Donna Bagdasarian is a literary agent with Publication Riot Group. Donna is a native New Englander who grew up in the suburbs of Boston. After graduating cum laude from Boston University she pursued her Master’s degree in Literature and Philosophy, while editing the prestigious philological journal, Arion. Tired of the Ivory Tower, she left academia to join Addison Wesley Longman as a mathematics textbook acquisitions editor. Wanting to get back to working with books that she was passionate about, Donna moved to New York City in 1998 and joined the legendary William Morris Mailroom as an Agent Trainee. Quickly climbing out of the mailroom, she worked as the assistant to the notable literary agent Mel Berger for two years before she herself was promoted, all in record time.
Experienced selling high-profile fiction and nonfiction as an agent, Donna joined Vigliano Associates in 2002, bringing her academic, editing and agenting skills together with her passion to represent and sell incredible authors and books. Having joined Maria Carvainis Agency in the fall of 2004, Donna brought not just her client list but her experience in managing a boutique agency to compliment the agency’s notable stable of best-selling authors. Currently, she is the President and founder of Publication Riot Group, Inc., where she can apply her many years of agency experience in the management of her own boutique management company. Donna is particularly interested in almost all fiction: literary, women’s, historical, mainstream, ethnic, with the exceptions of sci-fi and fantasy. Her interests in non-fiction range from pop-culture to academic, sociological, scientific, political, and memoir.