Here are six new agents actively seeking writers. Alice Fugate is looking for children’s books and select adult projects. Ernie Chiara wants adult science fiction and fantasy and magical realism. Michelle Hauck is taking submissions for middle grade, young adult, and some limited adult genres. Chelsey Emmelhainz is focused on commercial, diverse voices in fiction and nonfiction. She is especially interested in young adult, and adult fiction that marries the known and the unknown or those that explore the fantastic in the everyday world. Caitlin White is now open to select submissions in YA and MG fiction. Jessica Saint Jean is looking for illustration portfolios and illustrated stories across all children’s lit genres, from board books to YA graphic novels.
Always check the agency website and agent bio before submitting. Agents can switch agencies or close their lists, and submission requirements can change.
You can find a full list of agents actively seeking new clients here: Agents Seeking Clients.
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Chelsey Emmelhainz joins Copps Literary Services after a decade as an editor of upmarket fiction and nonfiction. Upon graduating from the Denver Publishing Institute, she got her start in publishing at HarperCollins with William Morrow and Avon Books. She was most recently a senior editor at Crooked Lane Books. As an editor, Chelsey worked on projects that cross the literary landscape: from Amish romance to upmarket thrillers and everything in between. Yet her true passion lies in helping authors refine their narratives to create compelling stories and advocating on their behalf. An editorial agent, she works tirelessly with authors to polish their work into commercial projects aimed at catching the eye of editors and publishers.
What Chelsey is looking for: Actively building her client list, she is focused on commercial, diverse voices in fiction and nonfiction. She is especially interested in young adult, and adult fiction that marries the known and the unknown or those that explore the fantastic in the everyday world. A lover of plot-driven narratives, she’s most often drawn to fast-paced stories featuring well-drawn, believable characters navigating extraordinary circumstances. Her target genres in those spaces include: horror, supernatural thriller, suspense, and mystery. Her ideal women’s fiction, book club fiction, and romance projects feature high-concept hooks, strong female characters, and unique takes on modern relationships—be they romantic, platonic, or familial. Chelsey is open to fantasy projects based in the known world, especially those exploring magical realism.
For nonfiction, she gravitates toward history, especially narrative nonfiction, memoirs with a platform, and untold stories in true crime, but is open to projects in the areas of DIY projects (she’s a knitting fiend), gardening, and unique lifestyles.
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Ms. Alice Fugate of
The Joy Harris Literary Agency
NO LONGER AN AGENTAlice Fugate joined The Joy Harris Literary Agency in 2020. Originally from Atlanta, GA, she graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN with a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing. Prior to joining JHLA, she was an associate agent at Trident Media Group, where she worked for two and half years.
What she is seeking: Alice works primarily in the children’s book space, across all formats and genres, but also enjoys working on select adult projects, including stories about the American South, historical fiction, and works that explore faith, religion, music, or nature. She’s drawn to literary or well-written commercial projects that have a classic but fresh feel with distinctive, surprising voices from diverse backgrounds. In children’s books, she loves animal fables, fairy tale retellings, comedies of manners, adventure tales, heartfelt contemporary, and narrative nonfiction. In everything, Alice looks for wit and whimsy.
How to submit: To query Alice, please email her at alice@joyharrisliterary.com
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Ernie first joined the Fuse Literary team as a writer, signing on as a client with Michelle Richter. Then, when his interest in the agenting side of the business grew to match his love of writing, Ernie gained experience as an Assistant Agent under the guidance of Tricia Skinner. Now, having come full circle, Ernie is proud to be building his list as an Associate Agent. Ernie has previously served as Communications Director for Pitch Wars, a writer mentorship program, where he was also a Mentor in the Adult category. He has over 20 years of experience in business management and graphic design.
What he is seeking: Adult science fiction and fantasy and magical realism.
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Michelle devoured the classics at an early age, falling in love with heroic stories like The Three Musketeers, Ivanhoe, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. It wasn’t until her teens that she got her hands on The Sword of Shannara and discovered a new heroic level in SFF. Now she’d like to advocate for stories that take the reader beyond the traditional hero’s journey.
After graduating with a business degree, with a concentration in finance, Michelle worked as a cost accountant for several years before a short stint as a stay-at-home mom. Then she switched gears for twenty years working in an elementary school, where she’s learned a lot about what kids like to read and applied that to her own stories, publishing a historic fantasy series with Harper Voyager.
She’s been helping writers long before taking the step to become an agent. Her Midwest roots taught her to pay things forward, and along with several co-hosts, she ran an impressive collection of contests for writers, including Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, and Picture Book Party. She also learned much from six years as a successful Pitch Wars mentor in adult SFF.
What she is seeking: Currently, Michelle is taking submissions for middle grade, young adult, and some limited adult genres.
Caitlin is a writer and editor who was previously the Interim Books Editor for Bustle, and she has written about YA books for HelloGiggles, Bustle, Elle, and Glamour. Caitlin brought her passion for YA and MG to Emerald City Literary Agency in 2019 as an intern before being promoted to Agency Assistant in October 2020. She currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario, but is from the Boston area.
What she is seeking: Caitlin is now open to select submissions in YA and MG fiction and will represent projects alongside ECLA agents Mandy Hubbard and Linda Epstein. Caitlin is looking for whodunnits that harken back to Agatha Christie, rom-coms with an original hook, stories about non-toxic groups of friends, magical realism that feels grounded, unabashedly feminist POVs, and contemporary witches set in a real-life world, like These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling. She is always interested in seeing submissions from BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors. Sorry, but she is not the right person for high fantasy.
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Jessica Saint Jean attended Emerson College, where she fell in love with Boston and book publishing. She earned her B.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing and spent the next decade working at two independent children’s book publishers – as an editor at Barefoot Books and in the art department at Candlewick Press, where she was in charge of the ongoing search for new illustrators, collaborated with various departments to pair illustrators with texts, and negotiated illustrator deals. She loves traveling the world with her friends, color-coding anything/everything, and curling up with a good book.
What she is seeking: Jessica Saint Jean is looking for illustration portfolios and illustrated stories across all children’s lit genres, from board books to YA graphic novels. She is not reviewing manuscript-only submissions at this time.
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