous international territories. Her direct work includes publishers in Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia, and Spain.

To contact Kate directly, click here.

Michael Kaler
Associate Agent & Executive Assistant

Michael Kaler is an Associate Agent at Lucinda Literary and Executive Assistant to Lucinda Halpern. His interests span history, politics, psychology, and business, and across categories, he gravitates towards socially conscious nonfiction that challenges entrenched ideas and envisions a more just and expansive future.

Michael previously worked at W. W. Norton, New York Magazine, and Hachette Book Group. At Hachette, he served as an acquiring editor and worked on expert-driven nonfiction that received major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in History, an L.A. Times Book Prize, and the Jacques Barzun Prize for Cultural History.

Julia Collucci
Project & Program Manager

As a former private English teacher, Julia combines her passion for organization and project management with her love for reading and editorial work. She graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in English and minors in Psychology and Creative Writing. During her senior year, she was honored as a Paul Robeson Scholar for her Undergraduate Honors Thesis, which explored identity issues in three fin-de-siècle fiction novels. Julia helps develop editorial projects and serves as a program manager and liaison for participants in Lucinda Literary’s educational services for aspiring authors.

Emma Hong
Intern

Emma began working as Kelly Bergh’s editorial assistant while attending the University of Washington, where she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s in English and a minor in Informatics. During that time, she also worked as an editorial intern for Epicenter-Coffeetown Press. Emma assists Kelly with acquiring works of practical nonfiction and reviews queries in self-help, health and wellness, and literary fiction genres.

Emma’s interests lie in the fantasy, mystery, short story, narrative nonfiction, and literary fiction genres, as well as in stories that examine the subjectivity of marginalized perspectives. As an aspiring editor, her passion is to help writers develop their understanding of the craft and bring out the unique idea, voice, and style of their projects. In addition to interning, Emma is a freelance editor and writing tutor at the Literacy Source, an adult literacy center based in Seattle.

Ruth Daniels
Marketing Coordinator

Ruth Daniels plays a key role at Lucinda Literary, supporting both our marketing efforts and client engagement behind the scenes. From building out newsletters and social media calendars to updating our website and coordinating campaign rollouts, Ruth brings clarity, strategy, and heart to everything she touches.

Her background as a social media manager and virtual assistant has allowed her to work with authors, creatives, and media companies across the globe. Ruth believes that social media and digital communication are about more than visibility—they’re about connection and consistency.

Outside of Lucinda Literary, she runs her own digital business helping solopreneurs simplify their online presence and grow without overwhelm.