Longtime lit agent and manager Shari Smiley has died. Smiley passed away Tuesday at age 53. Cause of death is not yet known.
Smiley had a long career in book to movie circles, and most recently had restarted her Smiley Management banner. Before that she had been at 3 Arts, this after a four year stint at The Gotham Group.
There, she sold the dramatic rights to several titles, notably In A Dark, Dark Wood, The Barbizon and An Anonymous Girl, all of which resulted in bidding wars.
Smiley had also been a consultant for the executor of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate. Smiley spent the bulk of her career, 18 years worth, at CAA, where she began as a receptionist in 1993 and was soon selling more books there than some of the tenured agents.
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