2027 Agents/Editors

Editor

Brittany Adames, Simon & Schuster

Bio and photo coming soon!

Agent

Ritu Anand, D4EO Literary Agency

Bio: Ritu Anand has been a passionate storyteller since childhood. Caught and admonished for writing—under her desk—during a math class, she recalls being highly inconvenienced. Inspiration had struck from within and there was little else she could have done to curtail it. Today, Ritu has earned the recognition of being an award-winning author of Kara’s Dreams, a picture book about being resilient in the face of adversity. She gives tremendous credit to the various teachers at Mater Dei Convent, who, in the formative years of her life, laid an impression upon her.

No good story should ever be filed away but be shared, she believes. And that is why she has chosen to champion voices yet unheard. Ritu is excited to represent writers of kidlit, literary fiction, general fiction and historical fiction.

She joined D4EO Literary Agency in Spring 2023. As a writer herself, she is on the same page with other writers and applauds their creativity.

For submissions, email a word file to: ritu@d4eo.com.

Kidlit: Picture Books, Middle Grade and YA novels.

Literary Fiction: Drama, Fairy Tales and Fiction in Verse.

General Fiction: Women’s Fiction, Drama, Humor, Realistic Fiction, Satire, Tragedy.

Historical Fiction: Women’s Historical Fiction, Historical Romantic Fiction and Historical Fantasy.

Diverse and Underrepresented Voices are encouraged to submit.

Looking for:  She is most interested in representing kidlit, cozy mystery thrillers, family crime, historical fiction and women’s fiction.

Not looking for: Please do not submit sci-fi or paranormal to her.

Agent

Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates

Bio: Caitlin Blasdell has been a literary agent with Liza Dawson Associates since 2002, focusing on commercial fiction.  Before becoming an agent, she was a senior editor at HarperCollins Publishers.  A graduate of Williams College, she lives in Westchester with her husband, four sons, and an ever-expanding flower garden.

Looking for: She is looking for quality commercial fiction, which to her means a strong plot, memorable voice, clean prose, and, ideally, a good hook.  Her specialties include science fiction and fantasy, romance and women’s fiction, thrillers, and historical fiction.  She also handles a few select middle grade and YA authors and a very few nonfiction titles.

Her clients include Adam Plantinga (THE ASCENT and HARD TOWN), Nicola Solvinic (THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER), Constance Fay (CHAOS), Scott Hawkins (THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR), Jo Nichols (THE MARIGOLD COTTAGES MURDER COLLECTIVE), Charles Stross (the Hugo-Award-winning Laundry series), and Rebecca Zanetti (New York Times-bestselling author of the Laurel Snow thriller series.)

Agent

James Farner, JABberwocky Literary Agency

Bio: James Farner (he/him) is an Associate Agent for JABberwocky Literary Agency, directly assisting COO Brady McReynolds. He was born and raised in the Midwest, received his bachelor’s degree in English writing and religious studies from the University of Oklahoma (where he interned with award-winning literary magazine World Literature Today), and moved to New York City to attend The New School for Social Research’s Liberal Studies master’s program. He started at JABberwocky as an intern in 2019 and became full-time in 2021.

James grew up reading epic fantasies and sweeping space operas, but these days the majority of his reading is in the mystery/thriller space. When he’s not reading, his minimal free time goes to keeping up with the best TV series and listening to podcasts in the tech-adjacent, pop-culture sphere.

Looking for: I’m looking for novel-length works of Adult Fiction in the mystery/crime/thriller genres, with a particular interest in murder mysteries and whodunnits. I’ll consider projects with speculative elements, but generally ones you’d still expect to see in the mystery section of a bookstore, not the SFF shelves.

Not looking for: I am not open to Children’s, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Short Stories (including collections), Poetry, Graphic Novels, or Nonfiction.

Agent

Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Associates

Bio: Liza Fleissig is a founder of the Liza Royce Agency, a cross-platform company providing development, representation, and strategic career management for clients in all media. LRA’s goal is to represent clients in all stages of their careers, from the most established to those still developing their craft. A former trial partner in a NYC based litigation firm, Liza brings decades of negotiating experience to the field, and along with strong connections rooted in publishing, film and television, she provides bespoke services on a multi-dimensional level.

Clients: Karia Rouda, Elise Hart Kipness, Jon Lindstrom, Robert Bailey, Isabella Maldonado, Sara DiVello, Retired FBI Agent Jerri Williams, Estate of Marc Olden, among others.

Looking for: Psychological thrillers, domestic suspense, mystery/suspense, crime fiction, medical thrillers (would love the next Quincy/Scarpetta generation) – basically a fresh way in to tried-and-true concepts – female narratives with complicated histories/family/friendships always welcome.

Not looking for: YA, sci/fi/fantasy, crazy presidents, Russia/China, covid/pandemic stories, traditional CIA/terrorist, mob/cartel, military thrillers.

Editor

Kate Gale, Red Hen Press

Bio and photo coming soon!

Editor

Elana Gibson, Crooked Lane Books

Agent

Stephanie Glencross, David Higham (DHA)

Bio and photo coming soon!

Agent

Doug Grad, Doug Grad Literary Agency, Inc.

Bio: Doug’s path on the road to publishing may have been set early. His first job in the industry came in 1978, walking up and down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan wearing a sandwich board advertising a new novel during the 1978 New York City newspaper strike. The next year, he took creative writing at Stuyvesant High School with Frank McCourt, nearly two decades before McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize for Angela’s Ashes. Doug opened the Doug Grad Literary Agency, Inc. in 2008. A third generation New Yorker and 25-year resident of Brooklyn, Doug moved to Salem, Massachusetts in 2021, where he is learning incantations and spells to influence the publishing gods.

After starting at Simon & Schuster as an assistant to the assistant of Michael Korda, 2026 begins Doug’s 40th year as a publishing professional. An editor with imprints at Simon & Schuster, Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins for 22 years, Doug acquired and edited fiction and nonfiction bestsellers. On the nonfiction side, Doug has worked with astronauts, generals, war heroes, gangsters, cops, politicians, sports stars, journalists, musicians, historians, and humorists. It’s never boring, and it keeps him out of the saloons!

As an agent, Doug has represented such clients as New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction Jeff Shaara; New York Times bestseller Kerri Rawson (daughter of serial killer Dennis Rader, known as BTK); New York Times bestselling WWII historian Larry Alexander; Grammy-winning jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Shelton, baseball great Darryl Strawberry and true crime/mob writer Michael Benson, among others. In the mystery/thriller genre, Doug represents two-time Agatha Award and four-time Lefty Award winner Ellen Byron (and her alter-ego Maria DiRico); Jerome Preisler, author of the NET FORCE series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik; New York Times bestseller David L. Robbins; psychological suspense writer Debbie Babitt; thriller writer Matthew Betley; and espionage novelist A.J. Chambers.

Looking For: On the fiction side, Doug is looking for mysteries and thrillers that are entertaining, first and foremost, and give readers an escape from doomscrolling the news, which makes us all crazy, and not in a good way.

Not looking for: Children’s picture books, middle grade, YA, science fiction, fantasy.

Agent

Allison Hellegers, Stimola Literary Studio

Bio: Allison Hellegers is the Foreign Rights Director and a Senior Literary Agent at Stimola Literary Studio. After working in literary scouting and serving as Director of Foreign Rights at Alloy Entertainment and Rights People, she now oversees all foreign rights for Stimola while representing a select client list. She champions emotionally resonant work for all ages and in a variety of genres, with a particular interest in untold histories, outsider perspectives, and books that challenge norms and push cultural boundaries.

Alli represents New York Times and Indie Bestselling author Michelle Jabès Corpora (His Face is the Sun), and co-agents for New York Times bestselling Lucy Adlington (The Dressmakers of Auschwitz; Four Red Sweaters) and Reese Book Club pick Holly Smale (Cassandra in Reverse).

Her list also includes YA authors award-winning authors, such as Colby Cedar Smith and Rebecca Caprara, graphic novel creators Teo Duvall and Mari Costa, middle-grade authors Elaine Dimopoulos and Caroline Carlson, and select picture book creators including Dinah Johnson and Marta Bartolj.

Allison attends the Frankfurt and Bologna book fairs annually and is an industry-wide speaker and on faculty at various conferences.

Outside of work, she enjoys a hot yoga class, hiking with her rescue mutt, watching horror films with her teenage son, listening in real time to her husband narrate audio books, and watching the sky from planes and trains.

Agent

Heather Jackson, Heather Jackson Literary Agency

Editor

Toni Kirkpatrick, Diversion Books

Bio: Toni Kirkpatrick is a Senior Editor at Diversion Books. Previously at Crooked Lane Books and St. Martin’s Press, she has published award-winning and critically acclaimed fiction. She loves novels that bring history to life, feminist retellings, humor, political engagement, and powerful storylines that explore the human experience. She serves as Chair of Latinx in Publishing and is committed to publishing underrepresented writers.

Looking for: Thrillers, suspense, sci-fi/fantasy, romantasy, and horror. Cross-genre welcome!

Not looking for: Young adult, children’s, cozy mysteries, traditional mysteries, nonfiction.

Note on editors: This editor does not accept unagented manuscripts. They are happy to have a conversation about your project, make a connection, and provide brief feedback.

Editor

Stephanie Koven, Blackstone Publishing

Bio: Stephanie Koven joined Blackstone in 2021 as Senior Acquisitions Editor, and she is also responsible for launching the company’s first in-house foreign rights department. Stephanie began her career at Alfred A. Knopf before she became a literary agent at Janklow & Nesbit Associates and then at Cullen Stanley International. She has worked with hundreds of best-selling literary and commercial authors writing both fiction and nonfiction. Her recent acquisitions include #1 New York Times bestselling author Heather Morris’s new novel, THE PIANO TEACHER OF MONTPARNASSE, UK bestseller THE KEEPER OF STORIES by Sally Page,  and YOUNGER FOREVER by Chris Crowley, the bestselling co-author of the YOUNGER NEXT YEAR series.

Looking for: Stephanie is looking to acquire upmarket commercial women’s fiction, historical, psychological suspense with a female focus and, in nonfiction, mind/body/spirit titles as well as popular science.

Not looking for: Erotica, YA and children’s titles, business books, memoir, illustrated titles, and graphic novels.

Note on editors: This editor accepts unagented manuscripts and may directly request your manuscript.

Editor

Randall Lotowycz, Quirk Books

Bio and photo coming soon!

Agent

Sandy Lu, Book Wyrm Literary Agency

Bio: Sandy Lu founded Book Wyrm Literary Agency after working as a literary agent for more than a decade at other boutique agencies, including Peter Rubie Literary Agency, Anderson Literary Management, and the L. Perkins Agency. Her client list includes Amazon, Barnes  & Noble, Publishers Weekly, and USA TODAY bestsellers, Stoker Award, Hammett Prize, and Anthony Award nominees, Goodreads Choice Awards finalists, and New York Times Best of the Year recipient.

Sandy is seeking stories that will draw her in with a unique voice, make her miss her bedtime with a thrilling plot, and characters that will stay with her long after she turns the last page. Bonus points if you can make her laugh out loud or unable to hold back tears. She especially loves historical fiction, atmospheric world building, and anything dark, twisted, or with a supernatural bent. She favors unreliable narrators and serpentine plots that will keep her guessing till the end. And her white whale is a great spy novel set in early 20th century Shanghai.

Looking for: mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, science fiction, fantasy, historical  fiction, upmarket women’s fiction, YA, family saga, rom-coms, historical true crime, biography, and narrative nonfiction on history, science, psychology, and food.

Not looking for: picture books, graphic novels, screenplays, memoir, contemporary true crime, parenting, sports, political/religious/military thrillers, westerns, erotica, or poetry.

Editor

Marcia Markland, Crooked Lane Books

Bio: Marcia Markland began her career in publishing right after college, and she has enjoyed working as an acquisitions editor for major New York publishers for many years. She has worked with famous authors of both fiction and nonfiction, and she is currently acquiring crime fiction for Crooked Lane Books.

Marcia has been editor of The Mystery Guild and has also worked for London Weekend Television in London. Many of the novels she bought have been made into films or tv series. Crime writers she has acquired over the years include Blake Crouch, Arnaldur Indridason (Jar City), Ragnar Jonasson (Snowblind), Ann Cleeves (the Vera series and the Shetland series), John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In), and many others. Her taste is wide-ranging, as that list indicates. She reads everything from horror to psychological suspense to traditional mystery to thrillers of all types.

Note on editors: This editor accepts unagented manuscripts and may directly request your manuscript.

Agent

Kiana Nguyen, Donald Maass Literary Agency

Bio: Kiana (Kiki) Nguyen started in publishing in 2015 with an internship with Wunderkind PR, an independent book publishing PR company, working on campaigns with authors such as Ernest Cline. There, she discovered a practical industry for her codependent love of fiction. In 2016, Kiki went on to intern with DMLA where she soon joined the team full-time as an assistant literary agent.

Kiki is now building her client list within young adult and adult fiction with a focus on queer and BIPOC authors.

Looking for: Dark, gritty, fun romps in Romance, Horror, and Domestic Suspense especially; both Young Adult and Adult. I want to have a good time with bitchy, irredeemable characters who do what they want when they want and have to suffer the consequences. If they have never cared about doing the right, responsible, legal thing they’re already halfway to my heart. I want extroverts with personality and chaotic social lives, please I’m bored and dying. Bonus points if it’s characters in their 20s-30s that feel like they’re living in the 2020s.

With Domestic Suspense, Psychological Thrillers, and Thrillers of that nature: Suburban houses occupied by unhappily married straight couples aren’t the only options for settings and character scenarios! Cities exist! So do apartment buildings and single people with myriad friends/friend groups outside of nosy housewives and the PTA! And really, I would love to read about women whose lives don’t revolve around men in any way.

I want to have fun! I am always a sucker for dark, meaty twists and turns (hello, Lisa Jewell!) but I’d love to see different narrative tones a la the 1999 classic Jawbreaker and Scream (which is a Horror, I know but still applicable and also what I rep!). Doom, gloom, and dread are fantastic ways to doll out a mystery or suspense but not the only way and I am dying to see more narrative variety in the genre.

Horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously and feels like the narrators are just as unreliable as the potential kill count. I’m bored by single family homes and ancient estates, so let’s change the location and demographic of the characters, please.

Romance with heat and bite—the rom-coms are getting corny and lacking the “com” to begin with.

SFF that pivots away from the rigamarole of royal politics, machinations, knighthood/guards, etc. etc. I want to have some hectic times with the serfdom, please, I beg.

Agent

Lee O’Brien, Looking Glass Literary & Media

Agent

Maura Phelan, Green Light Literary

Bio and photo coming soon!

Agent

Michelle Richter, Fuse Literary

Bio: Michelle Richter is Vice President at Fuse Literary, which she joined from St. Martin’s Press. Crime fiction is her true love, especially suspense and psychological thrillers. And let’s not forget heists and con artists. She’s rarely found a British or Scandinavian crime show she couldn’t get wrapped up in. Recent favorite authors include Elise Bryant, Eli Cranor, Simone St. James, Halley Sutton, Jesse Q. Sutanto, and P.J. Vernon.

Looking for: She is currently looking for suspense, thriller, amateur sleuth, traditional mystery, commercial women’s fiction, and book club reads. She loves a strong voice, character driven fiction, dual timelines, family secrets, sister/friend stories, lots of twists, and unreliable narrators. LGBTQ, BIPOC, and disabled voices are welcome.

Not looking for: She is not looking for WWII or pre-20th century historical fiction; private investigators; political, military or espionage thrillers; science fiction/fantasy; poetry; YA or middle-grade fiction; memoir. Stories with human or drug trafficking, sexual assault or abuse, religious themes or characters aren’t a good fit for Michelle’s list.

Clients: E.A. Aymar, L.A. Chandlar, Kyra Davis Lurie, Kellye Garrett, Yosha Gunasekera, Tara Laskowski, Alan Orloff, Carl Vonderau, Erica Wright.

Agent

Ellen Scordato, Stonestong

Bio: Ellen Scordato is a partner in Stonesong with more than 35 years’ experience in trade book publishing. She started at St Martin’s Press, then Charles Scribner’s Sons and Random House, where she learned from some of the best in the business. She joined Stonesong as a partner in 2002, where she initially specialized in four-color and packaged titles. After 20 years she returned to her first, best love, genre fiction, and currently represents Jennifer Williamson, S. K. Golden, Victor Suthammanont, Elena Hartwell [Taylor], Randy Overbeck, and Alex Myers, among others. A Wellesley College graduate with a B.A. in Classics and Art History, she lives in Manhattan with her husband and a couple of literary cats.

Looking for: Ellen is looking for fast-paced contemporary mysteries and thrillers, romantic suspense and caper thrillers, with charismatic protagonists and fresh settings with the potential for series. She’s a fan of supernatural thrillers, dark academia, hard-boiled heroines, and clever police procedurals for today’s readers, but she’s not looking for cozy mysteries, historical romance, or comedy. She’s got a growing interest in mashups like horror romance or supernatural detective stories. She’ll read submissions set in the literary world, but if it’s in a tried-and-true setting (writing conference, bookstore, etc.), she’d like to see something innovative or an unexpected twist.

Editor

Shawn Reilly Simmons, Level Best Books

Editor

Caroline Sipple, Kensington Books

Bio and photo coming soon!

Agent

Paige Sisley, CookeMcDermid

Bio: Paige is a literary agent at CookeMcDermid. She represents upmarket and book club fiction that keeps readers turning the pages and makes them think about the world and themselves in a new way. She also champions non-fiction authors that have a unique perspective, an important message or story to tell, and/or a strong platform, and who are writing into the hybrid memoir, narrative non-fiction, lifestyle, or health & wellness space.

In addition to managing her own list, Paige is CookeMcDermid’s in-house film and TV agent. In this role, she coordinates screen rights across the agency, works with co-agents, and represents clients’ IP and creative services directly. Previously, she was a rights assistant at Cooke International, an agency specializing in foreign rights management for a diverse group of publishing clients.

Paige has her Master of Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Literatures of Modernity program and a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two young children, but is always up for an adventure. She has previously resided in LA, New Zealand and Halifax.

Looking for:

• Smart, sexy romance subplots

• Ties to the culinary world (e.g. a vineyard setting, a chef character—I just love food writing!)

• Narratives informed by the author’s own lived experience and background

• Novels with a powerful story engine and a very human conundrum at the heart

• Books that will appeal to 20- and 30-something men without being a man-with-a-gun story

• Stories with a strong sense of place (I have a personal connection to and affection for the east coast and southern US)

• Playful/thoughtful structure that serves the story

• Multi-POV and/or dual timeline narratives where the structure gradually reveals a surprising bigger picture

• A speculative edge that moves the story forward and allows for deeper exploration of the human experience

• Realistic portraits of marriage and parenting

• Complicated/messy relationship dynamics (especially when followed over a long period of time)

• Feminist leanings

• Insight into new-to-most worlds like specific industries/professional settings, cults, etc.

Not looking for:

• Historical fiction centered around WWI or WWII

• Spy or military novels

• Hard science fiction/fantasy

• Unreliable narrators (this isn’t a hard no, but the unreliability needs to be earned)

• Aliens

• Dystopian/apocalyptic narratives

• Teenaged/child POVs or protagonists

• Planned series (I am looking for self-contained books, but of course if success warrants more books in the series then I’m all for it!)

Agent

Ann Leslie Tuttle, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC

Bio: Ann Leslie Tuttle joined DG&B in 2017 after working for 20 years at Harlequin Books, where she most recently was a Senior Editor. At Harlequin, she was fortunate to work on an extensive and varied list of bestselling and award-winning titles in romance and women’s fiction. She is actively acquiring women’s fiction, contemporary romance, romantasy, thrillers, mysteries, and narrative nonfiction geared for a female audience. She received her B.A. degree from the College of William and Mary and an M.A. from the University of Virginia. Finding and nurturing talented new and established writers has always been Ann Leslie’s passion.

Looking for: I am drawn to stories set in the South, thrillers, mysteries, MG and YA, narrative nonfiction, women’s fiction, historical fiction and romance.

Not looking for: I am not looking for dystopian or science fiction.

Agent

Barbara Zitwer, Barbara J. Zitwer Agency

Bio: Barbara J. Zitwer has her own firm. She discovered Nobel Prize winner Han Kang and introduced other Korean literature to the West. She is currently looking to build her list of American authors.

Among Korean authors, she introduced Man Asian prize winner & New York Times bestseller Kyung-sook Shin and other global bestsellers, including: The Good Son by You Jeong Jeong, The Hole by Hye young Pyun (being filmed now, starring Theo James), The Plotters by Un su Kim, and Walking Practice by Dolki Min (being produced as a film by Dakota Johnson’s company).