Ira Silverberg

Ira Silverberg is a literary agent and editor in the New York publishing business. Silverberg worked as a literary agent at Donadio & Ashworth, as Editor-in-Chief at Grove/Atlantic Press, and as editorial and publishing director at Serpent's Tail's U.S. projects, High Risk Books and Midnight Classics. He also founded the marketing and public relations firm, Ira Silverberg Communications. This firm has attracted clients like The Academy of American Poets, William S. Burroughs, the estate of David Wojnarowicz, Dennis Cooper, City Lights Publications, and Re/Search Publications. He worked as a literary agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, and is currently Senior Editor at Simon and Schuster. Silverberg co-edited two anthologies, High Risk (Dutton/Plume U.S.; Serpent's Tail U.K.) and High Risk 2 (Plume U.S.; Serpent's Tail U. K.), while working for Serpent's Tail. These two works were influential in defining the Downtown aesthetic. Silverberg has become affiliated with many cultural institutions in New York City, including BOMB magazine and the Member's Council of PEN American Center. He has also acted as judge for the Gregory Kolovakos Award for AIDS writing and been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Program and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. He has acted as editorial advisor to the Portable Lower East Side, has been a visiting faculty member at The New School for Social Research, and currently teaches at Columbia University. Silverberg contributed the Serpent's Tail/High Risk Archives to the Fales Library of NYU.