Andres is a former book scout for Maria B. Campbell & Associates. He teaches creative writing at Writopia Lab, works as a fiction reader for The Drift magazine, and writes book reviews for Ploughshares Blog and the Washington Square Review. As a fiction writer, he was named a finalist for the Marianne Russo Award for Emerging Writers (2023), and has earned writing residencies (past or forthcoming) from 33 Officina Creativa, Marble House Project, Willapa Bay AiR, and the Stadler Center of Literary Arts at Bucknell University, where he was the Spring 2022 Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing. Andres is a core editor.

Interests: literary and commercial upmarket fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, and voice-driven YA and New Adult; interests include Latin American stories, immigrant stories, historical fiction, satire, black comedy, crime fiction, magical realism, multi-generational sagas.

Joy McCullough-Carranza has been a freelance editor and ghostwriter for fifteen years. She has twice been long-listed for the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Prize and works as an assistant to a NYT-Bestselling children’s author. As a playwright, her work has been developed and produced in Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, and New York. She’s a Pitchwars mentor and has taught playwriting for multiple Tony Award-winning theaters. Joy is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Children's, YA

Fiona McLaren is full-time freelance editor whose clients have been published by MacMillan, HarperTeen, Swoon Reads, and more. Authors she has worked with have gone on to join established literary agencies, and she is personally represented by Don Congdon Associates. She has published national print articles, sold DVD narrative scripts, and interned with two literary agencies and a media company. She served several years as a Pitch Wars mentor. She works in both the US and UK markets. Fiona is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Mainstream fiction including adult, YA, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Speculative

A former literary agency apprentice and reader for publishers, Rebekah Montgomery is skilled at evaluating manuscripts with an eye towards marketability while nurturing the unique voice that makes a story shine. She has worked as a writer, reviewer, publicity consultant, and mentor. As an experienced freelance editor, Rebekah has worked with both publishers and private clients. She co-founded Half Light Publishing, an independent publishing company based in Phoenix, Arizona. She was also a reader for Entangled Teen and completed an intensive one-year internship program at Corvisiero Literary Agency. She has written numerous screenplays, co-developed a television series, and is currently working on a novel. Rebekah is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: YA, MG, adult, dystopian, science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction with fantastical elements

Hollie Overton is a TV writer and bestselling novelist. An accomplished TV writer, Hollie has written for CBS All-Access Tell me a Story, Shadowhunters, The Client List and Cold Case. Her debut novel Baby Doll was an international bestseller, a Richard and Judy Book club pick, was named “Best debut” by Dead Good Books and sold in eleven countries. Hollie has also written The Walls and The Runaway and is hard at work on her 4th book. Hollie is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Thriller, Crime, Romance, YA and NA

Shelley Puhak is the author of the nonfiction book The Dark Queens (Bloomsbury 2022) and three award-winning books of poetry. Her essays have been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing and selected as Notables in Best American Essays. Her work has recently appeared in The Atlantic, Teen VOGUE, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Shelley holds an MA in literature and an MFA in creative writing and she has more than a decade’s experience teaching creative writing and literature at the university level. Shelley is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: memoir, narrative non-fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction

Catherine Scully is a writer of Middle Grade and Young Adult horror, science fiction, and fantasy as well as a published illustrator. Her world maps and illustrations have appeared in publications with Simon and Schuster, Sourcebooks, Spencer Hill Press, REUTS Press, and Under the Juniper Tree. She is the Young Adult Editor for the Horror Writers Association and has been a Middle Grade mentor for Brenda Drake’s annual PitchWars contest, where she mentored and helped secure agent representation for her 2014 mentee. She has also worked as a marketing copy writer, broadcast TV spot writer, international brand manager, and graphic designer for clients such as Cartoon Network, AT&T, NBC, Comedy Central and more. Cat is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Young Adult, Middle Grade, horror, mystery, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, Steampunk, select contemporary, historical, Gothic, magical realism, LGBTQ friendly, diverse authors and stories

Jenni Walsh’s debut novel Becoming Bonnie was released by Tor/Macmillan in Spring 2017 and has been optioned for television. She’s also an award-winning copywriter, an experienced editor, and proudly serves as a mentor for Pitch Wars. Jenni is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: YA, historical fiction, contemporary, fantasy (low and high), retellings, and high-concept stories.

Natalie Mae is the author of the YA fantasy series The Kinder Poison from Penguin Random House and of the sci-fi Duplicity (as N.K. Traver) with Macmillan. Her work has been acclaimed by Kirkus Reviews, USA Today, YASLA and HuffPost. As a four-time Pitch Wars mentor, she’s done over 200 critiques for contest entrants, and her mentees have scored in the top entries for agent requests every year. She is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: YA, especially fantasy, horror, psychological thrillers, and historical fantasy

Coming from seven years as an assistant and junior agent at Writers House literary agency, Nora is passionate about great storytelling, whatever the genre. She has done major developmental editing on numerous Writers House projects, from picture books to YA fantasy to serious adult nonfiction, that went on to be picked up by big-five publishers and even hit the NYT bestseller list. She’s especially excited about SFF, genre-bending, and LGBTQ stories. She currently assists with Al Zuckerman Literary as well as building a profile as a freelance editor. Nora is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: adult, YA and MG fiction of all genres, sci fi/fantasy, cross-genre, LGBTQ, memoir, and narrative nonfiction

Molly Lee is a writer, editor, and mentor, widely acknowledged by top-selling authors for her skillful edits and critiques. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University, and has published works in the Kechi Lamp, Splurge Magazine, and various creative writing and commercial outlets. Best known from Pitch Wars, Molly is serving her fourth year as a mentor in the program, which connects promising writers to established authors, editors, and literary agents in the community. Molly’s new adult romantic suspense novel is currently under representation. Molly is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: YA, NA, adult, contemporary, urban fantasy, paranormal, thriller, horror

Lori Goldstein is the author of the Becoming Jinn Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy series (Becoming Jinn, 2015, Circle of Jinn, 2016, from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan). With a journalism degree, she’s worked as a writer, content editor, and copyeditor in a full-time and freelance capacity for clients such as IDG and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She serves as a mentor for writers in online contests and workshops such as Pitch Wars and the First Five Pages Workshop as part of Adventures in YA Publishing. Lori is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Young Adult, Upper Middle Grade, women’s fiction, commercial fiction

Dionne is an American author living in England, who began as a Cornerstones UK editor before managing Cornerstones’s launch into the US. She writes YA, MG and adult fiction, and is represented by Writers House in NYC. She has been a long- and short-list judge for the Bath and Caledonia novel awards since their inception, and a PitchWars mentor since 2014. She previously wrote and edited scripts for TV, and copyedited speeches for President Bill Clinton during his first term. Dionne also currently writes and edits for the Paper Nations project run by Bath Spa University’s English Department. Dionne is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: YA and Middle Grade, all adult fiction less Sci-Fi and fantasy