Beth Phelan

Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency – Senior Literary Agent

Beth Phelan has been working in publishing since 2010. A lifelong reader, she’s been caught reading by flashlight in hotel closets while on vacation and finishing stories in lieu of returning friends’ calls. She is a winner of the inaugural CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Award, a Publisher’s Weekly Notable Person of the Year Reader’s Pick, twice-nominated for The Ignyte Community Award for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre by the inaugural IGNYTE Awards, and a Publisher’s Weekly Star Watch Honoree. She’s been a senior literary agent at Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency since 2017. Beth is also the Founder and was President and Executive Director of DiverseVoices, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization that operated from 2019 to 2023. She created #DVpit, a pitch event for marginalized creators, in April 2016; and DVcon, a free virtual conference for marginalized book creators (2021 & 2022). Most of her time is spent reading, editing, and playing with her ugly dog Beefy.