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
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.
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Every story has the potential to inspire. We are here to help more writers become published authors.
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Rise Writers 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
Women
Behind
Rise
Literary
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.
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.
Elena
Azzoni
Chief Operations 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.
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.
Vyana
Novus
Creative Director
Vyana is an ecological artist, educator, and creative director based in Ojai, California, whose multidisciplinary background bridges art, trauma-informed facilitation, and holistic healing. With early roots in art therapy and lived experience navigating extreme adversity, her work is grounded in the transformative power of creativity. Vyana has trained extensively in expressive arts, trauma integration, yoga, meditation, and design, including studies with the Center for Mind Body Medicine, Expressive Trauma Integration, and the Florence Institute of Design International. She brings over a decade of experience in teaching, curriculum design, and leadership grounded in the Person-Centered Approach and transformative justice. Her work is shaped by a late-in-life neurodivergence diagnosis, a near-death experience, and a lifelong commitment to using art as a tool for personal and collective healing.
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.