2021

Tanusri Prasanna

Tanusri Prasanna is a literary agent at DeFiore and Company, with a background in human rights advocacy that has helped shape the types of books she champions. Her eclectic list features compelling new voices in both the adult and children’s books spaces, set against themes in social justice, rights, and representation.

Some current and forthcoming titles include: nonfiction such as More of this, Please: Sikh Wisdom for the Soul by Simran Jeet Singh, and The Colour of God by Ayesha Siddiqua Chaudhry; children’s books showcasing diverse stories and protagonists such as My Tree and I Am A Bird by Hope Lim; Fauja Singh Keeps Going by Simran Jeet Singh, and Hannah and the Ramadan Gift by Qasim Rashid; books that make abstract concepts accessible to children with creativity and humor, such as Space Matters by Jacque Lynn and How to Bake a Universe by Alec Carvlin; as well as adult and YA fiction, such as The Dharma Forest trilogy by Keerthik Sasidharan; and Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes.

Tanusri was born and raised in India, and has been living in NYC for over a decade. She is a graduate of the National Law School (India), Harvard Law School, and Oxford University.

Eva Scalzo

Eva Scalzo was born in New Jersey, but lived in Houston, Buenos Aires, San Juan, and Boston before settling down outside of Binghamton, New York. She has been reading romance since the fifth grade when she discovered the Sweet Valley High series. On inheriting her grandmother’s collection of vintage Harlequin Romances, she set a goal to someday finish reading them all on top of her already massive TBR.

Eva has a B.A. in the Humanities from the University of Puerto Rico and a M.A. in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. Since graduating in 2002, she has spent her career in scholarly publishing, working for Houghton Mifflin, Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, and Cornell University in a variety of roles. She has been with Speilburg Literary since 2013, and started accepting clients in 2017. Eva is a member of the AALA and SCBWI.

In Adult Fiction, Eva represents Romance (all subgenres but inspirational), Fantasy, and select Upmarket/Women’s Fiction and Mystery/Thriller. She also represents all subgenres of Young Adult Fiction and select Middle Grade (literary and fantasy). Before you hit submit on any queries please verify her #MSWL.

Kat Kerr

Kat joined Donald Maass Literary Agency in 2019. She graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelors in English in 2009 and is drawn to literary and commercial voices within the adult and YA markets, as well as adult nonfiction. Kat feels strongly about supporting programs like We Need Diverse Books and is passionate about creating space in this industry for those from historically marginalized communities. She is actively seeking to grow her client list and is particularly hungry for magical realism, literary leaning speculative and science fiction, women’s fiction, YA works with a lot of heart, and narrative nonfiction with something to say.

Rebecca Gradinger

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

When it comes to fiction, I truly run on emotion and instinct. I always know when a manuscript is a good fit when I start having imaginary editorial discussions with the author in my mind. With nonfiction projects, I’m looking for a similar level of passion and connection to the material but also to the subject matter–I like to work with people who are particularly insightful and who write really well about things that I care deeply about (or who write so well that they make me care deeply about things I didn’t think I cared about before). I particularly look for books that take me into unfamiliar worlds, or force me to look at the world differently.

Sarah Bedingfield

Sarah has been an agent with Levine Greenberg Rostan since 2016. She represents high-concept literary novels, unique psychological suspense, big-hearted and surprising family dramas, historical fiction telling unfamiliar stories, and underrepresented and diverse voices.

She reads most types of literary and upmarket commercial fiction, especially works that show powerful imagination, revelatory character arcs, compulsive plotting and unpredictable points of view illustrating important themes. Emotional, inventive stories told through nuances of motherhood, human connection or feminist issues, novels with light speculative elements, and darker narratives that build can’t-look-away tension tend to be her favorites, particularly those set in wild, unexpected places. She loves anything that highlights nature or the environment in some fashion, especially in extremes. Sarah does not typically represent genre fiction.

Hailing from North Carolina, Sarah graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a double major in Psychology and English. She spent her first three years in New York City teaching 11th grade English in the Bronx. She began her publishing career in 2012 as an Editorial Assistant at Crown and Hogarth.

It’s impossible to list all, but a few of her favorite authors are Shirley Jackson, Gabriel García Márquez, Victor Hugo, Emily St. John Mandel, Erin Morgenstern, Haruki Murakami, Sarah Waters, and Madeleine L’Engle. Some favorite recent reads from her spare time have been BLACK CAKE, THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, and THE NEED.

Lane Shefter Bishop

Lane Shefter Bishop is a multi-award-winning producer/director who has received numerous accolades for her work including an EMMY, six Telly Awards, a Videographer Award, three Communicator Awards, a Sherril C. Corwin Award, an Aurora Award, a Davey Award, a New York Festivals Award and the DGA Fellowship Award for Episodic Television. Currently Ms. Bishop is CEO of Vast Entertainment, THE go to book-to-screen company, with numerous projects, including:

Producing Feature Films The DUFF (2015) for CBS Films & Lionsgate and Assassination Gamesfor MPCA – both based on books... Writing, producing & directing six TV Movies for Lifetime… Producing TV Series The Brain Trust for NBC and Confessions of a Sociopath for UCP – both based on books... And Producing the Limited Series The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein for Sony Pictures TV – also based on a book.

Ms. Bishop has also been a 3-time speaker at the WGA and numerous writers’ conferences, and is author of Sell Your Story in a Single Sentence; Advice From the Front Lines of Hollywood (published by W.W. Norton & Co). The book hit #1 on Amazon in New Releases five times before its actual release date. In an online interview, CNN dubbed her “The Book Whisperer” of Hollywood. Ms. Bishop holds a B.A. in Literature from UC Santa Barbara and an M.F.A. in Production from USC's School of Cinema/Television. She is a director-member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Geeta Kothari

Geeta Kothari is a senior editor at the Kenyon Review. Her essay "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" is widely taught in universities and has been reprinted in several anthologies, including in Best American Essays. She is the editor of ‘Did My Mama Like to Dance?’ and Other Stories about Mothers and Daughters, and the author of I Brake for Moose and Other Stories. Her most recent essay, “To the Man who Poisoned My Mother,” was named a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2022. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and at Carlow University.

Bibi Lewis

Bibi Lewis is a literary agent at the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency where she represents Children's fiction and non-fiction and adult fiction. A contract nerd through and through, Bibi manages subsidiary rights for the agency as well. She was born and raised in NYC.

She is looking for high-concept stories with captivating writing. She reads widely across many genres and enjoys books that play with tropes while bringing a fresh and diverse outlook. She is interested in realistic, upmarket and book club fiction as well as romance. An avid Thriller and Suspense reader, she would love to see new takes on the genres and enjoys stories that blend a fast-paced plot with vivid characters and literary language. She is not looking for SF and enjoys her fantasy grounded in reality.

Isabelle Bleecker

Isabelle Bleecker established Nordlyset Literary Agency in 2018 with two partners, Jennifer Thompson and Nathan Vogt, after many years working within trade publishing houses. An industry veteran with almost 30 years of experience in various roles including editorial, production, and subsidiary rights, she has worked at the Perseus Books imprints (Basic Books, PublicAffairs, Da Capo Press, Running Press, Seal Press, and associated press Bold Type Books) as well as Tuttle Publishing and Rizzoli Publishing.

She represents such authors as Theresa MacPhail, Kate Cohen, Leah Katz, Alfred Habegger, Vanda Krefft, and Thomas Kent in nonfiction, and Jesse Salvo, Joie Davidow, and Charles Jones in fiction, and Phillippe Diederich and Maryam Hassan in children’s.

As a newer shop, Nordlyset is building its author list in upmarket nonfiction and literary fiction and Isabelle is open to submissions in the following areas:

Nonfiction: narrative science, history, biography, memoir that explores a wider issue, social issues, cultural commentary, self-help rooted in science, psychology, parenting, feminism, and business.

Fiction: literary fiction with outstanding writing, international and diverse voices and situations, unique and surprising stories, deeply researched historical fiction, smart and multi-layered mysteries.

Children’s: middle grade and YA with strong writing, or issue-driven stories in both fiction and nonfiction. She’d like to see diverse and international voices in particular.

Specializes In

NONFICTION: History

Considers

FICTION: Children's, Crime, Family Saga, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Literary Fiction, Middle Grade, Multi-Cultural, Mystery, Upmarket Women's Fiction, Young Adult

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Current Affairs, Dating/Relationships, Food & Lifestyle, Health & Fitness, Investigative Journalism, Juvenile, Medical, Military/War, Multi-Cultural, Music, Narrative, Nature/Ecology, Parenting, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Science, Self-Help, Technology, True Crime, Women's Concerns

Lori Galvin

Lori Galvin represents both adult fiction (especially domestic suspense, psychological thrillers, and mysteries) and nonfiction (memoir, food writing, and cookbooks). A few of Galvin’s clients include Wanda M. Morris (All Her Little Secrets, Anywhere You Run, What You Leave Behind, William Morrow) and Jennifer Morita’s forthcoming debut Ghosts of Waikiki (Crooked Lane). On the culinary side, her clients include James Beard–award winners, Kwame Onwuachi (Notes from a Young Black Chef, My America Knopf) and Margaret Li and Irene Li (Perfectly Good Food, Norton). Galvin’s clients’ projects have been optioned by A24, Netflix, and CBS Studios.

Prior to joining Aevitas, Galvin was executive editor at the multimedia publisher America’s Test Kitchen, where she led a team that produced dozens of landmark cookbooks. Galvin was also an editor at Houghton Mifflin, a restaurant cook, and ran a bed-and-breakfast in Maine.

TANUSRI PRASANNA

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

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EVA SCALZO

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KAT KERR

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REBECCA GRADINGER

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Specializes In

Considers

SARAH BEDINGFIELD

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LANE SHEFTER BISHOP

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GEETA KOTHARI

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WHAT THE KENYON REVIEW PUBLISHES

BIBI LEWIS

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ISABELLE BLEECKER

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LORI GALVIN

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