Ira Silverberg is an American literary agent and editor. Silverberg is also a consultant to writers, artists, publishers, and non-profit arts organizations. He is a member of the adjunct faculty of the MFA Writing Program at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Early life and education

Silverberg was born and raised in

the Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City bo ...

. After graduating from

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

in 1980, he attended the CUNY Urban Legal Studies Center: a six-year BA/JD Program designed to teach lawyers to serve underserved urban communities. While attending CUNY, he met

James Grauerholz James Grauerholz (born December 14, 1953) is a writer and editor. He is the bibliographer and literary executor of the estate of William S. Burroughs. Life and career Grauerholz was born in Coffeyville, Kansas, and attended the University of Ka ...

(a friend and assistant of

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and ...

) at a bar in the East Village. They began a romantic relationship and Grauerholz convinced Silverberg to move to Kansas, where they lived and wrote with Burroughs and other aging beat poets. Silverberg attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

from 1982 to 1984. In 1984, he returned to New York and attended

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

. He dropped out of college at age 22, one semester short of a degree.

Career

Silverberg began going to "downtown" New York nightclubs as a high-school student.Charney, Noah.
The NEA's new literature director.
''Poets & Writers Magazine'', vol. 40, no. 4, July-Aug. 2012, p. 21. ''Gale Academic OneFile.'' Accessed 29 Feb. 2024. In 1984, he began his career as a part-time editorial and publicity assistant at

The Overlook Press The Overlook Press is an American publishing house based in New York, New York which considers itself "a home for distinguished books that had been 'overlooked' by larger houses". History and operations The Overlook Press was formed in 1971 by ...

after meeting founder

Peter Mayer Peter Michael Mayer (28 March 1936 – 11 May 2018) was a British-born American independent publisher who was president of The Overlook Press/Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., a Woodstock, New York–based publishing company he founded with his fa ...

at a 25th-anniversary party of

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

's ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagoni ...

'' in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

two years earlier. Silverberg was also a doorman at

the Limelight The Limelight was a chain of nightclubs owned and operated by Peter Gatien. It had locations in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hallandale, Florida. History Florida and Atlanta locations Peter Gatien opened the first Limelight n ...

nightclub, He worked to establish Serpent's Tail in the United States by publishing locally-originated books; the first was the fiction collection, ''Disorderly Conduct: The VLS Fiction Reader'', edited by ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' Literary Supplement (VLS) editor M. Mark. Silverberg and Amy Scholder began co-editing the High Risk series in 1994. He joined Donadio & Olson in 1997, becoming a partner, and was foreign-rights director at Sterling Lord Literistic from 2008 to 2011. Silverberg was appointed literature director of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

in Washington, D.C. in 2011, a post he held until 2013. In 2013, he received the Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award from the

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silverberg, Ira American literary agents Living people American editors 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people Year of birth missing (living people)