AG Partner Events
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
6:00 pm Eastern
The New York Society Library, 53 East 79th Street , New York, New York
This event is in-person with a livestream option. Purchase tickets at the New York Society Library website.
Book publisher Keith Riegert has described generative artificial intelligence as “really terrifying and really useful at the same time.” Those in the book world today—authors, publishers, librarians, and readers—are looking with apprehension, curiosity, and fear at shifts in the industry, the rise of new technologies, and the struggles of legal guidelines trying to catch up. In this one-of-a-kind event, Riegert converses with Umair Kazi, Director of Policy & Advocacy for the Authors Guild, about the current moment, where they see trends heading, and how those who love and create books can contribute to the ongoing health of our literary community.
Keith Riegert is the president of The Stable Book Group and CEO of Brooklyn-based independent publishing companies Ulysses Press and VeloPress Books. Keith is also CEO of Perfect Bound Technologies Corporation and a co-founder of the book publicity and digital marketing firm Pacific & Court. Keith is a member of the board of advisors at NYU’s School of Professional Studies in the Center for Publishing, where he also teaches Analytics and Consumer Insights. Keith also serves on the boards of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and the AI firm Inkbloom.
Keith holds a BA in English literature from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business with a specialization in statistics and marketing.
Prior to his current role at Ulysses Press, Keith was Associate Director of Analytics for Hachette Book Group. He is the co-founder of Little, Brown Lab and Kingfisher Press. photo by Samantha Rayward
Umair Kazi is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Authors Guild, a professional organization of over 13,000 writers. In this capacity, Umair oversees the Guild’s policy portfolio, including positions on copyright, collective bargaining, antitrust, and artificial intelligence. Previously, Umair served as the Guild’s Staff Attorney, and advised members on copyright, publishing contracts, First Amendment, and other legal issues related to the writing profession.
Umair holds a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. He translates poetry from Urdu, with work published in several literary journals, and contributed a chapter on digital book piracy in the first edition of The Routledge Companion to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century.
