Ladies, Lunch, and Literacy is delighted to invite you to meet Ann Napolitano on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. Join us at 11:30am PDT for an informal meet and greet with Ann Napolitano, editor, Whitney Frick, and literary agent, Julie Barer!

Register Today!

Ann Napolitano is the author of Dear Edward, which was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna selection, and is now an Apple TV+ series. She is also the author of the novels A Good Hard Look and Within Arm’s Reach. For seven years, Napolitano was the associate editor of the literary magazine One Story, and she received an MFA from New York University. She has taught fiction writing at Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and Gotham Writers Workshop.

Born and raised in New York City, Julie Barer began her career as a bookseller at Shakespeare & Company, where she discovered the joy of putting books into people’s hands. Her first job in publishing was at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, and she started her own agency, Barer Literary, in 2004. In 2015 she joined forces with three other partners to form The Book Group. Julie represents a variety of writers across a literary spectrum, with a special emphasis on fiction. Julie’s clients have been finalists and winners of numerous grants and prizes, including the National Book Award, the National Book Critics' Circle Award, the Man Booker Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and works by several of her clients have graced the cover of The New York Times Book Review, and have appeared on national and international bestseller lists. Recent titles of hers include Sam by Allegra Goodman, Celeste Ng’s Our Missing Hearts, Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson, The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng and Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.

Whitney Frick is the editor-in-chief of The Dial Press. Throughout her career, she has focused on helping to shape, elevate, and amplify the stories of women. At Dial, Whitney has published several critically lauded and bestselling books, including the Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club selections Sam by Allegra Goodman and Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano; the New York Times bestsellers, The Book of Boundaries by Melissa Urban and Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker; Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club Selection and blockbuster bestseller Untamed by Glennon Doyle; and, most recently, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. 

Whitney loves to read and edit expertly-reported nonfiction with a feminist message, as well as fiction and memoir characterized by strong, original voices that tell stories of self-revelation and explore the many dimensions of love and connection.