Jennifer Gates
Jennifer Gates offers Veralux a broad knowledge of popular culture and a fierce ability to acquire film and television projects that come out of breaking news stories, magazine articles, and other non-traditional sources.
A partner of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, Gates received her B.A. from Wesleyan University and worked previously as an editor at the ReganBooks division of HarperCollins. An agent since 1997, Gates represents a range of nonfiction as well as both commercial and literary fiction. Her nonfiction list includes current affairs, memoir, pop culture, psychology, narrative nonfiction, and history.
Books Gates has recently represented include: New York Times bestseller, The Pursuit of Happyness a memoir by Chris Gardner (Amistad/HarperCollins) and also soon the major motion picture starring Will Smith; New York Times bestseller The Pentagon's New Map by military strategist Thomas P. M. Barnett (Putnam), as well as the author's follow-up title, Blueprint for Action (Putnam); Our Mother's War: American Women at Home and at the Front During WWII by award-winning journalist Emily Yellin (The Free Press); And A Bottle of Rum by award-winning travel writer, Wayne Curtis (Crown); The Other End of the Leash (Ballantine) by Dr. Patricia McConnell, an internationally-renowned dog expert and her follow-up title, For the Love of A Dog (Ballantine); Waiting For Birdy (Penguin), the critically acclaimed memoir by Catherine Newman and The Foreigner's Gift (The Free Press) by noted Middle Eastern scholar, CBS consultant and recipient of a MacArthur genius grant, Fouad Ajami.
Forthcoming titles include, The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Rod A. Beckstrom and Ori Brafman (Portfolio/Penguin) and Conservatize Me by McSweeney's staff writer and NPR contributor, John Moe (William Morrow).
Gates also represents Donna VanLiere, author of the New York Times best-selling Christmas Hope series (St. Martin's Press) with over two million copies in print. The first two books in the series, The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing became highly-rated CBS television movies. A CBS movie based on the best-selling third title, The Christmas Hope is currently in development.
Gates is most interested in strong, distinctive voices and narratives and projects that either look at the world in a new way or shed new light on familiar topics.