Sam Hiyate

Sam Hiyate is keen to discover new voices and help writers prepare their work for market and build lasting careers. In his past two decades with The Rights Factory, he has seen hundreds of book deals turn into such bestsellers as More, the memoir by Molly Roden Winter; This One Summer, the graphic novel by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki; Ditch the Diet by Oonagh Duncan; The Myth of Capitalism by Jonathan Tepper and Denise Hearn; Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close; and The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer. Host of the podcast Agent Provocateur, Hiyate regularly appears at writers conferences and also teaches publishing (Toronto Metropolitan University) and creative writing (University of Toronto).

Before coming to The Rights Factory, Hiyate ran the literary division of The Lavin Agency, building a client list and completing his first deals. He was editor and publisher for the small press, Gutter Press, from 1993 to 2002, and worked at the literary magazines Blood & Aphorisms and The Quarterly in the 90s.