Joëlle Delbourgo
Joëlle Delbourgo is President and Founder of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates, founded in 1999. A highly energetic former publishing executive and editor turned entrepreneur and literary agent, she has devoted more than three decades to identifying and developing literary talent. A passionate bibliophile and advocate for writers, she strives to guide their careers, with an eye to bringing their work to as many readers as possible, in as many forms as possible . She brings in-depth “insider” knowledge of the industry from her prior editorial and executive publishing positions at Random House and HarperCollins to literary management. She believes in working cooperatively with publishers large and small, as well as media companies, to create strong relationships that will benefit her authors. She is a member of AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives) and the Women’s Media Group.
Her interests are wide-ranging. She looks for distinctive voices, groundbreaking research, “big think” books, memorable writing. Her clients include journalists, business leaders, commercial and literary novelists, medical experts, memoirists, historians, scientists, self-help experts, psychologists, entrepreneurs, and food writers.
Sample clients:
- New York Times’ bestselling writer and crusader for the rights of foster and adopted children, Ashley Rhodes-Courter. In THREE LITTLE WORDS, she recounts the true story of her childhood odyssey in 14 foster homes before being adopted at age 12. (Simon & Schuster) THREE LITTLE WORDS has been optioned for film.
- Pulitzer-Prize winning Wall Street Journal writer Geeta Anand, author of THE CURE: How A Father Raised $100 million – And Bucked the Medical Establishment – In a Quest to Save His Children, which inspired a major motion picture by CBS Studios starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser. (HarperCollins)
- Randall Smith, prize-winning Wall Street Journal financial writer. THE PRINCE OF SILICON VALLEY is a riveting account of Wall Street banker Frank Quattrone’s role in the creation and crash of the tech bubble.
- George Polk Award-winning journalist and Wall Street Journal financial editor and reporter, Ellen Schultz. In her new book, RETIREMENT HEIST, she will reveal the shocking way American corporations use workers’ retirement benefits for their own profit. (Portfolio/Penguin)
- Chris Farrell, host of public radio’s Marketplace and Sound Money and contributing economics editor at Business Week. His all too timely book, THE NEW FRUGALITY offers innovative strategies for ordinary Americans to deal with recessionary times – and live well even as they must adapt to live within their means. (Bloomsbury USA)
- Food industry insider and marketer Hank J. Cardello whose book STUFFED: Who’s (Really) Making America Fat takes the industry to task for pushing foods that contribute to the soaring rates worldwide in heart disease and diabetes and offers hard-hitting solutions that can benefit both the consumer and companies. ( Ecco/HarperCollins)
- Former UBS Paine Weber chief, Joseph J. Grano, Jr., who in YOU CAN’T PREDICT A HERO offers six lessons in courage, leadership and determination drawn from a life that has included leading Green Berets on classified missions, steering dispirited brokers after the 1987 crash, and helping to reopen Wall Street after 9/11 as chair of the President’s Security Advisory Council. (Jossey-Bass/Wiley)
- Top-rated, nationally syndicated business blogger and consultant, Pamela Slim’s comprehensive guide to making the leap to entrepreneur, ESCAPE FROM CUBICLE NATION: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. The book mixes tried and true tips with stories from both sides of the fence. (April 2009/Penguin Portfolio/Berkley)
- Popular historian Julie M. Fenster, author of THE CASE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN and FDR’S SHADOW. ( Palgrave-Macmillan)
- Michele Borba, Ed.D., internationally renowned and award-winning parenting and education expert and Today Show and iVillage contributor. She is the author of many successful parenting books, including THE BIG BOOK OF PARENTING SOLUTIONS: 101 Answers to Your Everyday Challenges and Wildest Worries from Preschool to Tween (Jossey-Bass/John Wiley Publishers)
- Novelist Bob Mitchell, author of MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN, in which fifty-year old Elliot, victim of a heart attack, is challenged by God to a game of golf –if Elliot wins, he will live – and learns about winning and losing, living and dying, and about the greatest game of them all. Mitchell’s second novel, ONCE UPON A FASTBALL, sends a Harvard professor back in time to four of the most famous games in baseball history, in the process learning the truth about a family secret. Both books have been optioned for the movies. (Kensington Publishers)
- Classicist and historian, Philip Freeman, whose immensely readable biographies of ST. PATRICK, JULIUS CAESAR and in Fall, 2010, ALEXANDER THE GREAT bring the ancient world to life for mainstream readers (Simon and Schuster). Freeman’s LECTURE NOTES, a professor’s inside guide to college success (Ten Speed Press/Random House).
Joëlle Delbourgo was Senior Vice-President, Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher of HarperCollins, Adult Trade Division. Previously, she spent over fifteen years in various editorial and executive posts at Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. She has been a speaker and instructor at writing conferences and workshops worldwide.
Joëlle holds a Master of the Arts in English and Comparative Literature with Honors from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of the Arts from Williams College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a double concentration in History and English Literature. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, she has lived on three continents, is fluent in French, and considers herself to be a citizen of the world.