I have the best job at WCA, in my humble opinion – Literary Agent and International Rights Director. I get to work closely with my agent colleagues to represent WCA’s authors in the international marketplace while simultaneously growing my own list of authors and helping them build their careers. It’s the best of two worlds and allows me to work collaboratively with everyone at WCA – and it keeps me on my toes, with no two days being the same. Because I wear more than one hat, I’m sometimes slower to respond to queries than I’d like to be (I’m a work in progress!). Thank you for trusting me with your submissions.
Fiction: Literary fiction (think big, sweeping narratives and multigenerational sagas that span locations and time like Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing or Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life), upmarket book club fiction that doesn’t shy away from tough subjects (think anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid or Marian Keyes), crime novels (please no police officer protagonists), thrillers (like In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware), mysteries (think Thomas King’s DreadfulWater series), historical fiction (think The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan, or Washington Black by Esi Edugyan) and romcoms (à la Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan or The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary). I love humour and I love a speculative or magical element (think The Centaur’s Wife by Amanda Leduc or Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel) though I am not the agent for science fiction or fantasy. I’m also not the right agent for poetry or erotica.
Nonfiction: Current events, popular science, “big ideas”, memoir (albeit very selectively). If you’re an expert on your subject, I’d love to hear from you.
Children’s literature: For now, I’m not accepting queries for children’s books.
I am particularly interested in hearing from authors from backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented in the book industry.
Recent-ish favourite fiction includes Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, All Fours by Miranda July, The Pairing by Casey McQuiston, Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood, and Good Material by Dolly Alderton. In non-fiction I’ve recently enjoyed Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith, Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley, Emotional Labour by Rose Hackman, and Rebent Sinner by Ivan Coyote.
When I’m not reading
I can be found cuddled up with my dogs, napping, watching the Toronto Blue Jays, cooking and baking and eating, camping, swimming, listening to a podcast (Sweet Bobby, anyone?), or, most likely of all, watching entirely too much TV (Great British Bake Off is my comfort watch).
I am a member of PACLA.