From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle represented by Transatlantic |
Transatlantic Agency
2 Bloor Street East
Suite 3500
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Chelene Knight has just joined Transatlantic Literary as an Associate
Agent and is actively building a list of fiction writers and memoirists.
Chelene has worked on the editorial side
of publishing and in the magazine industry for years. She is the author of the
poetry collection Braided Skin and the memoir Dear
Current Occupant, winner of the 2018 Vancouver Book Award and long-listed
for the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Her essays have
appeared in multiple Canadian and American literary journals, plus the Globe
and Mail, the Walrus, and the Toronto Star. Her
work is anthologized in Making Room, Love Me True, Sustenance, The
Summer Book, and Black Writers Matter, winner of the 2020
Saskatchewan Book award.
Chelene has worked as a substantive
editor for manuscripts in literary fiction, historical fiction, hybrid and
traditional memoir, and most recently, children’s books. She has juried for
many literary prizes, including the Amazon First Novel Award. She’s also been
on many arts boards’ granting juries, including the Canada Council for the
Arts, and participated in numerous literary festivals across Canada.
Chelene was the previous managing editor
at Room magazine and festival director for the Growing Room
Literary Festival in Vancouver. She is now founder and CEO of Breathing Space
Creative Literary Management. She often gives talks about home, belonging and
belief, inclusivity, and community building through authentic storytelling. She
teaches poetry at the University of Toronto online.
Chelene is primarily interested in
literary fiction and memoir. For fiction, she is drawn to character-driven
narratives with rich language that push boundaries (think Toni Morrison’s The
Bluest Eye). She also looks for books that encourage the setting to be a
living character (think Amber Dawn’s Sub Rosa).
For memoir, beyond a compelling story, she
needs an unconventional structure that amplifies the narrator’s experiences and
contributes to the reflective voice in a unique way (think Lidia
Yuknavitch’s Chronology of Water).
“I have a soft spot for gritty stories
where human nature, resilience, and experience take centre stage,” says Chelene.
“The ‘grit’ lends its qualities to books where the story and its characters
have some of the roughness, imperfection and complexity of the real world.”
She especially encourages BIPOC writers
to submit.
Query Chelene at: chelene@transatlanticagency.com
Please include a 20-page sample of your
work.
Evan Brown |
If you’re interested in meeting an
agent and in getting published, don’t miss our upcoming How to Get Published workshops Saturday, Oct 3, in Toronto with Evan Brown of
Transatlantic Literary Agency (see here) and Saturday, Oct 24, in
Guelph with Paige Sisley of the CookeMcdermid agency (see here).
In the
meanwhile, the best way of upping your game as a writer may be with a weekly
course. This summer, Brian’s offering several courses online and accessible
everywhere:
Online: Intensive Creative Writing, Tuesday
afternoons, July 7 – Aug 25 and Wednesday
evenings, July 8 – Aug 26. Details here. – Both Intensive
classes are currently full, waiting list only.
Beyond that, Brian’s post-lockdown
workshop schedule continues to take shape:
Diving tower at Arowhon Pines in Algonquin Park |
July and August
Algonquin Park Writing
Retreats: Join me for a magical weekend at Arowhon Pines
Resort, an outpost of luxury in the middle of the wilderness, for a
writing retreat. Two sessions: Thursday, July
9 – Sunday, July 12 (see here)
and Friday, Aug 28 – Monday, Aug 31 (see here).
Burlington: Raising the Stakes: How to increase your story's tension, Saturday, July 18. Details here.
Southampton
Art School: Head out to 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).
September
Mississauga: Writing for Children and for Young Adults with Anne Shone, Executive Editor, Scholastic Books, Saturday, September 12. Details here.
Mississauga: Writing for Children and for Young Adults with Anne Shone, Executive Editor, Scholastic Books, Saturday, September 12. Details here.
Fall
Classes
Burlington: Intensive
Creative Writing, Tuesday mornings, Sept 15 – Dec 15
Online: Intensive
Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings, Sept 16 to Dec 9 –
this class is almost full. Details here.
Online: Intensive Creative Writing, Friday
mornings. Sept 18 – Dec 11 – this class is almost full. Details here.
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.
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.
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