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| No Vacancy by Tziporah Cohen, represented by Raven Quill |
Raven Quill
Literary Agency
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including your locale to: brianhenry@sympatico.a ~Brian
Raven Quill Literary Agency was founded in 2020 by
Jacqui Lipton. The agency specializes in children’s literature, picture books
to young adult. All four agents at the agency are looking for authors. Three of
theme are quite new to agenting, and like all new agents, they need authors.
Lori
Steel will be accepting submissions only until May 1, 2020.
After that, check back with Raven Quill to see when she reopens for
submissions.
Lori’s experience
runs the gamut from school librarian to freelance editor to intern/assistant
with two kidlit agencies. She holds degrees in history and education, as well
as an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine
Arts, where she currently serves as Coordinator for their Oxford/Bath summer
residency program.
Lori represents fiction
and non-fiction for young readers. Across all age groups and genres, Lori seeks
stories with authentic, unforgettable voices that reflect the diverse world we
inhabit, instill the possibility of hope, and illuminate the shared human
experience. She represents fiction and non-fiction for all young readers from
picture books to young adult and is actively building her list in all genres
except horror.
More
specifically, for MG/YA, Lori is interested in representing contemporary
stories that make enduring connections and reflect the ever-changing world
inhabit. She would love to see meticulously researched historical fiction that
flips conventional interpretations and extends the conversation—along with
narrative nonfiction that illuminates a little-known slice of history or unique
perspective. For fantasy, she finds it hard to resist folklore-inspired tales
and earthy world building. In all genres, she has a soft spot for settings that
seep off the page, stories with musical themes, unconventional structures, and
verse novels.
For Picture
Books, Lori is particularly interested in manuscripts crafted with spare text,
play with structure, and utilize collusion to engage participation with an
emphasis on texts that don’t underestimate young readers. She is searching for
whimsical, lyrical, surprising, and/or humorous stories that young readers will
beg to read over and over again.
Kelly Dyksterhouse holds an MFA
in Writing for Children and Young Adults for Vermont College of Fine Arts and
has interned as an editorial reader at leading literary agencies and worked as
an independent developmental editor and writing mentor. She considers the
opportunity to help bring books into existence to be a great honor, and it is a
particular joy for her to work alongside authors as they develop their project
from idea to polished manuscript. The best feeling of all is when those
manuscripts end up as books in the hands of children.
Kelly Dyksterhouse
joined Raven Quill in February of 2020, coming from over five years of
interning for literary agents. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and
Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She represents projects
spanning from picture books to young adult in all genres and has a
collaborative and editorial approach to her client's work.
Submit to
Kelly
through the agency’s query manager here.
Kortney Price graduated with
a B.A. in English from Greenville University in 2014. Since then she has
interned with several prominent literary agencies,
worked as an agency assistant at Holloway Literary and was an associate agent at
Corvisiero Literary. She found her home with Raven Quill in January of 2020 and
is building up her list of wonderfully talented authors. Kortney specializes in
books for children from picture books through young adult with an eye for all
things dark and spooky to light and fluffy.
In picture books, she’s a
sucker for anything either humorous or emotionally poignant. She has a soft
spot for unique retellings and the absurd. My favorite picture books of all
time growing up were The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Heckedy Peg,
Tacky the Penguin, and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.
For early reader and chapter books, she is looking
for just about anything. Amelia Bedelia was her all time favorite. Magic Tree
house-type books are also a favorite. She loves history in these stories and
would love to see more books geared toward boys in this realm.
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| The Painters of Lexieville by Sharon Darrow represented by Raven Quill |
In middle grade, she’s still more than a little
obsessed with finding a wilderness survival story. “Show me kid versus nature,
whether it be mountains, desert islands, or jungle,” says Kortney. “I’m dying
to find something in this realm.” Otherwise she’s looking for super creepy
horror, poignant contemporary, historical adventures and troublemakers on the
space station type of sci-fi.
In young adult, she’s looking for the same kind of
survival stories as in middle grade. For Kortney, contemporary YA should be
either lighthearted romance with a good dose of comedy or a much more serious
contemporary tackling topics that are much heavier such as dealing with trauma.
Kortney’s main wish in YA is for more horror, magical
realism, psychological thriller, genre blending historical… basically all of
the stories you avoid reading when home alone. She adores stories with a
distinctly gothic feel, hauntings, psychological cat and mouse games, or other
dark and twisty elements.
Like everyone else, she is “incredibly passionate
about diverse representation in the books I work with. It’s not mandatory, but
for me all of those uniquely special brains or bodies that don’t operate like
everyone else’s are some of the best people in the world and I am determined to
ensure these communities have representation in the books they read.”
Kortney tweets here.
Jacqui Lipton is the Founder
of Raven Quill Literary Agency and previously worked as an Associate Agent and
intern at several leading kidlit agencies. She holds an MFA in Writing for
Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. A law professor
and attorney with American and international experience in commercial and
intellectual property law, she is the author of Law & Authors: A Legal
Handbook for Writers (University of California Press, 2020). She also
writes columns on legal issues for writers for the SCBWI Bulletin, Luna Station
Quarterly, Catapult Community Page, and Savvy Authors and is a frequent
presenter on these issues around the country.
Jacqui is currently
seeking submissions for middle grade and young adult, both fiction and
nonfiction.
While she’ll consider all genres within kidlit, she
has a particular interest in science fiction, a good contemporary romance,
retellings of classic stories, and mysteries of all kinds. She’ll consider
fantasy and urban fantasy, although (sorry to say) dragons and high fantasy
aren’t really her thing so if you’re the next George R.R. Martin, you might be
better off submitting to someone else!
Submit to
Jacqui
through the agency’s query manager here
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| Anne Shone, Executive Editor, Scholatic Books |
If you’re interested in writing for children, don’t miss the Writing for Children and for Young Adults workshop with guest speaker Anne Shone, Executive Editor, Scholastic
Books, Saturday, Sept 12, in Alliston. See here.
In the meanwhile, though, the best way of upping your game as a writer
may be with a weekly course. This summer, Brian Henry’s offering an Introductory
course and two Intensive courses, one of them online and, so, accessible
anywhere in the world:
Online: Intensive
Creative Writing, Tuesday afternoons, July 7 – Aug 25. 1st reading emailed June 30.
Details here.
Georgetown: Intensive
Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings, July 8 – Aug 26. 1st reading emailed July
1. Details here.
Beyond that, Brian’s post-pandemic
workshop schedule continues to take shape:
July
| Southampton, Ontario |
Southampton
Art School: Join me in this lovely beach town on Lake Huron for two
workshops: How to Build Your Story, Saturday, July 25 (see here) and How to Write
Great Characters, Sunday, July 26 (see here).
August
September
Alliston: Writing for Children and for Young Adults with Anne Shone, Executive Editor, Scholastic Books, Saturday, September 12. Details here.
Alliston: Writing for Children and for Young Adults with Anne Shone, Executive Editor, Scholastic Books, Saturday, September 12. Details here.
October
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| Evan Brown of Transatlantic Literary Agency |
Toronto: How to
Get Published with Evan Brown of Transatlantic Literary Agency, Saturday, Oct 3. Details here.
Guelph: How to
Get Published with literary agent Paige Sisley of CookeMcDermid, Saturday,
Oct 24. Details here.
London: How to Write
Great Characters, Saturday, Oct 31. Treats for
everyone in costume. Details here.
November
Jackson's Point: Writing Retreat at the Briar's
Resort on Lake Simcoe, Friday, Nov 13 – Monday,
Nov 16. Details to come.
See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including
writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in, Bolton,
Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina,
Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London,
Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines,
Southampton, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel,
Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.
Excellent blog. Thanks!
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