Our Team.
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About
My name is Lara Love Hardin
(aka Lara Love aka Mama Love)
LARA LOVE HARDIN is a literary agent, author, prison reform advocate, and president of True Literary. Her memoir, The Many Lives of Mama Love is a 2024 Oprah Book Club pick and a New York Times bestseller. She has an MFA in creative writing and apart from her own book, is also a five-time New York Times bestselling collaborative writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life, and 2018 Oprah Book Club pick, The Sun Does Shine, which she co-authored with Anthony Ray Hinton about his 30 years as an innocent man on Alabama’s death row. In 2019, she won a Christopher Award for her work “affirming the highest values of the human spirit,” nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and short-listed for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Lara is also the co-founder of The Gemma Project, a gender-responsive organization serving incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women with integrity and compassion.
About
Janelle Julian
Janelle Julian is the Director of Operations at True Literary where she leads process optimization and organization, logistics, and project management. Janelle was previously the Chief of Staff at Idea Architects. She loves mind-blowing spiritual books, deeply practical big idea books, and gripping memoirs that won’t let you go. Aside from her love of stories, she’s a certified professional coach who's passionate about helping people become the best versions of themselves and actualize their dreams.
Fun fact: Janelle has been working with Lara and Miles since Lara hired her at a taqueria after an improv class in 2019.
Miles Michelle
Miles Michelle is True Literary’s developmental and acquisitions editor. Since 2016 they have edited a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction, including 7+ New York Times bestsellers and 2 Oprah’s Book Club picks. They collaborate with authors to bring their stories to life and specialize in memoir and speculative fiction. They are passionate about diversifying publishing and believes everyone has a story to tell. When they aren’t collaborating on books, their life still revolves around creativity. A visual artist and writer, they believe that art and storytelling can change - and heal - the world.
