26October 2009

Paying it Forward: Part 6

More information from the Rutgers One on One Conference:

*Remember to check editor/agent submission requirements.

Teresa Kietlinski is an Agent at Prospect Agency. Teresa joined Prospect Agency in 2009 after thirteen happy years of working in the publishing industry at Disney-Hyperion, Dial Books for Young Readers, Viking Children’s Books, and William Morrow and Company. She has designed and art directed hundreds of children’s books of all sizes and shapes, and has worked with amazing talents including Kevin Sherry, David Sonam, LeUyen Pham, Boris Kulikov, Kadir Nelson, and Amy Young. As an agent, Teresa is particularly interested in emerging artists who both write and illustrate books for very young children. She loves smart, wickedly funny manuscripts and art that is quirky and fresh.

Dianne Landolf is an Editor at Random House Children’s Books. Diane works on chapter books and MG and YA novels. She has edited Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go and Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck; Ring of Fire (Century Quartet Book 1; many titles in the A to Z Mysteries series, and the upcoming medieval historical, The Book of the Maidservant, by her former Rutgers mentee, Rebecca Barnhouse. She is interested in MG and YA novels across all genres, with a particular interest in quirky or dark fantasy and literary titles. For YA, a strong voice is what she looks for most. For contemporary MG, she loves stories where kids are smart and figure things out, especially by working together. For historical, she prefers pre-20th century. The older the better.

Alvina Ling is a Senior Editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Alvina acquires children’s books for all ages (baby-teen), with a particular interest in literary MG fiction and books with multicultural themes. She is interested in both genre (including science fiction, fantasy, and mystery) and contemporary fiction, and is a fan of beautiful and/or funky PBs with unique illustration styles, as well as trade nonfiction books. Some of her recent publications include the NYTimes bestselling PB Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein; Edgar Award winner The Postcard by Tony Abbott; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin; North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley; The Devouring by Simon Holt; and Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin. Before starting at Little, Brown in 1999, Alvina was a bookseller, and has always been a lover of children’s books.

Julia Maguire is an Editorial Assistant at Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. Julia works on all types of books from PBs to YA. She has assisted on editing the re-launch of the Sluggers series by Phil Bildner and Loren Long as well as Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. She has edited the upcoming PB 1 Zany Zoo by first time author and illustrator Lori Degman and Colin Jack. While interested in books for all age ranges, she is particularly interested in young PBs and literary YA novels that have a commercial appeal. She is not the best match for science fiction or fantasy.

Tracy Marchini is an Agent’s Assistant at Curtis Brown, LTD. She has also worked as a children’s book reviewer and a newspaper correspondent. She blogs about working and publishing at www.tracymarchini.com and tweets at www.twitter.com/tracymarchini

Sean McCarthy is an Assistant Agent at Sheldon Fogelman Agency. Sean works on children’s books for all ages, and is especially keen on off-beat PBs, adventure-oriented MG novels, and edgy YA narratives with deeply flawed characters. His clients include Hyewon Yum, Mark Fearing and Hillary Homzie, and has worked with a variety of authors and illustrators, such as Richard Peck, Mo Williams, and Jerry Pinkney. In PBs, he looks more for dynamic characters and especially clever endings. He would love to find a graphic novel that doesn’t delve too deeply into the “Superhero “ side, or an imaginative MG mystery. He is not currently interested in high fantasy or query letters that pose too many questions. Sean also reviews adult fiction titles for Publishers Weekly.

Samantha McFerrin is an Editor at Harcourt Children’s Books. Samantha acquires and edits PBs and MG and YA fiction. For PBs, her interest ranges from sweet to rhythmic to quirky true. Novel subjects that grab her attention are unusual love stories, authentic urban fiction, action-packed stories for boys (though not necessarily sport stories), mysteries, magical realism, and stories told from a unique cultural perspective. She’s the editor of the Geisel Honor Award winner Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie; the Pura Belpre Illustrator Award winner Just a Minute A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales; and the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award winner In a Blue Room by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Tricia Tusa.

Beth Miller is a Literary Agent Assistant at Writers House, LLC. Beth has been Robin Rue’s assistant at Writers House since 2007. She has the pleasure of working with a number of adult fiction clients, as well as such YA and children’s authors as Garret Freymann-Weyr, Elizabeth Scott, Holly Lisle, Helen Lowe, Jennifer Bradbury, and Carmela and Steve D’Amico. She loves to read YA fiction submissions from new authors, and is always on the lookout for something fabulous that she can pass along to Robin. In her other life, she was a DNA sequencing technician at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory on Long island. She prefers books to E. coli.

More tomorrow!