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Who

Bankoff is an agent at International Creative Management, where she toils alongside Esther Newberg and Binky Urban.

Backstory

A native New Yorker, Bankoff worked in production and marketing for several publishers and considered journalism school before switching to the agency side. She landed a job as an assistant to Jed Mattes at ICM in the 1980s, and has been with the company ever since. Today she's one of the most powerful literary agents in town.

Of note

Bankoff's clients include Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Berg, Claire Cook, Carrie Brown, and Jeanne Ray, as well as non-fiction writers Douglas Brinkley, Frank Bruni, David Lipsky (Absolutely American), and Chris Hedges (War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning). Bankoff was Robert Lennon's agent when the publisher Norton dropped his novel Happyland shortly before it was due to be published. Based in part on the life of Pleasant Rowland, the creator of the American Girl dolls, the book provoked libel concerns. Harper's later ran Happyland as a serial and didn't incur a suit.

Soundbite

Bankoff occasionally bemoans publishers' lack of interest in literary merit, saying in 2004 that "it used to be far easier to find editors who would be willing and able to grow a writer from a first novel that today is deemed too small, too labor-intensive, and therefore too much of a long shot."

Personal

Bankoff married Richard Simms in 1988. Simms once worked at Goat Cay Productions, a film production company founded by Sigourney Weaver, and later became a real estate agent. They live in Riverdale.