Azura Tyabji
Iowa City
Summary
An ambitious leader and dynamic team player, I am passionate about bringing audiences holistically advocating for authors and artists to share their stories with a transformative audience. I combine my experience in publishing and the live event sector to creatively market, effectively negotiate, and thoroughly execute events.
Overview
4
4
years of professional experience
Work History
Associate Agent
Tuesday Agency
08.2024 - Current
- Represents premier literary and media speakers such as Tonya Mosley, Honoree Fannone Jeffers, Tareq Baconi for speaking engagements, often negotiating contracts for a 25-50% increase in fee on behalf of speakers
- Strategizes and implements pitching campaigns for speakers within a network of major universities, libraries, and nonprofits
- Manages the assets of nearly 100 speakers across genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and radio/tv through routine website updates and newsletters
- Keeps the agency's bookkeeping software, SystemOne, up to date with relevant expenses and contracts
- Builds collaborative relationships across sponsors, publicists, and authors by integrating more event opportunities within book tours
Director
Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee (WUDPAC) UW-Madison
08.2023 - 06.2024
- Led a team of 7 students in the curation, booking, marketing, and execution of the Wisconsin Union Theater's (WUT) 24/25 Jazz, Classical, and Performing Arts Series, their largest season post-Covid with over two dozen shows
- Negotiated artist contracts to secure favorable terms for the theater and departmental collaborators
- Oversaw $30,000 annual committee budget, producing five student-led shows
- Played a critical role in fundraising for the creation of the Andre de Shields fund, a resource for students of color in theater arts
Editorial Intern
Copper Canyon Press
09.2022 - 01.2023
- Assessed 500+ manuscript submissions
- Developed publicity materials for authors, including written reviews and Author Information sheets with excerpts and SEO keywords to enhance visibility
- Organized and copyedited content for the anthology, Come Shining
- Created a directory of Black, Latinx, and/or LGBTQ+ owned bookstores
- Copyedited two manuscripts and various grant materials for the Lannan Foundation
Education
B.A - English-Creative Writing, Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Skills
- Contract negotiation
- Event management
- Publicity materials development
- Managing bookkeeping software
- Publishing and live performance industry trend awareness
- Customer relationship management
- Project coordination
- Creative marketing strategies
- Demonstrated leadership
- Grant-writing
- Budget management
- Copyediting
- Live performance direction
Awards
- Ron Wallace Poetry Thesis Prize, 2024, winner
- UW Madison First Wave Scholar
- Herfurth Kulby Award for Comprehensive Undergraduate Excellence
- Author of two poetry collections
- Seattle Youth Poet Laureate, 2018-19
Timeline
Associate Agent
Tuesday Agency
08.2024 - Current
Director
Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee (WUDPAC) UW-Madison
08.2023 - 06.2024
Editorial Intern
Copper Canyon Press
09.2022 - 01.2023
B.A - English-Creative Writing, Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison