Here are two established agents actively building their lists. Joanna MacKenzie (Nelson Literary) is seeking literary-leaning projects with commercial potential, thrillers, mysteries, women's fiction, and YA coming of age stories. Sarah Bedingfield (Levine, Greenberg, Rostan Literary Agency) is interested in most types of literary and upmarket commercial fiction.
Note: For a comprehensive list of new and established writers actively seeking writers see: Agents Seeking Clients.
IMPORTANT: You should NEVER query an agent without checking the agency website first. Submission requirements change, and agents may close their lists, or switch agencies.
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Sarah Bedingfield of Levine, Greenberg, Rostan Literary Agency
About Sarah: Prior to joining LGR in 2016, Sarah began her publishing career in trade fiction editorial at Crown and Hogarth. There, she worked with a range of bestselling and award-winning novels, including The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis, Han Kang’s Human Acts and Man Booker International Prize winning debut The Vegetarian, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. Sarah hails from North Carolina, where she graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a double major in Psychology and English. Her favorite authors include Sarah Waters, Shirley Jackson, Matthew Thomas, Maria Semple, Emily St. John Mandel, Erin Morgenstern, and Victor Hugo.
What she is seeking: Sarah 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 timeless themes. Emotional, inventive stories told through nuances of motherhood, human connection or feminist issues, novels with light speculative elements, and darker narratives with 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 fantasy or sci-fi, but is fascinated by grounded approaches to what might be off about our world. She is looking for voices that need to be heard.
How to Submit: Please send queries to submit@lgrliterary.com. Query should include a brief synopsis and bio, as well as the first fifty pages of your novel. You can also use their submission form here.
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About Sarah: Prior to joining LGR in 2016, Sarah began her publishing career in trade fiction editorial at Crown and Hogarth. There, she worked with a range of bestselling and award-winning novels, including The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis, Han Kang’s Human Acts and Man Booker International Prize winning debut The Vegetarian, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. Sarah hails from North Carolina, where she graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a double major in Psychology and English. Her favorite authors include Sarah Waters, Shirley Jackson, Matthew Thomas, Maria Semple, Emily St. John Mandel, Erin Morgenstern, and Victor Hugo.
What she is seeking: Sarah 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 timeless themes. Emotional, inventive stories told through nuances of motherhood, human connection or feminist issues, novels with light speculative elements, and darker narratives with 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 fantasy or sci-fi, but is fascinated by grounded approaches to what might be off about our world. She is looking for voices that need to be heard.
How to Submit: Please send queries to submit@lgrliterary.com. Query should include a brief synopsis and bio, as well as the first fifty pages of your novel. You can also use their submission form here.
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Joanna MacKenzie of Nelson Literary Agency
About Joanna: Joanna joined the Nelson Literary Agency at the start of 2017 following a tenure at a Chicago-based literary agency where she successfully placed numerous manuscripts that have gone on to become critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling novels. She represents a wide-range of writers, from YA (Kristen Simmons) and romance (Shana Galen) to mysteries and thrillers (John Galligan). Joanna loves working with authors who embrace the full publishing process (read: love revisions) and is committed to the stories her clients want to tell both with the words they put on paper, as well as with the careers the build. At the Nelson Literary Agency, Joanna is looking to expand her list in both adult and YA.
What she is seeking:
- High-concept, twisty stories with a strong voice in the areas of women’s fiction, thriller, and speculative.
- Timely commercial fiction in which the personal intersects with the world at large, offering a biting commentary on the times we’re living in and making readers sit up and say, “Yes, that, exactly!”
- Stories that explore complex and challenging family dynamics and unlikely (and possibly toxic) friendships.
- Stories about reinvention and second acts—especially with touches of magic, time slips, or other speculative elements.
- Voicey, confident, atmospheric mysteries set in close-knit communities; creepy islands and Midwest-set stories are a plus.
- Because I came to Chicago by way of Poland and Canada, I’m always looking for stories about the immigrant experience.
- Elin Hilderbrand and/or Louise Penny for the Third Coast—I’d love to see a clever sleuth out of a resort town in Michigan.
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