Presenters

In-Person Conference

Since establishing Fairbank Literary Representation in 2002, Sorche Elizabeth Fairbank has had the pleasure of working with a dynamic and varied client list, representing bestselling authors, award-winning journalists, artists, and illustrators, television and YouTube stars, and of course one of her favorite kinds of client–the debut author. Her authors are found with all the major publishers, as well as in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, the New Yorker, Guernica, Granta, the Best American series, Pushcart Prize, Smithsonian, McSweeney’s, Narrative, One Story, and many more.

Sorche’s tastes in novels tend toward literary fiction, international voices, and voice-y novels with a strong sense of place, and perspectives that can’t help but shift and enlarge the reader’s understanding. On the nonfiction side, books that tackle current events and topical and societal issues with a narrative treatment. She has a strong interest in women’s voices, un- and undertold histories, global perspectives, and class and race issues. She reps quality lifestyle books (food, craft, design) and the rare memoir, providing it goes beyond the “me-moir.” She is one of the leading agents of humor, pop culture, and gift books. Sorche reps children’s books and is eager for more submissions from illustrator authors.

She is most likely to pick up works that are of social or cultural significance, newsworthy, or that cause her to take great delight in the words, images, or ideas on the page. Sorche and her co-agents work closely to maximize clients’ ancillary rights, including film and television, merchandising, and translation rights.

In 2022, Sorche got a taste of the author experience, publishing her own debut picture book (Trucks on Trucks) with Harper Collins. They published her second, Good Luck, Ice Cream Truck! in 2025. Truly, every agent should experience the publishing process from the author’s perspective, for better and worse.

Presentations