On the Bright Side by Anna Sortino
represented by kt Literary
kt Literary
Highlands Ranch,
Denver, Colorado
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kt literary is a full-service literary agency. It was founded by Kate Testerman
in 2008 when she moved to
Colorado after a dozen years working in publishing in New York City. kt literary has fourteen
agents. Three of them are currently open to queries:
Kari Sutherland is a literary agent
based out of Southern California. She began on the editorial side of
publishing, first at Disney Press, then HarperCollins Children’s Books where
she had the honor of editing many talented authors, including Victoria Aveyard
and Sara Shepard.
Kari graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in English and
Psychology and received a Masters in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College
of Criminal Justice before pivoting back to her first love–books.
With her editorial insight and experience with the entire publishing
process, Kari is passionate about helping to polish each manuscript and equip
her clients for success.
Middle grade and YA are at the heart of her list, but Kari also
represents picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, and upmarket fiction.
Query Kari through her query manager here.
***
Note: If you’re interested in meeting an agent and in getting published,
don’t miss our online How to get
Published workshop Sunday, July 21, with guest
speaker Gordon Warnock of the Fuse Agency (see here).
***
Chelsea
Hensley is an agent at kt literary where she represents a
varied list of clients writing across ages and genres and a few who are also
illustrating. She began her agenting career in 2020 at kt literary and
continues to build a list that reflects her own diverse tastes.
In fiction, she wants the lushest of fantasies, the tensest thrillers,
steamy, hilarious romcoms, smart sci-fi, and imaginative, innovative horror.
In Kid Lit, she seeks lyrical picture books and plucky middle grade.
She’s also eager to build up her list of Young Adult authors. She wants
mysteries, thrillers and suspense and is looking for layered, tricky stories
loaded with twists, turns, and red herrings. She’d love to see some confident
projects with intense protagonists who aren't very concerned with being liked,
and mysteries that could become series. She loves stories with complicated
teenage girls, revenge arcs, puzzles, and games.
In YA she also wants horror, realistic fiction, and Fantasy/Sci-Fi.
She’s open to select nonfiction and is seeking projects in the areas of women’s sports (particularly women’s soccer),
pop culture and media criticism, astrology, and tarot (including tarot decks). She’s
only interested in takes that are intersectional, affirming and
socially-conscious from writers who are experts in their fields, have fun and
interesting platforms and something interesting to say.
See more details of what she’s looking for here.
Chelsea is a Capricorn from St. Louis, where she lives with a pair of
very cute, though very chaotic, dogs. She enjoys D&D, Golden Girls, women’s
soccer, chocolate chip cookies, and Airtable.
She is a member of the AALA and serves on the board of the 501©3
nonprofit, Literary Agentsof Change, which is committed to the diversification of the
publishing industry in general and the agenting profession in particular. She
also serves as co-director of Communications and Fundraising Committees.
Query Chelsea through her query manager here.
***
Note: If you’re especially interested in Kid Lit, don’t miss our one-day day
“Writing for children and for young adults” workshop, with Nan Froman, editorial
director at Groundwood Books, Sunday, Sept 22. Details here.
Also, be sure to check out our weekly course, “Writing
Kid Lit ~ the next level,” on Monday evenings this fall.
Details here.
***
Maria Napolitano began her career in
publishing as a book scout, where she fell in love with the process of
matchmaking books with just the right editors and publishers around the world.
She went on to work in subrights and as an agent, and joined kt literary as
foreign rights manager and agent in 2024. In foreign rights, Maria's focus is
bringing authors to international readerships and building multi-faceted
careers across global markets.
Maria is a native New Yorker and Cornell graduate who currently lives in
Astoria, Queens with a sourdough starter named Ryeley.
As an agent, Maria represents a broad range of fiction, from commercial
rom-coms to radical speculative fiction, subversive thrillers, and upmarket
book club fiction. She is drawn to character-driven stories, unusual
perspectives, genre-bending works, and supremely pitchable high concepts.
In nonfiction, she’s looking for:
Narrative nonfiction about
under-discussed historical trends, events, or origin stories that have
present-day consequences.
Micro-histories that use one
object or topic to explore a more universal experience or theme.
Nonfiction a la Sabrina
Imbler — somewhere on the axes of narrative-pop science-personal essay.
Contemporary, voicey, personal while also being sneakily educational. I love
weird pieces of natural history and overlooked critters, and how the natural
world can be used as a way in to writing about the human condition, but if your
beat is some other area of surprising and fertile ground, that’s still fair
game.
Read more about Maria's wish list on her website.
Query Maria at: maria@ktliterary.com
She doesn’t say what she’d like to see, so I’d send her a query and
paste a short sample into your email, say the first chapter. ~Brian
See all upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend
retreats here.
Navigation tips: Always check out the Labels underneath a post; they’ll lead you to various distinct collections of postings. If you're searching for more interviews with literary agents or a literary agent who represents a particular type of book, check out this post.
