![]() ![]() He became my adviser for my honors thesis, which was about a specific chapter of Ulysses he was a very influential, very brilliant, very kind professor. The biggest standout was taking a class with John Bishop, who specialized in James Joyce. Which classes or professors stand out from your time at Berkeley? I feel incredibly lucky in working with such talented authors. Another example: I worked with Rachel Kushner, who is a Berkeley alum and an astoundingly good writer. He's an amazing author and a wonderful person. I would meet him for tea, and that just felt incredible every time. For instance, I was working with Philip Pullman and there was a period of time where I was going to visit him every summer in Oxford. The work that I've done has brought me into close relationships with authors I greatly admire. Are there any particular vignettes that you might want to share from your current or recent work? The breadth of what I've read in the past really informs my ability to evaluate written works and place them in the context of what else is out there. My work has always been in evaluating written material, so I use what I learned at Berkeley every day. How do you use your training in the humanities in your current work? And Cindy Spiegel is a Berkeley grad, too, with a master's in Comp Lit! They had expansive ideas about publishing, which involved including film and television in some way, so together we formed this model of what a publishing house could be in the modern age. I was aware of their reputations before I met with them, because they are two of the most revered editors in New York. When I met Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau a few years later, we immediately hit it off. Our agency, RWSG, had an amazing run for 16 years before selling to WME in 2016.Īfter that sale, I missed working with authors. When we realized our backgrounds were so similar, we started talking about creating an agency together. She had been a lawyer too, and she was working as a co-agent - a literary agent that represents authors to help works transition from the page to film or television. Then when I was ready to start thinking about my next phase, I met for coffee with an acquaintance, Sylvie Rabineau. They did, so I got involved in starting this independent bookstore in Pacific Palisades. I was walking with my son in a stroller, I saw a sign in a storefront announcing a soon-to-open bookstore, and I decided I would go in and see if they needed anyone to work there. I was looking for ways to work in book publishing or as an editor, but there aren't many publishing houses in California, and I also had small children at the time. Soon after that, life with my family took me back to California. After about two years I decided to go back into the book world, and I had a short stint as an editor at a small publishing company in New York. That was a great experience, but I knew early on that it wasn't my permanent career path. So I went to law school, graduated, and worked at a law firm in New York. But when I graduated, I wasn't knowledgeable about publishing or other areas that I could have pursued. I was an English major at Berkeley and I loved it. Could you describe some of the steps along the way to your current role? This interview has been edited for length and clarity. We spoke to her about her career trajectory, why she supports Berkeley, and why the world needs more English majors. The Wachters are Builders of Berkeley, with generous gifts to the English department, BAMPFA, and the Arts + Design Initiative. Her husband Paul Wachter was appointed as a UC Regent by Arnold Schwarzenegger and served twelve years. She previously served on the board of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the University of Southern California Law School Board of Councilors, and as a trustee on the UC Berkeley Foundation Board. Wachter currently serves on the Advisory Board for the College of Letters and Science as well as the boards of The Paris Review and the Human Rights Watch California Committee. Wachter co-founded RWSG, a premier book-to-film agency that specialized in the representation of dramatic rights. Liza Wachter (English '81) is president, partner, and director of film and television for Spiegel and Grau, an independent publishing house launched in 2020. ![]()
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