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, thrillers (like In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware), mysteries (such as The God of the Woods by Liz Moore), 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 (like 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.
Non-fiction: 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. Please do not query me with your work if you used AI to create it.
Recent 5-star fiction reads:
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- Honey and Spice and Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola
- Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
- All Fours by Miranda July
- The Lucky Ride by Yasushi Kitagawa
- The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
- Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
- The Fury by Alex Michaelides
- A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
- Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
- The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood
- Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
- Audition by Katie Kitamura
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach
- Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
- Babel by R.F. Kuang
- Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Recent 5-star non-fiction reads:
- We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat
- Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
- Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
- Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
- Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley
- Emotional Labour by Rose Hackman
- Rebent Sinner by Ivan Coyote
- A Truce That is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
- We Breed Lions by Rick Westhead
- The Wager by David Grann
When I’m not reading
I can be found cuddled up with my dogs, watching the Toronto Sceptres or Blue Jays, cooking and baking and eating, camping, swimming, listening to a podcast or audiobook, or, most likely of all, watching entirely too much TV (Great British Bake Off is my comfort watch).
I am the Secretary of PACLA.