2019

Lucy Cleland

Lucy Cleland is a literary agent representing idea-driven and narrative nonfiction of all stripes, upmarket fiction, and select children’s projects. Her list is bold and eclectic, united by an overarching interest in how culture shapes us (and how we shape it). Her clients have been Pulitzer finalists, winners of the NBCC Award and PEN America Awards, recipients of MacArthur “Genius” grants, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; their books have been featured in the New Yorker’s Briefly Noted, New York Time’s Editors’ Choice, and best books of the year lists, as well as ranked as USA Today Bestsellers and selected for Book of the Month Club.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

I'm always looking for excellent writing in nonfiction on just about any topic, from pop culture to history, as well as literary narrative nonfiction that deeply explores a unique subject or experience, and ‘big idea’ books that carve out new territory in contemporary conversations. In fiction, I'm seeking novels animated by potent concepts (speculative and magical realism welcome!), as well as historical fiction that immerses readers in non-Western settings. Worlds with a special twist (such as those where just one thing is different) really appeal to me, and I am a junkie for plots that get my heart pounding. I'm also a sucker for love stories and everything from poignant deep-dives into the pains and pleasures of human connection to new spins on old tropes catches my eye, whether literary or commercial in craft.

Specializes In

FICTION: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Commercial Fiction, Thrillers/Suspense, Science Fiction

NONFICTION: Commercial Fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Thrillers/Suspense, LGBTQIA+

Considers

FICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Self Help, Psychology, True Crime

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, Current Affairs, LGBTQIA+, History, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Psychology, Pop Culture, True Crime

Chris Bucci

Chris Bucci represents bestselling and award-winning fiction and non-fiction authors including, Bath Haus by PJ Vernon; Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid; Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? by Timothy Caulfield; Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar; and The War Widow by Tara Moss.

Chris began his career at the University of Toronto Press as an acquisitions editor in the social sciences. He joined HarperCollins Canada in 2003 as a non-fiction editor and then moved to McClelland & Stewart. In 2008 he joined The McDermid Agency as a literary agent and later bought the agency, along with Martha Webb. In 2017 they merged with the Cooke Agency to form CookeMcDermid where Chris was Proprietor and Literary Agent before joining Aevitas in 2020.

Chris aims to work with some of the culture’s best writers, thinkers and experts—authors whose work helps us to interpret and understand our times as well as our future.

Beth Marshea

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

In all areas Beth would like to see more works from disabled writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, Black writers, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, and all other groups who do not regularly get to see their stories in print. She would love to see more non-binary and Ace representation across categories.

Beth loves deeply character driven stories that showcase joy, resilience, love, clever twists, exciting moments of action, thought-provoking concepts, and really anything that can make her get deep into her emotions.

Specializes In

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, Fantasy, GLBT, Historical Fiction, Horror, Multi-Cultural, Upmarket Women's Fiction, Young Adult

NONFICTION: GLBT, History, Narrative, Parenting, Pop Culture, Self-Help, Travel

Considers

FICTION: Chick Lit, Children's, Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, Fantasy, GLBT, Historical Fiction, Horror, Middle Grade, Multi-Cultural, Mystery, Picture Books, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Upmarket Women's Fiction

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, GLBT, History, Narrative, Multi-Cultural, Parenting, Politics, Self-Help, Travel

Miriam Altshuler

Miriam Altshuler began her career at Russell & Volkening and in 1994 established her own agency, which she ran for twenty-one years until she joined DeFiore and Company in early 2016. DeFiore and Company represents a wide range of award-winning and bestselling authors of fiction and nonfiction, including writers of children’s literature.

Miriam specializes in adult literary and book club fiction, narrative nonfiction and children’s books for middle grade and YA readers. She is particularly interested in finding emerging and underrepresented voices, and loves reading and representing books that focus on diversity and explore the experiences of BIPOC people . Her clients of adult literature include Jill Santopolo (New York Times and international bestselling author of The Light We Lost), Donna Freitas (Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention), Elizabeth Rosner (Survivor Café), Marja Mills (New York Times bestselling author of The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee), Andrew Carroll (New York Times bestselling author of War Letters), Maya Lang (What We Carry), and Jennifer Murphy (I Love You More). Her clients’ work has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other notable publications, and have received numerous awards and honors, including the National Book Award Finalist, the Windham Campbell Prize, the Los Angeles Times Finalist, The Michael L. Printz Award, Barnes & Noble Discover Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mitchell Waters

MITCHELL WATERS joined Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents in 2019, having previously worked at Curtis Brown for twenty-four years. He represents fiction and non-fiction for adult and young adult markets. Mitchell represents a wide array of literary and commercial fiction, including mysteries, thrillers and suspense, crime, family sagas, LGBTQ+, historical fiction, humor and satire, multi-cultural narratives, upmarket women's fiction, and realistic YA. He has a keen interest in historical/literary mysteries and suspense. He is drawn to voice-driven narratives that are both dark and humorous and he is seeking the next epic LGBTQ+ love story. He would also be happy to discover a contemporary Middlemarch.

Nate Brown

Nate Brown is a Baltimore based fiction writer and editor whose stories and essays have appeared in the Iowa Review, Mississippi Review, Five Chapters, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Publisher's Weekly, Lithub, and Barrelhouse. He has received scholarships and fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing; the Vermont Studio Center; the Ucross Foundation; the Kimmel, Harding, Nelson Center for the Arts; the Bread Loaf Writers Conference; and the Maryland State Arts Council.

The managing editor of the Austin-based literary journal American Short Fiction, he also teaches creative writing at Stevenson University, Johns Hopkins University, and at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Specializes In

FICTION: Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural

OTHER SPECIALTIES: While ASF is primarily interested in literary short fiction, we publish a wide variety of nonfiction online as well.

Considers

FICTION: Fantasy, GLBT, Historical Fiction, Horror, Humor/Satire, Mystery, Science Fiction

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Current Affairs, GLBT, History, Humor, Memoir, Men's Concerns, Military/War, Narrative, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, Science, Spirituality, True Crime, Women's Concerns

Susanna Einstein

Susanna Einstein (she/her/hers) has worked as a literary agent since 2005 and launched Einstein Literary Management in 2015. She has worked in publishing since 1995, first in the publicity and editorial departments at what was then called Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing) and then as a literary scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates. A native New Yorker, she graduated with distinction from Northwestern University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Susanna Einstein is an enthusiastic member of the Association of American Literary Agents. She has a particular fondness for crime fiction, upmarket commercial women’s fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction, and narrative non-fiction. Some representative clients in those areas are Ree Drummond, David Ellis, Jennie Fields, Rachael Herron, Emmy Laybourne, Sarah Seltzer, Daniel Stashower, and Kitty Zeldis. She likes a good story, well told.

Jonah Straus

Jonah Straus is the founder of Straus Literary, a boutique literary agency based in San Francisco with a presence in New York. He specializes in literary fiction, often with an international or multicultural outlook, as well as journalism, history, narrative nonfiction, and the culinary arts.

Jonah Straus got his start in the warehouse at Atrium Publishers Group, an independent book distributor in Northern California, and went on to hold positions in production, editorial, sales, and marketing at several publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He moved to New York in 2005, where he worked in marketing for arts and literary programs, including the Selected Shorts NPR reading series at Symphony Space. He established Straus Literary in 2007, and moved the agency back to San Francisco in 2013 while maintaining a regular presence in New York.

Fiction clients include Lambda award winner Achy Obejas (Days of Awe, Ballantine), National Book Award winner John Keene (Counternarratives, New Directions), David Hollander (L.I.E., Ballantine), Gregory Brown (The Lowering Days, HarperCollins), Saramago Prize winner Adriana Lisboa (Crow Blue, Bloomsbury), celebrated Canadian writer Clark Blaise (Lunar Attractions, Doubleday), and Man Asian Prize finalist Eric Gamalinda (The Descartes Highlands, Akashic).

Nonfiction writers include health care journalist Sarah DiGregorio (Early, HarperCollins), Brazilian bestseller Drauzio Varella (Lockdown, Simon & Schuster), environmental whistleblower E.G. Vallianatos (Poison Spring, Bloomsbury Press) and UN spokesperson Gordon Weiss (The Cage, Random House) as well as a select group of chefs, artisans, and food and travel writers.

Specializes In

FICTION: Family Saga, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural, LGBTQIA+

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Current Affairs, Food & Lifestyle, History, Investigative Journalism, Medical, Memoir, Multi-Cultural, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Politics, Travel, Science

Considers

FICTION: Mystery, Short Story Collections, Humor/Satire, Thrillers/Suspense

NONFICTION: Humor, Men's concerns, Military/War, Music, Parenting, Politics, Psychology, Pop Culture, True Crime, Women's concerns

Katie Grimm

What I'm Looking For

Katie represents and is seeking vivid, voice-driven literary and upmarket fiction, narrative non-fiction that blends the personal with investigative, and gorgeously written young adult and heartfelt middle grade with high-concept hooks. She often gravitates to novels that can be described as tragi-comic, borrow genre elements without necessarily sitting the category, and/or speak to the current contemporary moment regardless of their temporal setting.

Across all categories, she’s looking for books with an immediacy of feeling, strong sense of purpose, and previously under- or misrepresented experiences. And though she’ll always be interested in the darker and weirder side of human history, she’s seeking stories that ultimately aim to uplift the reader.

Specializes In

FICTION: Literary Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, LGBTQIA+, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Short Story Collections, Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Current Affairs, History, Investigative Journalism, Juvenile, Multi-Cultural, Narrative, Pop Culture, Science, True Crime, Women's Concerns

Will Consider

FICTION: Narrative, Investigative Journalism, Cultural/Social Issues, Multicultural/Global Perspectives, Science, LGBTQIA+, Current Affairs, History, Nature/Ecology

NONFICTION: Pop Culture, True Crime, Women's concerns, Humor

Jessica Papin

Jessica Papin first joined DG&B in 2003, after spending eight years as an editor at Warner Books (now Grand Central). In 2004, she moved to Egypt, where she spent three years working for the American University in Cairo Press. Upon her return to the United States, she rejoined DG&B. With a background on both sides of the desk, she loves working collaboratively with clients to shape and refine their work. Her stay in the Middle East has given her an abiding interest in the history and politics of the region, as well as the broader Islamic world. She is interested in plot-driven literary and smart commercial fiction, and narrative non-fiction across a range of subjects, including history, medicine, science, economics, and women’s issues. In every case, she looks for passion, erudition, and storytelling skill. A wry sense of humor doesn’t hurt. A sampling of projects include Mychal Denzel Smith’s Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching; Therese Oneill’s Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners; Mona Eltahawy’s Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution; Qais Akbar Omar’s A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story; Christopher Yates’ Black Chalk and Grist Mill Road; and Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek and TJ Mitchell, Death in the Air by Kate Winkler Dawson, and In Search of the Canary Tree by Lauren Oakes.

Specializes In

FICTION: Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Mystery, Thrillers/Suspense

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Current Affairs, Food & Lifestyle, GLBT, History, Humor, Investigative Journalism, Memoir, Military/War, Multi-Cultural, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Science, Technology, Travel, True Crime, Women's Concerns

Considers

FICTION: Chick Lit, Commercial Fiction, Crime, Family Saga, Fantasy, GLBT, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Horror, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Short Story Collection, Upmarket Women's Fiction, Young Adult

NONFICTION: Gift Books, Health & Fitness, Juvenile, Medical, Men's Concerns, Music, Parenting, Pets, Religion, Self-Help, Spirituality

LUCY CLELAND

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

CHRIS BUCCI

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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BETH MARSHEA

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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MIRIAM ALTSHULER

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MITCHELL WATERS

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NATE BROWN

MORE DETAILS TO COME!

SUSANNA EINSTEIN

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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JONAH STRAUS

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Katie Grimm

What I'm Looking For

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JESSICA PAPIN

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