PLEASE READ THIS FIRST

The genres listed by each agent’s name are general; please closely read the entire profile of each agent who considers work in your genre to ensure that they will consider work in your subgenre or category.

For example: an agent who is listed under Fiction may represent literary fiction, speculative fiction, and thrillers, but may not represent upmarket fiction or other types of crime fiction. Another example: an agent who is listed under Nonfiction may represent only memoirs that connect with larger social issues, but may not be interested in literary memoirs, or may not represent any memoirists at all.

To find the best possible fit, MWPA recommends that before registering, prospective attendees read agents’ profiles on our website and also do some research into their agencies, as well as their clients. Please note that for Pitch Plus sessions, agents will provide feedback and advice regardless of whether or not they are interested in representing a writer, as long as they represent writers in the same genre as the manuscript being pitched (for example, an agent representing only literary fiction would not be helpful for a writer pitching a crime fiction manuscript).

PITCH agents are available for either Quick Pitch, or Pitch Plus, as specified below. They may represent the following (very general) genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, YA, Middle Grade, and Picture Books. Please click HERE for a handy explanation of the differences between the categories of literary, upmarket, and commercial fiction.

If an agent who interests you is listed as “Full/wait list only,” please email Nathan Conroy at programs@mainewriters.org to be added to the wait list.

PITCH 2026 will take place on Saturday, September 12 in Portland, Maine. Registration options and instructions can be found HERE.

QUICK PITCH

KJ Grow

As Publisher of Islandport Press, KJ Grow brings over 20 years of experience in book publishing and bookselling to her role leading one of New England’s most distinctive independent publishers. Previously serving as Publisher of Shambhala Publications, where she expanded their mindful living and wisdom traditions lists, she has held leadership roles at Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Forbes Books. Her publishing career began as an intern at the esteemed literary nonprofit Graywolf Press, followed by completion of the Columbia Publishing Course and the Yale School of Management course for leaders in publishing. She holds a degree in English from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Originally from Montana, KJ now begins each day watching the sunrise from her home on Sebago Lake in Raymond, Maine—a contemplative practice that informs her work as a publisher and her deep connection to place. She is a passionate advocate for independent book publishing and bookselling, and is committed to publishing high quality books that are enduring, uplifting, and honor the vibrant literary heritage, culture, and communities of Maine.

Islandport Press publishes Maine- and New England-based stories, including Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, and Children's Books. Submissions guidelines

PITCH PLUS AGENTS

Marin Takikawa, The Friedrich Agency (Fiction, Nonfiction, YA)

Marin Takikawa is an agent and foreign rights director at The Friedrich Agency. Born in Tokyo and raised in Singapore and NYC, she joined TFA in early 2021 and now handles selling international rights for authors like Alison Espach, Jane Smiley, the Estate of Frank McCourt, in addition to representing her own list. She's looking for subversive, genre-bending literary fiction, intersectional narrative nonfiction, and voice-driven and literary-leaning YA. Her clients include National Endowment for the Arts, We Need Diverse Books, Tin House, Asian American Writers' Workshop, and New York Foundation for the Arts fellows.

Looking For: Literary fiction, speculative fiction, YA fiction, and narrative nonfiction.

Not Looking For: Commercial fiction, prescriptive nonfiction, high fantasy, or picture books.

Featured Clients: Lenika Cruz - author of forthcoming memoir Drown Sirena (Atria), Ruby Tandoh (as US co-agent) - author of Eat Up! and the forthcoming All Consuming (Knopf), Manuia Heinrich - author of forthcoming YA novel Salt Water Blood (Sarah Barley Books/S&S), Denise Soler Cox - author of the forthcoming What Will They Say? (Atria), Amanda Ajamfar, Kieran Mundy, Natalie Martell, alex terrell, Eren K. Wilson, and more.

Nicole Cunningham, Trellis Literary Management (Fiction)

Nicole Cunningham joined Trellis Literary Management in 2025, after nine years with The Book Group. She represents an exciting list of authors across a wide range of adult fiction, as well as select nonfiction, including Caitlin Breeze, Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, Tara Goedjen, Chelsea Iversen, Kate Mooney, Jolene McIlwain, Sharon Short, Kaitlyn Teer, Schneider K. Rancy, and more.

Across genres, Nicole falls in love at the level of the line first, and wants to be dazzled by the quality, control, and creativity of the language itself. She’s drawn to fiction that’s immersive, smart, and voice-driven, and better yet if it combines a propulsive plot with deep dive character work. She’d love to find more fiction at the sweet spot of literary sensibility with a high concept hook.

Born and raised in upstate NY, Nicole moved to New York City to study English and American Literature and Gender and Sexuality Studies at NYU. After ten years, she returned to the Finger Lakes to renovate an old house with her husband, dog, and son. When she’s not reading, Nicole can be found social dancing around the northeast or messing about in her garden.

Looking For: Nicole is looking for mystery, psychological suspense, thriller (specifically with a strong sense of place and character), horror (especially rooted in folklore, and with keen interest in indigenous horror), literary procedurals, voice-y upmarket fiction, speculative fiction, and book club fiction with a sweeping, tale as old as time romance. She always wants escapist books with bite.

NOT Looking For: Nicole is not currently looking for nonfiction, kidlit, historical, sci-fi/fantasy, romantasy, cozy m/s/t or fantasy, espionage or military thrillers, or books dealing with cancer or other serious health diagnoses.

Featured Clients: Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, Caitlin Breeze, Francesca Capossela, Kate Mooney, Megan Daniels, Auriane Desombre, Tara Goedjen, Jessica Hendry Nelson, Dr Krystyna Holland, Chelsea Iversen, Jolene McIlwain, Emily Morrow, Schneider K. Rancy, Becca Rea-Tucker, The Sweet Feminist, Sharon Short, and Kaitlyn Teer.

Christopher Combemale, Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. (Fiction, Nonfiction)

Christopher Combemale is an associate agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc where he has worked since 2019. He is looking for literary fiction and voice driven upmarket fiction with an unexpected hook. He is open to speculative elements as well as genre fiction with an upmarket execution, particularly thriller and fantasy. In non-fiction he is interested in nature, history, science, and expert driven projects with prescriptive takeaways. He represents Carnegie Medal winner Manon Steffan Ros, National Book Award winner Barry Lopez, Baillie Gifford winner Wade Davis, Polish radical Agnieszka Szpila, novelist Stuart Pennebaker, among many others. As a Singaporean/French/American born and raised in London, he is interested in international, cross-cultural perspectives and work in translation. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar and now lives in Brooklyn. He is also a pottery teacher and loves anything to do with ceramics, tennis, and cooking.

Looking For: I am a longtime fantasy reader outside of work and am now looking to represent select titles in the genre. I love epic fantasy (Robert Jordon etc), chosen one narratives, the works of Raymond Feist, David Eddings, and among contemporary fare books by V.E. Schwab and Naomi Novik. Fonda Lee’s Green Bone series is one of my favorites and I’d love to find something with an Eastern inspired setting. Adult literary fiction with a strong plot and sweeping emotional arc. Upmarket and high concept commercial fiction with a great hook/premise. Nature and science writing.

Not Looking For: Memoir, commercial historical fiction (open to literary), Children’s/YA, or hard sci-fi.

Featured Clients: Agnieszka Szpila, Stuart Pennebaker, Estate of Barry Lopez, Scott Weidensaul, Manon Steffan Ros, Philip Norman, Wade Davis.

Lauren Liebow, Aevitas Creative (Fiction, Nonfiction)

Lauren Liebow represents authors across literary and upmarket fiction as well as non-fiction. She has editorially supported award-winning authors who are New York Times bestsellers, MacDowell fellows, Fulbright Grant Awardees, and National Book Award longlisted authors, among others. Based in New York, Lauren graduated with honors from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she received a BS in English Literature. She is from the Bay Area, CA and lived briefly in El Paso, TX before joining Aevitas.

Looking For: Literary and upmarket fiction, particularly literary horror, grounded speculative fiction, queer and LGBT narratives, and stories that explore topics such as migration, family, and socioeconomic inequality. Lauren is drawn to sweeping narratives that feature voice-driven prose and enjoys reading novels written with a fresh perspective and bold voice. She’s also looking for select nonfiction projects, focusing on narrative nonfiction and investigative journalism. Across all genres, she’s keenly interested in books that uplift historically underrepresented voices.

NOT Looking For: YA, Middle Grade, or picture book submissions. She also does not represent genre sci-fi, crime, or fantasy novels.

Featured Clients: Todd Johnson, Amanda Randone, Tricia Park, Scott C Johnson, Eleanor Stern, and more.

Zoe-Aline Howard, Howland Literary (fiction, nonfiction, memoir)

Zoe-Aline Howard joined Howland Literary while earning her BFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Certificate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has had the privilege to work across publishing in multiple capacities, including an internship at Lookout Books, and her current role as a literary publicist at Pine State Publicity. She represents adult literary fiction and adult nonfiction.

In both adult literary and upmarket fiction and adult nonfiction, Zoe is interested in writing that centers place (and especially how place informs an author’s or character’s perspective); and voice. Her recent deals (including Morgan Day's The Oldest Bitch Alive, Lauren Haddad's Fireweed, Sara Maurer's A Good Animal, & Maria Pinto's Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless) are representative of that intersection.

Looking For: Regardless of genre, I’d love to see more:

· Region-specific writing from outside of NYC/LA: I’m looking for settings that disengage our assumptions, and can house characters we’ve rarely heard from. I am partial to rural stories well-told. I’d love to see flyover states, cities that are “cities” in name only, and international landing strips currently underrepresented on American bookshelves.

· Books that embrace material culture: looking at what we engage with, how we engage with it, and why, from nature writing, to histories of an object, to fresh takes on sustainability or maximalism.

· First books of prose by poets with published collections: in publicity, I’ve worked with poets like Ashley M. Jones (Lullaby for the Grieving), Keetje Kuipers (Lonely Women Make Good Lovers), and more.

· Writing that explores religion(s) through practice(s), broadly: topics from America’s religious theme parks, to critical engagements with how we use sacred texts (NOT what those texts say), to unincorporated spiritual communities like Cassadega Spiritualist Camp will catch my eye.

· Next-generation writing from Gen-Z and Millennial voices.

In adult fiction, I’d love to see:

· Off-center stories plagued with guilt, remorse, and forgiveness (like Emily Ruskovich’s Idaho, Claire Oshetsky’s Poor Deer, or Quiara Alegría Hudes’s The White Hot)

· Novels that challenge who a narrator can be (like Morgan Day's The Oldest Bitch Alive, Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home)

· Literary fiction with book club potential, books where the language is the reading experience, but a plot twist lands us (like Sara Maurer's A Good Animal, Nina de Gramont's The Christie Affair, Ann Patchett's The Dutch House).

· Queer stories that tear open a realistic & unspoken experience (like Chloe Caldwell's Women, Navid Sinaki's Medusa of the Roses).

· Characters with a physicality, be that tender or violent (when violence serves a purpose, as in Rita Bullwinkel’s Headshot, or like Andrea Abreau’s Dogs of Summer)

In adult nonfiction, I’d love to see:

· Biographies, buried histories, reportage, or journalism

· Personal writing that uses disparate subjects as a container for a single theme (like foraging in Maria Pinto’s Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless, laughter in Nuar Alsadir’s Animal Joy, empathy in Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams)

· Disruptive and pioneering advocacy from underrepresented regions (Jen Jackson Quintano’s forthcoming book on the Pro-Voice Project out of North Idaho, Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This)

· Cultural identities of place (like Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Gay Bar or Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year)

Featured Clients: Sara Maurer, A Good Animal (BOTM exclusive); Morgan Day, The Oldest Bitch Alive; Lauren Haddad, Fireweed; Maria Pinto, Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless; Chelsea Wakelyn, What Remains of Elsie Jane; Sydney Hegele, Bird Suit; Jen Jackson Quintano, A Field Guide to Staying, and more.

Madeline Ticknor, Janklow & Nesbit (fiction, nonfiction)

I joined Janklow & Nesbit in 2022. My clients’ work has received significant recognition, including the International Booker award and the CWA Dagger for crime fiction in translation, and has been shortlisted for honors like the Carol Shields Prize, the Southern Book Prize, among others. In addition to developing my own list, I support J&N Partner PJ Mark, managing audio rights, excerpt placements, and short story submissions for his award-winning and critically acclaimed clients. Prior to J&N, I held roles at the Jean V. Naggar Agency, Writers House, and the Hunter College Elementary School Library. I hold a degree in English Literature and classical piano from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Looking for: I am building a list of literary and upmarket fiction and select narrative nonfiction. I'm especially on the hunt for compelling literary thrillers in the vein of Liz Moore or Tana French. I love a domestic suspense and am drawn to smart, complicated characters and twisty plots that keep me turning pages.

NOT Looking For: memoir, fantasy, or romance (though I love a literary novel with speculative elements, and likewise when there is a romance tied into the plot of an upmarket or literary novel).

Featured Clients: Julia Elliott, Lizzie Buehler, Alex C. Park, William Lohier, Tim Murphy, Anna Moschovakis, Hannah Bonner, LoRae Blackmore, Elizabeth Stark, Bernadine Mellis, Will Harrison, C.G. Crawford, Francesca Tripodi, Kelly Karivalis, Yazan Kopty, and Ashley-Anna Aboreden.

Feel free to browse my shelf on Bookshop.org to see the books I’ve read and loved recently.

Roma Panganiban, Azantian Literary Agency (Fiction, nonfiction, adult & children’s)

Roma Panganiban began her publishing career at The Gernert Company before moving to Janklow & Nesbit in 2019, where she began representing literary and upmarket fiction and nonfiction across the adult and children’s markets. She joined the Azantian Literary Agency in 2025 to continue championing fresh, unexpected perspectives, particularly those of writers from underrepresented communities. Her taste leans literary, but she is open to fiction that incorporates genre elements, as well as work that defies categorization altogether. She is interested in narrative nonfiction that reorients our understanding of history, culture, science, society, and ourselves, and creative nonfiction that appeals equally to the heart, mind, and sense of humor. Roma is a member of the American Association of Literary Agents (AALA) and an ambivalent Bluesky user (@romapancake). She lives in Brooklyn.

Looking For: Character-driven literary & upmarket fiction, particularly incorporating elements of genre fiction: speculative elements, rich historical settings, a little mystery. Coming-of-age narratives at any age, ensemble casts and found/chosen families, marginalized characters and underrepresented points of view, dry humor, and unconventional storytelling methods. Narrative works of journalism or cultural history that uncover new ground or approach familiar topics with such curiosity and intensity that they feel new; creative nonfiction that feels intimate, idiosyncratic, and/or wryly funny; and any book involving original research or contemporary analysis that reorients the way we see the world.

Not Looking For: commercial fiction, thrillers, westerns, romantasy, children's literature, prescriptive nonfiction, self-help, business, spirituality

Featured Clients: Emily Hamilton, Catherine Con Morse, Marisa Catalina Casey, David Alexander Campbell, Shea Tuttle, Yana Gilbuena, and Patrick Ross.

Amanda Annis, VP & Literary Agent, Trident Media Group (Fiction, nonfiction)

Previously, Amanda was an editor at Penguin Random House where she worked on numerous New York Times bestsellers, Oprah selections, and award-winning books. Amanda holds a B.F.A. in poetry from Emerson College. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, son and thousands of books.

Looking For: Narrative Nonfiction, Journalism & Current Affairs, History, Psychology, Health & Wellness, Spirituality, Practical Nonfiction, and Cooking.

NOT Looking For: Fiction or Children’s.

Featured Clients: Cambria Brockman, Tamara Miller, Jennifer Morita, Wanda M. Morris, Kwame Onwuachi, Nishita Parekh, and more.

Phoebe Rhinehart, The Gernert Company (fiction, Nonfiction)

Phoebe Rhinehart joined The Gernert Company in 2025. Her first foray into the world of publishing began at CAA, preceded by a BA in Human Evolutionary Biology from Harvard, an MS in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics, and the beginnings of a career in public health metrics. Phoebe enjoys well-observed literary fiction that explores the tragedy of the human condition in the everyday, intense interiority, and lyrical prose. Her nonfiction tastes include ambitious cross-disciplinary cultural analyses, histories of ideas, and the sciences. Phoebe is delighted when personality and passion shine through in nonfiction writing. She lives in Brooklyn.

Looking For: Fiction: voice-driven literary fiction examining identity/persona, perception/uncertainty, sanity/disorder, phenomenology of the mind; literary noir/horror/speculative; curiosity, humor, satire, and experimentation with form.

Nonfiction: high-concept and cross-disciplinary nonfiction pertaining to the history of ideas, social and cultural psychology, consciousness and cognition, aesthetics, time, math, and (mata)physcis; new, big, ambitious theories about our world, our universe, and the ineffable; paradigm-shifting, scale-spanning analyses; philosophy and the sciences; select narrative/memoir that readjudicates ambiguous, taboo, misunderstood life experience.

NOT Looking For: Fiction: children's/middle grade/YA, commercial/book club fiction, romantasy, sweeping family sagas.

Nonfiction: Cookbooks, memoir/biography, narrative, reportage, business, pure history.

Featured Agents