Caren Johnson began her literary career at the Peter Rubie Agency in 2002. She worked there for three years, starting as an intern, going through the huge piles of unsolicited queries, and working her way up to agent. She went on to join Nadia Cornier at Firebrand Literary where she stayed for a year before starting her own agency in early 2007. Caren works closely with each of her authors, not only acting as an agent, but offering career guidance and publicity consultation to help them build long lasting and lucrative writing careers. She has a BA in English Lit from CCNY.
Rachel Downes is a junior literary agent at the Caren Johnson Literary Agency. She has a BA from Manhattan College in international studies and minored in economics and philosophy. She graduated as a member of Sigma Iota Rho, the national honor society for international studies students.
Rachel is a voracious reader and writer. She wrote for an independently-run student philosophy journal at her school, Praxis. She works closely with Caren to develop and nurture CJLA authors.