Lane Zachary
Lane Zachary brings to Verlaux one of the most formidable literary fiction lists in the publishing business.
A founding partner of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, Zachary received her B.A. magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and her M.A. in English Literature from Boston University. One of the top agents in the country for the representation of writers of serious literary fiction and nonfiction, Zachary is known for her devotion to her authors, providing them with extensive editorial guidance, and helping them create a body of work that spans a long and successful writing career.
Zachary represents New York Times bestselling author, Ha Jin, who won the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel, Waiting (Pantheon), as well as the PEN Hemingway Award for Ocean of Words (Zoland), and a second PEN/Faulkner Award for War Trash (Pantheon). Zachary also represents prize-winning writer Leslie Epstein for his novels King of the Jews (Other Press), Pandaemonium (Norton), The Goldkorn Tales (Norton), San Remo Drive (Other Press) and Eighth Wonder of the World (Other Press); Mary Sullivan for her novels Stay (Zoland) which won the Rona Jaffe Award and Ship Sooner (William Morrow); Askold Melnyczuk for his novels Ambassador of the Dead (Counterpoint) and House of Widows (Graywolf); Lavanya Sankaran for her short story collection, The Red Carpet (Dial), and Susan McCarthy for her novels Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands (Bantam) and True Fires (Bantam).
Zachary’s additional fiction career highlights include the sale of two lost novels by Louisa May Alcott: the $1.5 million sale of A Long Fatal Love Chase (Random House) and the six-figure sale of The Inheritance (Dutton), Alcott’s first novel that she wrote when she was 17.
Zachary also represents Dr. Mel Levine, the country’s leading expert in learning, for his his New York Times No. 1 best-selling book, A Mind at a Time (Simon & Schuster), The Myth of Laziness (Simon & Schuster) and Ready or Not, Here Life Comes (Simon & Schuster). Other major nonfiction books that Zachary has sold include Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell’s memoir A Strong West Wind (Random House), Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs (Free Press), TIME Magazine reporter Ann Blackman’s Wild Rose (Random House) and Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Albright. Her most recent sales include The Man Who Made Lists: A Biography of Peter Roget (Putnam) by Joshua Kendall; Days of Honor: The Story of the Harlem Hellfighters (Basic) by Pete Nelson and Autobiography of a Wardrobe (Knopf) by Elizabeth Kendall
Zachary has sold film rights for Ha Jin’s Waiting to Ruddy Morgan Productions which will be directed by Peter Chan (The Love Letter starring Kate Capshaw, Ellen Degeneres and Tom Selleck).
Zachary’s strongest interests include literary and commercial fiction, memoir, biography, current events, history and women’s issues. She is looking for books of nonfiction and fiction that are beautifully crafted and have the capacity to change the way we see and live in the world.