Debut Books: How to Support and Promote new Authors in a Post-Pandemic World

Moderted by Noa Menhaim - Head of the Hebrew Literature Department, Kinneret Zmora Publishing House, Israel

Noa Menhaim is an essayist, editor, lecturer, and literary critic. She is the head of the Hebrew literature department at Israel’s largest publishing house, Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir. Her best-seller, “The Cultural Network – Essays and Episodes in the Evolution of Ideas” was published in 2019. Manheim hosts a popular weekly cultural podcast – “The Sisters Grimm” and has a regular literary spot on both radio and television. In recent years she took on screenwriting, script editing, and developing television series, both at home and abroad.

Photo by Yanai Yehieli

Sandi Mendelson, CEO, Hilsinger Mendelson

Sandi Mendelson is CEO of Hilsinger Mendelson, which is considered among the preeminent literary public relations firms. Mendelson has shepherded hundreds of books to bestseller status while elevating authors to international acclaim. Her clients have included Fortune 500 CEOs, Members of Congress, novelists, celebrities, journalists, activists, as well as health & wellness experts, including: Michael Bloomberg, Tina Brown, Nigella Lawson , Yotam Ottolenghi and Speaker Nancy Pelosi among many others. Mendelson, who lives and works in NYC is most proud of her two daughters, as well as the philanthropic work she has participated in over the years.

Photo by Beb Asen

Laurenz Bolliger - Senior Editor, Hoffmann and Campe, Germany

Laurenz Bolliger, born in Switzerland in 1972, has worked in publishing – Ammann, Berlin, Suhrkamp, DuMont, Amazon – for more than twenty years and is currently overseeing the fiction list at Hoffmann und Campe as senior editor. His authors include Matthieu Aikins, Daniel Finkelstein, Mikita Franko, Uri Itzhak Katz, Ana Iris Simón, Ece Temelkuran, and Jeannette Walls, and he has previously published, among others, Mohsin Hamid, Jonathan Littell, Margaret Mazzantini, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Boris Saidman. He is a Frankfurt, Jerusalem, Turin, and Amsterdam Fellow and was a visiting professor at the University of Basel in 2012/13 and 2018/19. Laurenz Bolliger lives in Berlin.

Mark Ellingham, Associate Publisher, Profile Books

Mark Ellingham is an associate publisher at Profile Books, where he commissions books mainly on environmental issues, but also culture and history. He is also co-publisher of the small independent press, Sort Of Books, who publish, among other authors, Tove Jansson, Kathleen Jamie and Chris Stewart. He was the founder of the Rough Guides travel series, which he published from 1982–2008. He is a trustee of Cool Earth, which protects rainforest by helping indigenous communities.