Now Available: RTA Episode 9

Agents and authors who build community together

Randy Winston

Apr 17, 2025

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*(top, left to right: Randy Winston, Maris Kreizman, Kate McKean)*

Episode Breakdown

00:00:28 Opportunities for fiction writers

00:02:40 Guest bios

00:03:45 Start of Episode

00:07:04 Writing groups

00:09:01 Kate’s path to agenting

00:10:33 Maris on the intersection of literature and pop culture

00:12:11 Why a newsletter

00:20:17 Maris on how she selects the books she covers

00:23:33 How Kate and Maris think about community

00:31:35 Maris on lessons learned as an author

00:33:07 Kate on being an author and also an agent

00:36:25 The agent-author relationship

00:38:21 Maris on a topic she was eager to write about

00:40:13 Kate on the manuscript she hasn’t received yet

00:44:55 Recommended reads

00:48:54 Listener Q&A

Episode 9 Guests: Kate McKean & Maris Kreizman

McKean is a literary agent at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Electric Literature, Catapult, and her first book, Write Through It: An Insider’s Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life will be published by Simon Acumen on June 10th, 2025, followed by a picture book to be published by Sourcebooks in 2026. She writes the Agents & Books newsletter at katemckean.substack.com.

Maris Kreizman is a columnist for Lit Hub. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Republic, and more. Her newsletter is called The Maris Review. Her essay collection, I Want To Burn This Place Down, will be published on July 1, 2025.

About the host

Randy Winston is the Creative Director of Fiction at The Black List, and former Director of Writing Programs at The Center for Fiction, where he managed, curated, and directed the production of all writing courses, the illustrious First Novel Prize, the famed Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship, and the highly-sought Writers Studio membership. Prior to his work at The Center, Winston served as Fiction Editor of Slice Literary Magazine for 6 years and has over 10 years of executive admin experience in higher education. Before his MFA, Randy served as editor-in-chief of, formerly Southern Polytechnic State University, now Kennesaw State University’s, online and print student publication in Marietta, Georgia. He is a 2016 graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing (Fiction) at The New School and sits on the board for Orion Magazine and WriteOn NYC.

About the series

A pillar of our Fiction educational resources, Read The Acknowledgements is a live visual podcast designed for book and writing professionals to share their industry experiences and help give writers a clear picture of the ecosystem that is publishing.

This podcast series exists, in part, to fundraise for writers and literary nonprofits in need. Attendance is free, and we encourage viewers and listeners to make donations to writer support funds such as the Authors League Fund, Hedgebrook, Baldwin for the Arts, and Lampblack's Direct Aid Fund.

Read the Acknowledgments is a subsidiary of The Black List, LLC.

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