Storied agency Greenburger Associates has 9 agents accepting queries

What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine,
represented by Greenburger Associates

Sanford J. Greenburger Associates

55 Fifth Avenue 

New York, NY 10003 

212 206 5600

http://www.greenburger.com/

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Greenburger Associates has been around for more than 80 years. It brought Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Kafka, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to American audiences. It continues to represent heavyweight authors, particularly best-selling heavyweights, such as Dan Brown. 

Altogether the agency has eleven agents and all but two of the most senior agents are open to queries. Here are your six best bets:

Abigail Frank, Associate Agent

Abigail is passionate about stories for young people, especially those that are hilarious, poetic, quietly heartbreaking, and/or swoon-worthy, and she cares about voice, above all. She gravitates towards picture books that feel entirely original, chapter books with big personalities, and novels about unforgettable teens falling in love. 

Like everyone else, she is committed to advocating for the work of marginalized authors and artists, and she’s actively looking for stories that allow young readers to recognize themselves in the books they love. She is also looking for select adult fiction and nonfiction.

{Among other things}, Abigail is especially seeking:

Big concept and/or offbeat picture books, preferably (but not exclusively) by author/illustrators

Voice-driven chapter books!

Middle grade that is hilarious (think Better Nate Than Ever series), poetic (think The Girl Who Drank the Moon or Other Words for Home), or profound (think Tuck Everlasting)

Swoon-worthy YA rom-coms!!

YA in verse (think The Poet X)

Stories with a drop of magic or set in the not-so-distant future

Stories that grapple with ideas of masculinity

Sex Education or Booksmart in novel form

For adults, she’s particularily looking for: cultural criticism, an analytical look at healthcare or higher education/campus life (fiction or nonfiction), and contemporary commercial fiction about people in their 20’s (think Red, White & Royal Blue)

Query Abigail at afrank@sjga.com

In the subject line put “QUERY – project title.” Attach your full manuscript or proposal. If you are a visual artist, please also include a link to your portfolio.

Sami Isman, Associate Agent.

Sami is seeking adult novels in the literary mystery, psychological thriller/suspense, and upmarket women’s fiction genres. She is keenly interested in novels with strong female protagonists and ones involving contemporary relationships, such as family sagas, friendships, and ensemble casts. She also loves stories with ethereal moods—a touch of magical realism and subtle otherworldly traits. She is not looking to represent fantasy, sci-fi, or strictly romance novels.

Having grown up around the world, Sami welcomes diverse/international perspectives and new voices, as well as books in translation, especially from Latin American authors. She looks forward to developing long-lasting relationships with her authors and working closely with them to develop their writing careers.

Sami joined Greenburger Associates in the summer of 2015. She was raised in Argentina, Brazil, and Singapore before attending Brown University and the Columbia Publishing Course. Sami has been working under the agency’s president, Heide Lange, assisting on all matters regarding her authors, including Dan Brown and Brad Thor, as well as liaising with foreign publishers on her behalf. She will continue in that role and, under Heide's tutelage, further refine her editorial and negotiation skills as she builds her own list of clients.

Query Sami at sisman@sjga.com

In the subject line put “QUERY – project title.” Paste the first few chapters of your manuscript into the body of the email.

Sarah Phair, Agent

Sarah represents a range of fiction and nonfiction authors writing for the adult market. 

In fiction she focuses on books by women, for women, ranging from commercial, to upmarket and literary. If you would read it in your book club or take it on vacation, it might be a good fit for Sarah’s list. She particularly loves: family sagas, female friendship, complex psychological suspense, campus novels, anti-heroines, and a good love story. 

In nonfiction her areas of interest include feminist issues, millennial topics, pop culture, and anything about food. She is especially interested in projects analyzing the future of media consumption, how and what we eat, agriculture, and housing. 

Sarah joined Greenburger Associates in 2019. Originally from Mississippi, she moved to New York in 2010 to pursue a career in publishing. She worked at Trident Media Group for six years, acting as audio agent and foreign rights agent before building her own list. Sarah also has a M.A. in British and American Literature.

Query Sarah at sphair@sjga.com

In the subject line put “QUERY – project title.” Paste the first 10 pages of your manuscript into the body of the email.

Ed Maxwell, Agent

Edjoined Greenburger Associates in 2011 to work with Faith Hamlin; in 2015 he started building a roster of authors and artists with whom he is very grateful to work; and in summer 2019 he became a full-time agent.

A close reader of nonfiction, Ed is interested in how histories ripple across contemporary politics and present life. He is also inspired by how visual storytellers, whether artists or documentary photographers, can captivate the imaginations of child and adult readers alike, breaking down any fourth walls that might need toppling. Ed reads literary fiction as well, for adults and children, especially as a generation of writers rises to build an incorporative American canon for this new century.

Query Ed at emaxwell@sjga.com

No submission guidelines specified, so I’d assume he’d like the opening ten pages of your manuscript pasted into the body of the email.

Wendi Gu, Agent

Wendi represents fiction and nonfiction children’s books across the spectrum, from board books all the way up to young adult. She enjoys lyricism at the line level, sophisticated rhythm, as well as whimsical, absurdist humor. She does not shy away from heavy, darker subjects related to mental health, trauma, and displacement, with a special focus on family stories, and nonfiction books that unearth unexpected corners of history and science. 

For middle grade and young adult novels, she enjoys voice-driven stories with thoughtful, contemplative, often-flawed characters. She is looking for authors who value intersectionality.

Wendi also works with illustrators, especially with author/illustrators, with beautiful color palettes and texture who also have a sense of page turn and nuanced character expression.  

Wendi’s clients range from New York Times bestsellers, Pushcart Prize recipients, to various reader’s choice and humor award winners. She grew up in the Chicago suburbs and spent many of her summers with her grandparents in China. With academics as parents, she has always had a nerdy interest in the humanities. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Query Wendi at wgu@sjga.com

Include QUERY in the subject line and paste a 10-age sample into the body of the the email. Illustrators and author/illustrators should attach full sketch dummies and portfolios as a PDF or FTP.

Stephanie Delma, Agent

Stephanie represents a spectrum of authors who write for the adult market, with a focus on fiction: literary/upmarket, psychologically propulsive suspense, near-historical fiction, and genre-bending, literary narratives that contain elements of surrealism, magic, or sci-fi (her favorite non-client books in this space include Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado). 

Stephanie also represents a limited selection of narrative nonfiction projects by authors with established platforms and unique perspectives.

In nonfiction, she is looking for longform reportage that reads like fiction, true crime, and expert accounts of dark and far-flung corners of the world.

In both fiction and nonfiction, Stephanie favors #ownvoices, diverse perspectives, and feminist narratives.

Stephanie has been with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates since early 2012. After working closely with agency president Heide Lange for several years, handling foreign rights for Dan Brown, Brad Thor, and other bestselling authors while simultaneously building her own list, Stephanie transitioned to full-time agenting in January 2018. A graduate of Johns Hopkins’ Writing Seminars program, Stephanie considers herself a “hands-on” agent and is eager to work with debut authors who are serious about their craft.

Follow Stephanie on Twitter @imaginarysmd

Query Stephanie at sdelman@sjga.com

Please put “Query: [your book’s title] by [your name]” in the subject line. Include the first few chapters in the body of your email.

See Greenburger Associates' full submission guidelines here. 

Literary agent Stephanie Winter

If you’re interested in getting published, now or sometime in the future, don’t miss our upcoming How to Get Published  workshop with literary agent Stephanie Winter of P.S. Literary on Saturday, Nov 23, in Niagara on the Lake with (see here).

Also, don’t miss Writing for Children and for Young Adults with Kids Can Press senior editor Yasemin Uçar and children's author Jennifer Mook-Sang at the Burlington Central Library, Saturday, Oct 5 (see here), “You can write great dialogue,” Sunday, Oct 20, in Sudbury (see here) and How to Write a Bestseller with New York Times #1 bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, Saturday, Oct 26, in Waterloo (see here).

Also, there’s still room in these classes starting this week:

Oakville: Welcome to Creative Writing, Thursday evenings, Sept 26 – Nov 28 (no class Oct 31). Details here. 

Toronto: Writing Personal Stories, Friday afternoons, Sept 27 – Nov 29 (no class Nov 1). Details here.

Burlington: Writing Personal Stories, Thursday afternoons, Sept 26 – November 28 (no class Oct 31).  Details here.

See details of all the fall courses here.

Then in the winter, a full range of weekly courses will be on offer:

Oakville: Writing Personal Stories, Thursday evenings – dates to be announced

Burlington: Exploring Creative Writing, Thursday afternoons – dates to be announced

Burlington: Next Step in Creative Writing, Tuesday afternoons – dates to be announced

Burlington: Intensive Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings – dates to be announced

Toronto: Intensive Creative Writing, Friday mornings – dates to be announced

For details or to reserve a spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

 Plus…

November at the Briars Writing Retreat

Friday, November 1 – Monday, November 4. Four days of creativity in a setting with the warmth of a country estate steeped in history while providing all the benefits of an extensive, modern lakeside resort. Details here.

Algonquin Writing Retreat, Friday, June 5 - Monday, June 8, 2020. Four days of luxury and writing in one of most beautiful spots in Ontario. This is the area that inspired the Group of Seven; come and let it inspire you, too. Details here.

To reserve a spot in any upcoming weekly course, weekend retreat, or Saturday workshop, email Brian at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses, retreats, and workshops here.

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including Saturday writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Jackson’s Point, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, New Tecumseth, Oakville, Ottawa, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

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.