Elyse Cheney has been an agent for 16 years, working first with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates before founding Cheney Literary in January 2005. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English literature. Cheney Literary represents authors whose books tackle political, economic and social issues, as well as select fiction. Publications include #1 NYT bestseller Zealot on the life of the historical Jesus by religions scholar Reza Aslan, Mark Leibovich’s book This Town, Masha Gessen’s book Words Will Break Cement about Pussy Riot, Joshua Foer’s bestseller on memory Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, New Yorker writer DT Max’s biography Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story on the late David Foster Wallace, Valerie Plame’s memoir Fair Game (eventually a movie) and more recently her novel, the late Manning Marable’s Pulitzer winning biography of Malcolm X, and many others. In 2014, the New York Daily News named her one of New York City’s fifty most powerful women.
