Norton, June 2012

Writers House has been around for almost forty years, and in addition to being an actual house (it's true! Check our website!), it's one of the largest literary agencies in the industry, representing fiction and non-fiction of every stripe.

I've been with Writers House for a little over five years now, and although I'm not an actual house, I'm a pretty omnivorous agent. At the moment, I've got a particular hankering for unexpected memoirs with itchy voices, narrative non-fiction that tackles hard-to-tackle issues, wry and rarely paranormal YA, laugh-until-you-squirt-milk-out-of-your-nose middle grade (with heart!), sweet and wacky (but still logical) picture books from innovative author/illustrators, and any fiction that rewards the reader line-by-line and gets to know at least one character really, really well (recent favorites include Jeff In Venice, The Lazarus Project, Diary of a Bad Year, and Horns, which was awesome). I'm also willing to be a sucker for mysteries that bend reality, ghost stories that blow reality to hell, humor that's more than just an infinitely repeated gag in sheep's clothing, and Secret Book X (I don't know what Secret Book X is, but suffice it to say, I'm open to the occasional curveball).

I'm still in the early-ish stages of building my list, and I have almost zero emotional baggage, so I'm ready to fall in love (with your book)!

John Corey Whaley, Printz Award winner for WHERE THINGS COME BACK
Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan, National Outdoor Book Award winners for BURIED IN THE SKY
Christopher Silas Neal, illustrator of the 2011 New York Times Editors' Choice OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW
David Kirk, creator of the bestselling MISS SPIDER picture book series
Sam Brown, creator of explodingdog.com and author/illustrator of the upcoming SOMETIMES I FORGET YOU'RE A ROBOT
Deborah Freedman, author/illustrator of BLUE CHICKEN
bethany bARTon, author/illustrator of THIS MONSTER CANNOT WAIT
Chuck Groenink, illustrator of the upcoming BACKWARDS BIRTHDAY PARTY
Thyra Heder, author/illustrator of the upcoming FRAIDYZOO
Katherine Roy, author/illustrator of the upcoming SHARK: THE GREAT WHITES OF THE FARALLON ISLANDS
Jon Chad, author/illustrator of the upcoming LEO GEO AND THE COSMIC CRISIS
Adele Enersen, author/illustrator of WHEN MY BABY DREAMS
Kevin Seccia, Emmy-nominated screenwriter and author of PUNCHING TOM HANKS
Jared Dillian, author of one of Bloomberg's Best Business Book of 2011, STREET FREAK

Adult titles:
THE ACCIDENTAL SAVANT, Jason Padgett & Maureen Seaberg (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); FAKEBOOK, Dave Cicirelli (Sourcebooks); THE SCHOOL OF LOST CATS, Nancy Davidson (St. Martin's); BURIED IN THE SKY, Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan (W.W. Norton); PUNCHING TOM HANKS, Kevin Seccia (St. Martin's); STREET FREAK, Jared Dillian (Touchstone)

Children's titles:
I'M TRYING TO LOVE SPIDERS, bethany bARTon (Dial); ALICE AND LUCY WILL WORK FOR BUNK BEDS, Jaime Temairik (Hyperion); JUST ONE MORE, Jennifer Hansen (Viking); FRAIDYZOO, Thyra Heder (Abrams); SHARK, Katherine Roy (Roaring Brook); SOMETIMES I FORGET YOU'RE A ROBOT, Sam Brown (Dial); WHEN MY BABY DREAMS, Adele Enersen (Balzer + Bray)

You can send me a query letter by post or by e-mail (odds are I'll respond to the digital ones sooner, though), so just make sure to include the first five or ten pages of your manuscript (and a self addressed stamped envelope if it's snail mail), then fire away! I promise to fire back, hopefully within a week's time.