Rachel Beck is a literary agent of Liza Dawson Associates. 

Rachel joined Liza Dawson Associates in 2020 after working at a boutique literary agency for four years. She has been in the publishing industry since 2009 and worked at Harlequin editing romance novels for nearly six years before transitioning her skills to the agent world in order to be an advocate and champion for authors. She lives outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, three young children, and an endlessly entertaining cat. Rachel is looking for:

 

Carrie Howland is a literary agent and the President of Howland Literary, LLC, which she established in 2018.

She is a twenty-year veteran in the publishing industry. She worked for fourteen years as a literary agent at two New York City based agencies before founding her agency. Carrie now calls Southwest Michigan home!

Carrie holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Albion College, where she was the Poetry Editor of The Albion Review. Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals and magazines.

Carrie’s passions include music, pop culture, parenting, counseling and psychology, and the Midwest. She has been featured in several publications discussing her work as an agent including Poets & Writers, SCBWI insight, Akashic Books, and Slice Magazine.

In addition to her work as an agent, Carrie is a longtime animal rescue volunteer, having fostered and found permanent homes for over one hundred fifty dogs to date. She is also a member of the Junior League and an alumna of Delta Gamma Sorority. When not spending time with her husband and son, Carrie teaches group fitness classes at Pure Barre.

Carrie is accepting submissions for: adult literary and upmarket fiction, contemporary romance, short story collections, prescriptive nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, and essay collections.

 

 

Maggie Sadler is a literary agent with Howland Literary.

Maggie earned her joint Masters with honors in Comparative Literature and English from the historic University of St Andrews and her Masters in Literary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland, where her literary interests ranged from folklore retellings to nineteenth-century maritime adventure fiction, and interrogating audience reception across creative mediums. Outside of the agency space, Maggie also works as an editor and writing coach. Maggie marries these complimentary experiences with an intentional, intelligent, and growth-minded approach as a literary agent.

Maggie primarily seeks literary and upmarket adult fiction with distinct character voices, lyrical prose, and propulsive plots. She loves books that unapologetically challenge and deconstruct genre, narrative, or structural conventions—books that take risks. She appreciates a careful, restrained hand with fabulist elements, one that gently asks the reader to reconsider the boundary between the real and the fantastic. Above all, Maggie craves stylish writing and wholly unique concepts that leave her feeling devastated over the palpable talent.

She is seeking:

• Literary fiction written in lyrical, artful prose with carefully crafted tension
• Literary fiction with speculative flavors—let’s get weird
• Upmarket fiction, especially with emotionally complex characters who explore evocative settings
• Untold and/or underrepresented historical fiction (pre-twentieth century, please)
• Urban Fantasy/Magical Realism rooted in our reality
• Folk and fairy tale retellings—the more stunning the twist, the better
• Work from Indigenous/First Nations authors, as well as other historically marginalized and underrepresented voices
• Narratives that interrogate themes of cultural identity, femininity, family legacy, rebellion against tradition, and self-discovery from a fresh, unorthodox perspective

An experienced traveler, Maggie also welcomes nonfiction travel narratives depicting remote locations and thought-provoking encounters in a raw, authentic, and intentional narrative voice.

Maggie is not looking to acquire high fantasy, hard sci-fi, commercial romance, or children’s books at this time.

Maggie would love to discover the next…

• Poet turned prose writer
• Folklore retelling of ambitious, perhaps even monstrous, women who are willing to sacrifice love for power
• An eerie, evocative Gothic setting à la Wuthering Heights
• Endearing and cozy upmarket fiction with the gentlest touch of magic, one that strikes the same notes, atmospherically, as Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle