Literary Agents
WriteAngles Conference 2025
This year WriteAngles will be offering both online agent meetings during the week of October 11-17, and in-person meetings at the conference on October 18. Different agents will be participating in each format.
Online Agent Meetings
Cherise Fisher
Cherise Fisher began her career in publishing more than twenty-five years ago, spending many years editing and publishing several national bestselling and award-winning authors at Simon & Schuster and Plume (an imprint of Penguin Random House), where she was Editor-in-Chief.
An active member of the American Association of Literary Agents, and a very popular workshop leader for several writer’s conferences including the Grub Street Writing Center, Cherise also teaches the “Introduction to Publishing” class as a part of the Publishing Certificate Program at the City College of New York.
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
Cherise represents novelists who have multiple, compulsively readable, impeccably crafted yarns in their head (both historical and contemporary), memoirists who showcase the diversity of human experience, and non-fiction writers who seek to provoke, inspire, and educate regarding multiple topics such as personal development, health and sexuality, racial identity, African American history, humor and pop culture.
Her intention is that all the books she helps bring into the world are relevant, enduring, and help readers maximize their lives.
Cole Hildebrand
I began my publishing career in 2016 at YesYes Books, where I started as an intern and went on to become Managing Editor, working with manuscript acquisitions, event planning, website design and publicity for YesYes Books’ list of authors including Justin Phillip Reed, Danez Smith, and Shelley Wong, among many others. I joined JVNLA in 2021, assisting Agency President Jennifer Weltz and working with authors such as Carl Safina, Emily Ruth Verona, and Antonia Murphy while building a list in adult literary and upmarket fiction, narrative non-fiction, essays, and poetry. I approach agenting with a love for language and voice, and a sensitive editorial eye. I like to dive deep into an author’s work, offering comprehensive editorial guidance that centers the author’s unique, personal vision, ushering that vision into the world with close support through submission, publication, and beyond. Originally from Austin, TX, I got my B.A. in English at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, and received an M.A. from New York University in English and American Literature.
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
I represent both fiction and non-fiction for my list. For fiction, I look for character and voice-driven literary or upmarket work that offers new perspectives on contemporary issues, while telling rich, original stories. I love a deep character study, a messy social novel, or a book incorporating grounded genre elements such as surrealism, horror, some sci-fi, and queer erotica/romance. Emotionally charged novels are absolutely welcome, as are novels exploring subversive territories through unreliable, off-kilter, or abject narrators. I’m also very fond of books told from multiple narrators and perspectives, and am a big fan of experimentation that draws the reader into the novel’s unique world. Of course, fiction is such an expansive form, and I’m always open to being surprised.
On the non-fiction side, I’m looking for outward-focused memoirs, essay collections, history, journalism, cultural criticism, and left-wing political writing. I look for books that engage with radical thought, anti-capitalist and anti-imperial movements, understudied queer history, art and pop culture, music criticism, environmental studies, science and technology, and mental health, among other topics. With memoirs, I prefer projects that move beyond immediate personal experience and look towards broader social and political concerns, blending personal narrative with cultural criticism and deep research.
Carrie Howland
Carrie Howland 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 eponymous agency, Howland Literary, LLC in 2018.
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.
Her passions include social justice, parenting, maternal mental health, counseling and psychology, music, pop culture, animals, health and fitness, 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. All of which inform what she reads and represents.
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
Carrie is accepting submissions for: adult literary and upmarket fiction, contemporary romance, short story collections, prescriptive nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, essay collections, and cookbooks.
In-Person Agent Meetings
Sign up will be available soon for you to meet in person with an agent at The Agent Cafe. Coffee, tea, and an agent’s feedback on your query letter and manuscript are on the menu.
Sorche Fairbank
A small, selective agency and member of AALA (formerly the AAR), the Author’s Guild, the Agents Round Table, PEN, and Grub Street’s Literary Advisory Council, Fairbank Literary Representation is happily in its twenty-second year. Clients range from first-time authors to international best-sellers, prize-winning journalists to professionals at the top of their fields. They can be found with all the major publishers, as well as in the New York Times, Harper’s, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, Granta, Best American Short Stories, and more.
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
Sorche Fairbank’s tastes tend toward literary and international fiction with a soft spot for smart voice-y novels with a strong sense of place and perspectives that can’t help but shift and enlarge the reader’s understanding; (occasionally) big memoir that goes beyond the me-moir; topical or narrative nonfiction with a strong interest in women’s voices, un- and under-told histories, global perspectives, and class and race issues; children’s picture books & middle grade from illustrator authors only; quality lifestyle books (food, wine, and design); pop culture; and surprising gift and humor books. She is most likely to pick up works that are of social or cultural significance, newsworthy, or that cause her to take great delight in the words, images, or ideas on the page.
Jeff Herman
Jeff Herman opened his literary agency (The Jeff Herman Agency, LLC) in the mid-1980s while in his mid-20s. Since then he has made over one-thousand book deals, including many bestsellers. His own books include JEFF HERMAN’S GUIDE TO PUBLISHERS, EDITORS & LITERARY AGENTS (more than 500,000 copies sold), and WRITE THE PERFECT BOOK PROPOSAL (coauthored with Deborah Herman). Herman has presented hundreds of workshops and keynotes about writing and publishing, and has been interviewed for dozens of publications and programs.
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
With few exceptions, we are a non-fiction agency. (However, Jeff will be happy to meet with fiction writers at WriteAngles to offer general advice.)
Specific areas of interest include:
- How to/self help
- True crime
- Parenting
- Business
- Health
- History
- Narrative non-fiction
- Memoir
- Psychology
- Practical Spirituality
- Multi-cultural subjects
- Reference
We look for books that fill gaps in what is already on the shelves. When choosing a topic you need to look beyond what interests you to determine if it will interest anyone else.
Mariah Stovall
Mariah is both an author and a literary agent at Trellis Literary Management, which she joined upon its founding in 2021. She’s also worked at Howland Literary, Writers House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and Gallery books.
WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
Mariah is looking for adult literary and upmarket fiction, narrative nonfiction and essay collections (not memoirs).
Across genres, she gravitates toward outsiders and stylish, inventive storytelling. She is primarily interested in how subcultures, social movements, and complex individuals intersect with pop culture and the arts, history, STEM, linguistics, sports, and philosophy. Happy endings and likable characters are not particularly important to her. She has a hands-on, collaborative approach to editing and loves helping writers shape their projects for publication. She is especially passionate about advocating for authors from underrepresented and marginalized and minoritized groups (including writers without MFAs).
Prepare for your agent meeting
Find out how to book and prepare for an agent meeting.