There's a brand new Canadian literary agency: The READ Agency

The Read Agency

Toronto, Canada

https://thereadagency.com/

Olga Filina recently left 5 Otter Literary to create her own agency: The READ Agency. How new is this agency? Well, when I started preparing this post, her website wasn’t up yet and I had to get the scoop on how to submit straight from Olga. If you’re looking for representation, this strikes me as good opportunity to get in on the ground floor. ~Brian

Olga’s worked at every level of the publishing industry for over twenty-five years: bookselling, buying, directing literary festivals, editing, consulting, and agenting, and she’s a founding member and former executive treasurer of PACLA, the Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents.

“Understanding how books are sold and discovered allows me to position the clients I represent in both English language and translation markets,” says Olga. “I'm drawn to work that's intellectually stimulating, ambitious, or written from a perspective that hasn't yet been heard. As an immigrant, I have a particular affinity for stories of belonging, displacement, and international experience. If your book could be banned in the current political climate, I want to read it.”

If you have a project ready to share, here’s what you need to know to submit:

Currently, Olga is looking for literary and upmarket fiction, narrative nonfiction, cultural criticism, and projects from experts in their subject matter.

Plus, children's literature across all ages.  

She also has particular focus on underrepresented voices, international stories, and the global diaspora.

Query Olga at: submissions@thereadagency.com

Submit your query and the first ten pages of your manuscript pasted into the body of your email.

Full submission guidelines here.

Note: If you’re interested in getting published and meeting an agent, check out upcoming “How to Get Published” workshops here. We always have a literary agent as a guest speaker at these workshops.

See all our upcoming weekly writing classes, afternoon workshops, and glorious writing retreats here.

 

Literary agent Anna Olswanger seeks picture books and graphic novels

Beth and Cloud Won't Change by Ciara Gavin,
represented by Olswanger Literary 

Olswanger Literary 

New York, New York

https://www.olswanger.com/

Anna Olswanger has been a literary agent since 2005. She started her career at Liza Dawson Associates in Manhattan and in 2014 launched her own literary agency, Olswanger Literary LLC. Olswanger Literary currently has eight agents, represents everything from children’s picture books to adult fiction and nonfiction. Currently, though, only Anna is accepting submissions.

Anna represents a wide variety of genres, but is currently focused on illustrated books (picture books and graphic novels) and is looking to represent author-illustrators. She is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents. She’s also an author herself.  Her most recent book is the graphic novel, A Visit to Moscow (see here).

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Note: If you’re interested in getting published or getting a literary agent, check out our upcoming “How to Get Published” workshop, where we’ll have a literary agent as a guest speaker. See here.

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Anna has sold to major publishers, including Bloomsbury, Chronicle, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster. And her clients’ books have won numerous prestigious awards and topped bestsellers lists.

Anna Olswanger

Through her work as an agent of children's books, Anna has developed a special interest in animal advocacy. She is the agent for Jill Robinson and Marc Bekoff's Jasper's Story: Saving Moonbears, the story of a moon bear held captive in a cage by bear farmers in rural China until rescued by Animals Asia, the organization that Jill founded, and Alan Rabinowitz's A Boy and a Jaguar, the story of a boy who fulfills his promise to speak for animals who cannot speak for themselves.

Anna is also interested in finding unusual books with a Judaic or Israel theme. She is the agent for Ruchama Feuerman’s novel In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, about the friendship between a rabbi’s assistant and a devout Muslim janitor, and Santiago Cohen’s picture book The Yiddish Fish, about a fish who speaks Yiddish.

Anna would like to represent more author-illustrators of color.

Anna works hard with authors to get their manuscripts into shape for submission. She finds that most manuscripts need work on plot, so if you're a potential author-illustrator client, be ready to go through many revisions before Anna agrees to send out your manuscript. Her job is to get the story to the point where an editor will make an offer. (And then be prepared to make more revisions for the editor.)

Postscript: 

Brian, Thanks for the profile. A bit more information is available at the Association of American Literary Agents site here.

I'm happy to hear from author-illustrators of picture books and graphic novels.

Anna

Query Anna at: anna@olswangerliterary.com

Include a few details about your book and the opening pages in a Word or PDF attachment. If Anna likes what she sees, she'll ask to see the full manuscript. For author-illustrators, send a PDF attachment with your text and art.

See all upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here. 

Navigation tips: For more literary agents looking for authors see here (and scroll down). If you’re looking specifically for Canadian agents, see here (and scroll down). And if you're searching for a literary agent who represents a particular type of book, check out this post.

Two senior agents at Fuse Literary are looking for your manuscripts

Killing Me Softly by Julie Mulhern
represented by Fuse Literary

Fuse Literary

Silicon Valley, California

https://www.fuseliterary.com/

Note: You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here: https://brian999.substack.com/

Fuse Literary, a full-service literary agency based in the Silicon Valley, with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Dallas, and Halifax. Fuse has seven agents, four of whom are currently accepting queries.

Gordon Warnock Gordon is a founding partner and is Fuse’s man in Canada. He represents New York Times bestsellers and debut authors alike, seeking to amplify historically marginalized voices and grow sustainable, long-term writing careers with an eye on actively creating change in the publishing industry and the culture as a whole. 

He's interested in both fiction and nonfiction for adults, young adults, and middle grade.  He’s looking for fresh concepts that excite him before he even starts reading and tension-filled prose that won’t let him stop. 

His fiction list focuses on high-concept suspense, book club women’s fiction, and literary fiction for adults as well as graphic novels for adults, teens, and tweens.

He’s interested in a variety of nonfiction and wants projects in which the book is part of something larger, of which you are the expert, the one best fit to bring it to the page.

Follow him on Instagram here.

Query Gordon at: querygordon@fuseliterary.com

For fiction: include your first chapter pasted into your email below your query.

Nonfiction: send query only.

Graphic Novel: attach PDF sample up to 25 mb.

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 Note: Gordon Warnock will be our guest speaker at our online How to Get Published workshop Sunday, July 21. If you’re interested in meeting an agent and in getting published, don’t miss it. Details here.

If you’re especially interested in Kid Lit, don’t miss our one-day day “Writing for children and for young adults” workshop, with Nan Froman, editorial director at Groundwood Books, Sunday, Sept 22. Details here.

Also, be sure to check out our weekly course, “Writing Kid Lit ~ the next level,” on Monday evenings this fall. Details here.

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Michelle Richter is a senior agent at Fuse Literary representing leaders in the crime fiction community, award-winners, and debut authors. She joined the agency after eight years in editorial at St. Martin’s Press, where she worked on fiction and nonfiction with high-profile personalities, New York Times bestsellers, and debuts. 

Michelle has built her career finding underserved clients with major talent and helping them jump their careers to the next level. She wants to boost underrepresented voices in her favorite genres to break through and create lasting change in both their writing careers and the publishing industry. Her years of experience as an agent, at a Big 5 publisher, and as an educator inform her relationships with her clients and help her guide them through the complex stages of their careers.

Michelle’s clients have won or been shortlisted for such awards as the Edgar, Mary Higgins Clark, Strand Critics, Anthony, Agatha, Lefty, ITW Thriller, Macavity, Barry, Derringer, Silver Falchion, IPPY, and International Book Award. She is a member of Sisters in Crime.

Adult Fiction

Michelle is especially eager to find high-concept crime fiction with catchy hooks, twisty plots, and complex lead characters. She’s a sucker for fiction that taps into her emotions, with the kind of voice that instantly identifies a book as that author’s. BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled voices in fiction are welcome. Michelle loves lots of twists, unreliable narrators, stories of family secrets, friendships, and sibling relationships.

In addition to crime fiction, suspense, and thrillers, she’s also seeking Women’s Book Club Fiction and Commercial fiction 

Her favorite writers include Colson Whitehead, Celeste Ng, Ruth Ware, Laura Lippman, Megan Miranda, Lori Rader-Day, Jennifer Hillier, and Tana French. She’d love to find the next BATH HAUS, SUCH A FUN AGE, WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING, LONG BRIGHT RIVER, DIAL A FOR AUNTIES, EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU, WINTER COUNTS, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, or BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD.

Genres Represented

• Mystery
• High-Concept Suspense
• Domestic Suspense
• Psychological Thriller
• Police Procedural
• Book Club Women’s Fiction
• Commercial Fiction

Michelle also represents Young Adult fiction, but she’s not accepting YA at the moment.

Query Michelle through her query manager here.

See all upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.  

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.

Three agents at kt Literary want your manuscripts ~ everything from picture books to adult fiction & nonfiction

On the Bright Side by Anna Sortino
represented by kt Literary

kt Literary

Highlands Ranch,
Denver, Colorado

https://ktliterary.com/

Note: You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here: https://brian999.substack.com/

kt literary is a full-service literary agency. It was founded by Kate Testerman in 2008 when she moved to Colorado after a dozen years working in publishing in New York City. kt literary has fourteen agents. Three of them are currently open to queries:

Kari Sutherland is a literary agent based out of Southern California. She began on the editorial side of publishing, first at Disney Press, then HarperCollins Children’s Books where she had the honor of editing many talented authors, including Victoria Aveyard and Sara Shepard. 

Kari graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in English and Psychology and received a Masters in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice before pivoting back to her first love–books.

With her editorial insight and experience with the entire publishing process, Kari is passionate about helping to polish each manuscript and equip her clients for success.

Middle grade and YA are at the heart of her list, but Kari also represents picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, and upmarket fiction.

Query Kari through her query manager here.

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Note: If you’re interested in meeting an agent and in getting published, don’t miss our online How to get Published workshop Sunday, July 21, with guest speaker Gordon Warnock of the Fuse Agency (see here).

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Chelsea Hensley is an agent at kt literary where she represents a varied list of clients writing across ages and genres and a few who are also illustrating. She began her agenting career in 2020 at kt literary and continues to build a list that reflects her own diverse tastes.

In fiction, she wants the lushest of fantasies, the tensest thrillers, steamy, hilarious romcoms, smart sci-fi, and imaginative, innovative horror.

In Kid Lit, she seeks lyrical picture books and plucky middle grade.

She’s also eager to build up her list of Young Adult authors. She wants mysteries, thrillers and suspense and is looking for layered, tricky stories loaded with twists, turns, and red herrings. She’d love to see some confident projects with intense protagonists who aren't very concerned with being liked, and mysteries that could become series. She loves stories with complicated teenage girls, revenge arcs, puzzles, and games.

In YA she also wants horror, realistic fiction, and Fantasy/Sci-Fi.

She’s open to select nonfiction and is seeking projects in the areas of women’s sports (particularly women’s soccer), pop culture and media criticism, astrology, and tarot (including tarot decks). She’s only interested in takes that are intersectional, affirming and socially-conscious from writers who are experts in their fields, have fun and interesting platforms and something interesting to say.

See more details of what she’s looking for here.

Chelsea is a Capricorn from St. Louis, where she lives with a pair of very cute, though very chaotic, dogs. She enjoys D&D, Golden Girls, women’s soccer, chocolate chip cookies, and Airtable.

She is a member of the AALA and serves on the board of the 501©3 nonprofit, Literary Agentsof Change, which is committed to the diversification of the publishing industry in general and the agenting profession in particular. She also serves as co-director of Communications and Fundraising Committees.

Query Chelsea through her query manager here.

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Note: If you’re especially interested in Kid Lit, don’t miss our one-day day “Writing for children and for young adults” workshop, with Nan Froman, editorial director at Groundwood Books, Sunday, Sept 22. Details here.

Also, be sure to check out our weekly course, “Writing Kid Lit ~ the next level,” on Monday evenings this fall. Details here.

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Maria Napolitano began her career in publishing as a book scout, where she fell in love with the process of matchmaking books with just the right editors and publishers around the world. She went on to work in subrights and as an agent, and joined kt literary as foreign rights manager and agent in 2024. In foreign rights, Maria's focus is bringing authors to international readerships and building multi-faceted careers across global markets. 

Maria is a native New Yorker and Cornell graduate who currently lives in Astoria, Queens with a sourdough starter named Ryeley.

As an agent, Maria represents a broad range of fiction, from commercial rom-coms to radical speculative fiction, subversive thrillers, and upmarket book club fiction. She is drawn to character-driven stories, unusual perspectives, genre-bending works, and supremely pitchable high concepts.

In nonfiction, she’s looking for:

Narrative nonfiction about under-discussed historical trends, events, or origin stories that have present-day consequences.

Micro-histories that use one object or topic to explore a more universal experience or theme.

Nonfiction a la Sabrina Imbler — somewhere on the axes of narrative-pop science-personal essay. Contemporary, voicey, personal while also being sneakily educational. I love weird pieces of natural history and overlooked critters, and how the natural world can be used as a way in to writing about the human condition, but if your beat is some other area of surprising and fertile ground, that’s still fair game.

Read more about Maria's wish list on her website.

Query Maria at: maria@ktliterary.com

She doesn’t say what she’d like to see, so I’d send her a query and paste a short sample into your email, say the first chapter. ~Brian

See all upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.  

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.

Canadian literary agency Transatlantic has four agents looking for your manuscripts

Transatlantic Agency

2 Bloor Street East
Suite 3500
Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

https://www.transatlanticagency.com/

Note: You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here:  https://brian999.substack.com/

You can also get an email about twice a month about what’s coming up in terms of writing classes, workshops, and retreats, plus providing links to the other material on the Quick Brown Fox blog. For that, add your name and email in the Sign-Up box in the righthand column. ~Brian 

Transatlantic Agency is a leading literary management company with a team of 20 experienced agents based in cities across North America. They offer a full spectrum of career representation to authors (Adult, Children’s & YA, and illustrators) and storytellers (Speakers, Industry leaders & Influencers) across all genres and formats for book, content development, speaking and TV & Film.

Transatlantic represents more than 700 American, Canadian and internationally bestselling and award-winning clients, writing commercial and literary fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels, and picture books.

Books by Transatlantic’s clients regularly appear on notable bestseller lists across North America and have won major awards such as the Newbery Medal (U.S.), the Giller Prize (Canada), Michael L. Printz Honor Book (U.S.), and the Governor General’s Award for both adult and children’s literature (Canada).

Four of their agents are open to queries:

Jane Chun joined Transatlantic in 2023 after four years at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Prior to her time at J&N, she worked on a freelance project for HG Literary and interned at Writers House and Maximum Films & Management.

Before entering the publishing world, Jane attended NYU where she majored in History and minored in Business of Entertainment, Media, and Technology; Creative Writing; and Spanish. She returned to NYU shortly after graduation and a brief stint at Asian CineVision and the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) to receive her M.S. in Publishing with distinction. She is a native New Yorker.

Jane is particularly interested in stories that center marginalized communities and prose that is cinematic and atmospheric with good rhythm. In both fiction and nonfiction, she is drawn towards compelling, fresh voices that make her feel as though the writer is in the room with her, telling her their story with intimacy as if they were already acquainted. Regardless of how plot-driven a story is, characters with rich inner worlds and emotional depth are a must for her.

For fiction, Jane is seeking commercial, upmarket, and literary works in adult, middle grade, and young adult about the search for and rebuilding of identity, diaspora, family and community, and examinations of power in relationships.

She is also looking for fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction that delve into sharp social commentary and have meticulous world building and settings that don’t feel like Western Europe.

For historical fiction, she likes hidden histories and anything that is set in a time or place she’s not familiar with or focuses on a community that has been often overlooked if it’s a time/place she knows.

For nonfiction, Jane is looking for memoirs and narrative nonfiction with a nuanced, intersectional approach and similar themes to her interests in fiction. She also is interested in books about food, travel, pop culture, and cultural criticism that dive deeply and thoughtfully into culture and traditions, particularly those written by authors of color.

In addition to traditional prose, she is very interested in graphic novels and graphic nonfiction. She is looking for stylistically engaging, unique art that feels either nostalgic without being derivative or fresh and boundary-pushing.

At the moment, she is open to picture books only by referral.

She is not the right person for prescriptive nonfiction, self-help, religion/spirituality books, romance, commercial thrillers, hard sci-fi, poetry, or short story collections. Best send those to someone else.

Query Jane through her Query Manager here.

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If you’re interested in meeting an agent and in getting published, check out our upcoming “How to Get Published” workshops. Details here.

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Pieter Swinkels is Transatlantic’s Director of Operations and a Literary Agent. He represents literary fiction and nonfiction authors, plus corporate publishing clients from around the world. 

Pieter started his literary publishing career at the premiere Dutch publishing houses De Bezige Bij and Meulenhoff Publishers in Amsterdam, where he published bestselling and critically-acclaimed authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Robert Harris and Karin Slaughter.

Before joining Transatlantic Agency, Pieter worked as Chief Content Officer at Rakuten Kobo, leading Kobo’s global publisher relations, the self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life, the Kobo Originals publishing program, and the launch of Audiobooks and Kobo Plus subscriptions. 

Pieter holds a Cum Laude MA degree in English Language & Literature from the University of Amsterdam, and a MPhil in Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin. He lives and works in Toronto.

Query Pieter at: querypieter@transatlanticagency.com

Include a sample or excerpt in the body of the email, maximum 20 pages. Embed the sample/excerpt into the body of the email after the cover letter. Plus an author bio or publishing history and a synopsis. Please note if other agents are also considering the project and do not submit to Pieter if you have already submitted to another Transatlantic Agent.

Carolyn Forde was a literary agent and International Rights Director at Westwood Creative Artists for 14 years before joining Transatlantic.

For the last decade Carolyn has traveled to both the London Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair and New York regularly, and she continues to do so in her new role at Transatlantic. Carolyn has lived and worked in Japan, Mexico and the Czech Republic and is a dual citizen of Canada and the UK.

Carolyn would love to see literary fiction (especially speculative and horror), commercial fiction, narrative nonfiction by experts in the field and is open minded to a broad range of topics and styles – as long as it engages her.

There are a few things she’s not keen on: medical/disease related memoirs, police procedurals, climate thrillers, military or CIA fiction, cozy mysteries, books about film and tv behind the scenes, and fantasy. Don’t send her any of these.

Query Carolyn at: querycarolyn@transatlanticagency.com

Include the first 20 pages within the body of your query – attachments will not be opened (double spaced and 12 pt font).

Samantha Haywood is President of the Transatlantic Agency. She has extensive experience selling authors in North America for publication and TV/film representation. She launched her client list with Transatlantic Agency in 2004 after working in the international rights departments of Random House of Canada and Westwood Creative Artists. 

Samantha represents a diverse and vibrant client list of novelists, memoirists, investigative journalists, graphic novelists, cookbook authors and thought leaders. Samantha represents international rights for the renown publisher, Drawn & Quarterly. She is also a founding member and former President of PACLA, the Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents.

Plurality of voices, stories and authors of all backgrounds are encouraged! Originality and diversity in her client list is the objective.

In fiction, Samantha is looking for literary fiction and upmarket commercial fiction of all types. Getting more specific, yes to: smart contemporary fiction, upmarket women’s fiction, upmarket escapist fiction, crossover/hybrid style novels, and sophisticated novels with speculative or horror elements with a genre slant.

Yes to literary thrillers and upmarket mystery. Witty, sharp, biting or satirical elements are also welcome, especially when it comes to socio-political issues including class and late-stage capitalism. Yes also to fiction which examines identity, gender/sexuality and/or racism through a unique lens. 

In nonfiction, Samantha prefers narrative nonfiction and big idea nonfiction, especially on culturally relevant topics such as feminism, environmentalism, Indigenous issues, societal inequities with forecasts for progress.

She represents some prescriptive, inspirational and motivational nonfiction, matched with expertise and a platform, and preferably with a personal story woven throughout. Yes also to investigative reportage; historical narratives handled in refreshing ways, true crime with societal implications and occasionally an outstanding memoir (must be truly original or well-known subjects).

Essentially, she’s looking for a strong narrative drive and distinctive voice at all times.

Graphic Novels (fiction/non-fiction): Preferably full-length graphic novels with author and illustrator as one creator, or already teamed-up. Graphic novel memoirs, biographies, travel narratives and other nonfiction graphica also welcome.

Query Samantha at: querysamantha@transatlanticagency.com

Authors are encouraged to email a cover letter with a sample/excerpt of the book in question. Please submit a maximum of 20 pages. Embed the sample/excerpt into the email after the cover letter. Graphic novel submissions may include an attachment. Please submit an author bio/publishing history and a synopsis. 

See Transatlantic’s submissions page here.

Don't miss out on our upcoming Early Spring Writing Retreat at Sherwood Inn, in Muskoka. Details here {and scroll down – because there's more than one retreat coming up}.

To grow as a writer, join a weekly creative writing class. Check out all upcoming courses here.

To reserve a spot or for more details about any course, workshop or retreat, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.

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 a literary agent who represents a particular type of book, check out this post.