Leading you through the creative journey

Rise Literary was founded to help authors find the best path to publishing, leading them through the creative journey, and connecting them into the deep magic that is our creative liberation. Together, we will find your path to becoming a published author and to sharing the truths the world needs you to tell.

This is just the beginning. We are working to open our first in-person location, Rise Books + Retreats in Ojai, CA in the coming years, which will be a mixed use storytelling space, including book store, publishing house, writing and wellness community space and retreat center. So much more to come…

Radically Inspired

Storytelling for Everyone

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At Rise Literary, we believe—

That our world will never evolve with tepid change; we need radical ideas, truths, hopes, and determination to create the change we wish to see.

Every story has the potential to inspire. We are here to help more writers become published authors.

Rise Literary is creating a community of storytellers united in magic, building online and in-person opportunities for more of us to find each other.

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We are here to lift up the unheard voices, offering platforms to people ignored or oppressed by traditional media, business, and culture.

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The
Femmes
Behind
Rise
Literary

Woman with long wavy hair wearing a denim shirt and jeans, smiling, standing indoors with a large leaf decoration behind her.

Kristen
McGuiness

CEO + Publisher

Kristen is a best-selling author, editor, and long-standing publishing professional. After spending the first decade of her career working in editorial for Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins, as well as in film development at Warner Brothers, Kristen wrote the bestselling memoir, 51/50: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life, which was featured on the "Today Show" and in USA Today. Since then, she has co-authored dozens of books and her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Shondaland, Marie Claire, amongst others. In addition, she has worked at numerous booksellers, including Shakespeare & Co. in New York. She lives in Ojai, CA with her husband, two children, and a dog named Lucy.

A woman with dark hair styled back, wearing a black blazer, black top, and blue jeans with a white belt, standing with her hand on her hip in a room decorated with wall hangings and artwork.

Lauren PORTé Schwarzfeld

Chief Marketing Officer

Lauren is the Chief Marketing Officer for Rise Literary, a hybrid publisher and book coaching company. She has spent the past 25 years working in sales, fundraising, and marketing through various industries, realizing that the most powerful part of a storied work history is the wide variety of human connection. In 2025 Lauren was the co-producer of TEDxOjai, featuring 12 speakers through the daylong event in Ojai, CA. She is endlessly curious, a lover of books, travel, and new adventures. Lauren lives in Mt. Kisco, NY.

A woman sitting in a cozy room with beige curtains, a large potted plant, mushroom-shaped decor, a tall lamp, and a side table with a brown vase and decorative item. She is smiling, wearing a white top, ripped jeans, and black polka-dot shoes.

Elena
Azzoni

Chief Operating Officer

Elena is an author and operational enthusiast who has helped usher multiple companies from launch through successful exit. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Huffington Post, Elle, Make/Shift magazine, and feminist anthology We Don't Need Another Wave. Her memoir, A Year Straight, was published by Seal Press (Hachette Book Group). Elena holds an MFA from New College of California and BA in Social Thought & Political Economy and Women’s Studies from UMass, Amherst.

A woman with black hair and glasses smiling, sitting in a tan leather chair in a living room with beige curtains, a potted plant, a white lamp, and decorative vases on side tables.

Raya
Whittington

Content Director

Raya is a producer, writer, and lyricist with an unwavering love for literature and the written word. Outside of her professional pursuits, Raya enjoys exploring new bookstores, penning her own stories, and watching objectively bad film and television. She believes in the power of literature to foster community, provoke thought, and provide much-needed escapism. With degrees in English, Communications, Psychology, and Social Media Marketing, she aspires to continue contributing to the creative world for years to come.

A woman with long, curly dark hair, tattoos on her arms and legs, wearing a black top and denim shorts, smiling and kneeling on the floor with her hands on the ground.

Vyana
Novus

Chief Creative Officer

Vyana is an ecological artist & educator based in Ojai, California. Before joining the Rise Literary team, Vyana spent a decade doing freelance design, brand strategy, creative direction, and teaching. Their studies spread wide across various art media, somatics, and relational skills. They use earth pigment paint making & color science alongside these interpersonal skills to explore how creativity sustains & heals us as people.

Their work & facilitation is heavily inspired by their near death experience, guiding their use of multimedia storytelling as a tool for intergenerational healing & legacy making.

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Sienna
Wynn

Publishing Manager

Sienna is a passionate writer with a penchant for fiction. She fell in love with the written word as a child, when it first ignited possibility, creative thinking, and expanded the world. She went on to complete her BA in Fiction, magna cum laude, from Columbia College Chicago, where her unwavering curiosity for real-world experience led her to the parenting community, where she excelled at forging connections and forming lasting relationships. She now writes on Substack, where her cumulative decade of experience in early childhood education, along with her belief in the power of story and narrative, converge. She resides in Ojai, CA, where she enjoys trail running, swimming under the stars, and penning her debut novel.