2021

Lucy Cleland

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.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

SIGN HERE: A Novel, by Claudia Lux
STILL LIFE WITH BONES: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains, by Alexa Hagerty
GODFALL, by Van Jensen

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

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Chris Bucci

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.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Mysteries, thrillers, literary fiction, upmarket fiction, commercial literary fiction, and narrative nonfiction.

Sample Titles or Authors

Bath Haus, by PJ Vernon
Highway of Tears, by Jessica McDiarmid
Almost Surely Dead, by Amina Akhtar

Specializes In

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Crime, LGBTQIA+, Horror, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers/Suspense

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Investigative Journalism, Current Affairs, Health & Fitness, History, Memoir, Narrative, Pop Culture, Science, Sports, True Crime

Considers

FICTION: Family Saga, Humor/Satire, Romance

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Paige Sisley

PAIGE SISLEY

Paige is an associate agent at CookeMcDermid. She is seeking fiction that is binge-worthy and/or has book club appeal, and is always on the lookout for non-fiction in the memoir, lifestyle, and health & wellness areas. In addition to managing her own list, Paige oversees CookeMcDermid clients’ film and TV rights. Previously, she was a rights assistant for Cooke International, an agency specializing in foreign rights management for a diverse group of publishing clients.

Paige has her Master of Arts from Ryerson University's Literatures of Modernity program and a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of King's College and Dalhousie University. A born and bred Torontonian, she lives for a good adventure and has also resided in LA, New Zealand and Halifax.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

  • Mysteries/thrillers
  • Food memoirs
  • Novels with book club appeal
  • Any book that is so engrossing and/or transporting that you want to binge read it instead of the next big Netflix show
  • Novels that follow a few characters over a long period of time, i.e. The Immortalists, The Vanishing Half, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, The Interesting
  • Books set in the South
  • Books--fiction or non-fiction--that add to or advance the current conversation in some way
  • Books with a feminist bent
  • Books written by and for millennials

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

A Woman Makes a Plan, Maye Musk
Sabrina Benaim
The War Widow, Tara Moss

SPECIALIZES IN

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, Mystery, Thrillers/Suspense, Upmarket Women's Fiction

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Dating/Relationships, Food & Lifestyle, Health & Fitness, Memoir, Narrative, Parenting, Pop Culture, Self-Help, Women's Concerns

CONSIDERS

FICTION: Chick Lit, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Short Story Collections

NONFICTION: Current Affairs, Gift Books, Humor, Investigative Journalism, Multi-Cultural, Music, Nature/Ecology, Pets, Psychology, Science, Travel, True Crime

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Beth Marshea

BETH MARSHEA

A white woman in her 40s with brown hair, a plaid coat, and a black shirt leans against a tree smiling.

Beth is the owner of Ladderbird Literary Agency. She has a BA in Literature and a Masters in Business Administration and is always looking for new and exciting ways to bring more diversity into publishing and beyond. Outside of agenting, Beth teaches writing in her local community with a focus on bringing reluctant writers and readers into the magical world of books. She relentlessly searches for more ways to encourage writers to create stories that matter!

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.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West
The Haunting of Alejandra by Violet Castro
Strictly No Heroics by B L Radley

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

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Stephanie Delman

STEPHANIE DELMAN

Stephanie represents a spectrum of authors who write for the adult market, with a focus on fiction: literary/upmarket, psychologically propulsive suspense, near-historical fiction, and genre-bending, literary narratives that contain elements of surrealism, magic, or sci-fi (her favorite non-client books in this space include Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado). Stephanie also represents a limited selection of narrative nonfiction projects by authors with established platforms and unique perspectives. In nonfiction, she is looking for longform reportage that reads like fiction, true crime, and expert accounts of dark and far-flung corners of the world. In both fiction and nonfiction, Stephanie favors #ownvoices, diverse perspectives, and feminist narratives.

Stephanie grew up in Northern California, now lives in Brooklyn, and has been with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates since early 2012. After working closely with agency president Heide Lange for several years, handling foreign rights for Dan Brown, Brad Thor, and other bestselling authors while simultaneously building her own list, Stephanie transitioned to full-time agenting in January 2018. A graduate of Johns Hopkins’ Writing Seminars program, Stephanie considers herself a “hands-on” agent and is eager to work with debut authors who are serious about their craft.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Literary/upmarket, psychologically propulsive suspense, near-historical fiction (past 100 years), and genre-bending, literary narratives that are grounded in reality but contain elements of surrealism, magic, or sci-fi. I am also looking for a limited number of narrative nonfiction projects: longform reportage that reads like fiction, true crime, and expert accounts of dark and far-flung corners of the world.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

Gather the Daughters, Jennie Melamed
What Should be Wild, Julia Fine
Devotion, Madeline Stevens

Specializes In

FICTION: Horror, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Upmarket Women's Fiction

NONFICTION: Narrative

Considers

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, GLBT, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Mystery, Short Story Collections, Thrillers/Suspense

NONFICTION: Adventure/True Story, Cultural/Social Issues, Current Affairs, Food & Lifestyle, GLBT, Investigative Journalism, Memoir, Multi-Cultural, Pop Culture, Science, True Crime, Women's Concerns

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Rachel Letofsky

RACHEL LETOFSKY

I specialize in children’s books (YA, middle-grade and picture books) and narrative driven and essay-based non-fiction and literary fiction for the adult market. I’m really engaged in helping to promote big voices, with big ideas that I can champion to all the corners of the world. I represent authors such as Vivek Shraya– an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, and film – her recent work of nonfiction, I’m Afraid of Men, was a highly publicized bestseller in 2018  published by Penguin ; Danny Ramadan, whose novel The Clothesline Swing was longlisted for CBC’s Canada Reads, the Sunburst Award and the Lambda Literary Awards, and won the Independent Publisher Book Award for Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Fiction in 2018, and whose picture book Salma, The Syrian Chef is forthcoming in 2020; Janice Lynn Mather, whose debut YA novel, Learning to Breathe was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award and a BC Book Prize in 2018; Natalie Morrill, whose debut novel, The Ghostkeeper, won the Canadian Jewish Literary award in 2018 for Best Fiction; Téa Mutonji, an award-winning poet and writer who was named emerging writer of the year (2017) by the Ontario Book Publishers Organization, and whose debut collection of short fiction, Shut Up You’re Pretty, published in April 2019 and has been nominated for the Writer's Trust Fiction Award of 2019; Farzana Doctor, acclaimed and award-wining author, and previous winner of the Dayne Ogilvie Grant from the Writers' Trust of Canada for an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer; and Cherie Dimaline, whose novel The Marrow Thieves received so many awards that they couldn’t all fit on the cover of the book – including the 2017 Governor General’s award in Children’s Literature, the 2017 Kirkus Prize in YA Literature, and was one of the titles defended on the CBC’s 2018 Canada Reads competition; among many other talented established and debut authors in the US, Canada, Australia, India, the Caribbean and Europe.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

YA
Literary
Narrative-driven non-fiction

In all cases, unforgettable voices, and unique points of view with circumstances and characters that capture my heart.

SAMPLE TITLES

A Face for Picasso, Ariel Henley
Empire of Wild, Cherie Dimaline
Shut Up You're Pretty, Téa Mutonji

Specializes In

FICTION: Children’s, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Middle Grade, Multi-Cultural, Young Adult

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, GLBT, Juvenile, Multi-Cultural, Narrative,

Considers

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, GLBT, Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Short Story Collections

NONFICTION: Investigative Journalism, Memoir, Nature/Ecology, Pop Culture, True Crime

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Miriam Altshuler

MIRIAM ALTSHULER

Miriam Altschuler

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.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Literary and commercial fiction and women's book club fiction.  Narrative nonfiction, including memoirs. Books that focus on diversity and explore the experiences of BIPOC people.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

What We Carry, Maya Lang
The Light We Lost, Jill Santopolo
Consent, Donna Freitas

Specializes In

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Upmarket Women's Fiction, Young Adult

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, Memoir, Multi-Cultural, Narrative, Women’s Concerns

Considers

FICTION: Children's, GLBT, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Short Story Collections

NONFICTION: Investigative Journalism, Psychology

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Eric Smith

ERIC SMITH

Brown guy in his 40's with glasses and a thick beard.

 

 

 

Eric Smith is a literary agent and author of Young Adult novels. As an agent at P.S. Literary, he's worked on New York Times bestselling and award-winning books.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

I'm drawn to genre-blending commercial and literary fiction (maybe there's a little time travel, a little magic!), high concept rom-coms, and kid-lit across Middle Grade and Young Adult categories.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

Here and Now and Then, Mike Chen

The Spy and I, Tiana Smith

The One True Me and You, Remi K. England

Specializes In

FICTION: Children's, Commercial, LGBTQIA+, Horror, Literary Fiction, Middle Grade, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

NONFICTION: Dating/Relationships, Gift Books, Juvenile, LGBTQIA+, History, Memoir, Narrative, Parenting, Pop Culture, Self-Help, True Crime

Considers

FICTION: Family Saga, Humor/Satire, Thrillers/Suspense

NONFICTION: 

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent

Steve Woodward

STEVE WOODWARD

Steve Woodward is an editor at Graywolf Press, where he has edited books of literary fiction and nonfiction by authors including Anna Burns, Jamel Brinkley, Eliane Brum, Mark Doten, Daisy Johnson, Benjamin Percy, Susan Steinberg, Esmé Weijun Wang, and others. Authors he has worked with have won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and have been finalists for the National Book Award and the LA Times Book Prize. He has an MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has taught at Sierra Nevada College's low-residency MFA program and at Macalester College. He has spoken about editing and publishing at AWP, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Loft Literary Center, StoryStudio Chicago, and other venues. He lives in Brooklyn Park, MN.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

Literary fiction, both novels and short story collections, with a distinct voice and style. In nonfiction: essay, memoir, longform narrative, and criticism.

SAMPLE TITLES OR AUTHORS

The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang
Milkman, Anna Burns
Machine, Susan Steinberg

Specializes In

FICTION: Literary Fiction, Short Story Collections

NONFICTION: Memoir, Narrative

OTHER SPECIALTIES: Essay Collections

Considers

FICTION: Family Saga, GLBT, Multi-Cultural

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, GLBT, Investigative Journalism, Multi-Cultural, Music, Nature/Ecology, Pop Culture

Posted by GrubStreet in Editor

Mitchell Waters

MITCHELL WATERS

A gray haired man in his 60s in jacket and tie.

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.

What I'm Looking For

Historical fiction, Literary mystery, LGBTQIA+

Sample Titles

THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY, by Natalie Jenner

COUNTING LOST STARS, by Kim van Alkemade

UNDERBURN, by Bill Gaythwaite

Specializes In

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, LGBTQIA+, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery

NONFICTION: Cultural/Social Issues, LGBTQIA+, Health & Fitness, Medical, Memoir

Considers

FICTION: Commercial Fiction, Family Saga, LGBTQIA+, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural/Global Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers/Suspense, Young Adult

NONFICTION: LGBTQIA+, Health & Fitness, Medical, Memoir, Pop Culture

Posted by GrubStreet in Literary Agent