New literary agent Alexandra Weiss of The Jennifer De Chiara Agency seeks Young Adult fiction, children’s fiction, and relationship stories for adults

The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency

31 East 32nd Street

Suite 300

New York, NY 10016

http://www.jdlit.com/

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The Jennifer De Chiara Agency is a New York City-based full-service literary agency founded in 2001 and named one of the top 25 literary agencies in the country by Writer’s Digest. The agency represents children’s literature for all ages – picture books and middle-grade and young adult novels – but also represents high-quality adult fiction and non-fiction in a wide range of genres. JDLA is proud to represent illustrators, as well as screenwriters for both television and film, including Emmy and Peabody Award-winning writers and illustrators. 

Alexandra Weiss is the newest member of the team at the  Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency and like all new agents, she needs authors.

Alexandra is a Books Writer for Bustle.com, the PR Manager for a local Chicago circus, and an all-around literary bookworm.  She graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BFA in Creative Writing and Publishing in 2015.  Previously she's worked as an Acquisitions Editor for the award-winning anthology Hair Trigger, interned as a publicist for Kaye Publicity, and was a loyal volunteer for Columbia's annual Story Week: Festival of Writers event for the past four years. 

Alexandra is looking for Young Adult fiction, children’s fiction, and relationship stories for adults.

Young Adult: Alexandra wants writers who have the ability to turn their pens into paintbrushes; in other words, beautiful writing.  The genres she’s most interested in representing include realism, science fiction, and fantasy – but stories that include magic (think The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern) are her weakness, as are stories that include space and science.  She’s looking for strong YA voices, and ones that go beyond the coming-of-age story.  She loves stories that include diverse and risk-taking subjects, including culture, race, sexuality, and identity.

Children's Fiction:  Alexandra loves all types of adventurous, silly, and out-of-the-box children and middle-grade books.  Books with or without pictures intrigue her, and she’s most interested in a character-driven story and big plot to explore.

Other fiction:  Alexandra is looking for strong literary voices that take the notion that every story is a love story to new levels.  She’s interested in complex relationship stories that surround something bigger.  She’s open to most genres, but heavy mystery, horror, or thriller stories are not for her.  Books that are written in or include uses of uncommon formats (uses of letters, screenplay, photos, poetry, or collection of short stories or essays) is

Literary agent Barbara Berson
will be one of the speakers at
From the Horse's Mouth

Query Alexandra at: alexweiss.jdlit@gmail.com

 Put "Query" in the subject line and include the first twenty pages in the body of the email, along with a one-paragraph bio and one-paragraph synopsis.  Established picture book authors, please email your query and bio with the complete picture book manuscript pasted into the body of the email.

Brian Henry will be part of the Windsor International Writers’ Festival May 5 – 8, where he’ll be leading Writing Query Letters that Get a Yes and a Query Letter Clinic (see here). 

Brian will lead a Writing for Children & for Young Adults workshop on Sunday, May 29, in Ottawa with acclaimed author Alan Cumyn (see here).

Brian hosts From the Horse's Mouth ~ Strategies for Getting Published on Saturday, June 18, with Barbara Berson of Helen Heller Agency, Michael Mirolla, publisher Guernica Editions and Bhavna Chauhan, editor, Penguin Random House Canada, at Ryerson University in Toronto (see here).

Other upcoming workshops include  How to Write Great Characters, Saturday, May 14 in Toronto (see here) and Sunday, June 5 in Georgetown (see here), and Writing and Revising, May 28, in Mississauga (see here).

Finally, Brian has two Writer’s Retreats coming up at Arowhon Pines Resort in Algonquin Park: Friday, June 10 – Sunday, June 12 (see here) and Friday, Sept 16 – Sunday, Sept 18 (see here).

For more information or to register, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Author Alan Cumyn will be the guest
speaker at
Writing for Children & for Young Adults
May 29 in Ottawa

But the best way to grow as a writer may be with a weekly class. This spring, Brian still has openings in one class: “Writing Personal Stories,” Wednesday mornings, May 4 – June 22, in Mississauga (see here)

This summer, Brian will offer a variety of classes:

“Welcome to Creative Writing,” Tuesday afternoons, Tuesday afternoons, July 5 – Aug 23, in Burlington

“Intensive Creative Writing,” Wednesday afternoons, July 6 – Aug 24, in Burlington

“Intensive Creative Writing,” Wednesday evenings, July 6 – Aug 24, in Burlington 

See details of all three classes here. 

To reserve a spot, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here.

To register or for more information for any class or workshop, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops, writing retreats, and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Alton, Barrie, Bracebridge, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Ingersoll, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.