Literary agent Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists seeks nonfiction including memoir and fiction both literary and commercial

In This Moment, by Karma Brown,
represented by Carolyn Forde of WCA

Westwood Creative Artists

138 Sussex Mews

Toronto, Ontario

M5S 2K1

http://www.wcaltd.com/

Westwood Creative Artists is one of Canada’s most respected literary agencies, representing some of the best known authors in Canadian literature. Westwood represents literary fiction, quality commercial fiction including mysteries and thrillers, nonfiction in the areas of memoir, history, biography, science, journalism and current events, and a limited range of practical nonfiction. 

Westwood has six literary agents, but for new authors, your best bet is Carolyn Forde…..

Carolyn Forde has been with Westwood since 2005 and became a shareholder in the agency in 2010. She has a BA Hons in English Literature and History from Trent University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Publishing Sciences from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, and has attended the Simon Fraser University Publishing Intensive course in Vancouver.  

She has lived and worked in Japan, Mexico and the Czech Republic, she is a dual citizen of Canada and the UK.

Carolyn represents two dozen authors including Karma Brown, Kristi Charish, Trevor Cole, Lynn Crosbie, Sylvia Fraser, Bill Gaston, Ian Hamilton, Clifford Jackman, Roz Nay, Mark Richardson, Manjushree Thapa, and Padma Viswanathan.

Carolyn is looking for books she can’t put down, and books with international appeal. She travels to both the London Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair each year on behalf of Westwood and works closely with the agency’s co-agents around the world. She also travels to New York regularly and maintains relationships with many editors there.

Our Little Secret by Roz Nay,
represented by Carolyn Forde

In fiction, Carolyn wants to be so absorbed with the world and the story or so affected by the language and the characters that she stays up past her bedtime. “I like books that feel like treats, not work,” says Carolyn. “I know I’m onto something when I want to press a book into the hands of my friends, saying,  ‘You must read this,’ because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will love it.

More generally, Carolyn is looking for literary fiction and fiction with a commercial bent, psychological thrillers, women’s fiction, literary horror, crime, and whimsical almost-fantasy books. She’s love to find some indigenous authors.

She’s not looking for military or CIA inspired fiction, climate thrillers, high fantasy, cozy mysteries, romance, erotica, poetry or humour.

In nonfiction, Carolyn is seeking memoirs that tell an unusual tale, books she can learn from, books from an expert in a field on a current issue, and narrative nonfiction that expands the reader’s world. The writing and the story are both paramount.

She’s not looking for memoirs about illness.

Query Carolyn at: wca_office@wcaltd.com

Include a sample of your work of at least ten pages in the body of the email. No attachments.

Full submission guidelines here.

Literary agent Monica Pacheco will be
the guest speaker Aug 12 in Collingwood

Brian Henry will lead Writing for Children & for Young Adult workshops on Saturday, May 13, in Caledon at the Bolton Library with Yasemin Uçar, senior Editor at Kids Can Press and author Jennifer Mook-Sang (see here), on Saturday, May 27, in St. Catharines with Anne Shone, senior editor at Scholastic Books (see here), and on Saturday, Aug 12, in Collingwood with literary agent Monica Pacheco (see here). 

Note: For updated listings of Writing for Children & for Young adult workshops and for weekly Kid lit classes, see here (and scroll down).

And don't miss joining us for a weekend writing retreat at Arowhon Pines Resort in Algonquin Park. There are two retreats scheduled for 2017: the June in Algonquin Retreat, Friday, June 2 – Sunday, June 4 – or extend your retreat to Monday, June 5 (see here) and the Fall Colours Retreat, Friday, Sept 15 – Sunday, Sept 17 (see here).

To reserve a spot or for more information, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Other upcoming workshops include: “You can write great dialogue,” Saturday, June 10 in Guelph, with author Hannah McKinnon, (see here), Saturday, July 15, in Mississauga (see here), and Saturday, July 22, in London (see here), and “How to Write Great Characters,” Saturday, June 17 in Burlington (see here).

This summer Brian will be leading three creative writing courses, introductory to advanced:

Exploring Creative Writing, Tuesday afternoons, July 4 – August 22, in Burlington

Next Step in Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings, July 5 – August 23, in Burlington

Intensive Creative Writing, Wednesday afternoons, July 5 – August 23, in Burlington

      Details of all three courses  here.  

For more information or to reserve a spot in any workshop, retreat, or weekly course, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here.

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

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