Reminder: Newer agents are golden opportunities for new writers because they’re likely building their client list; however, always make sure your work is as perfect as it can be before submitting, and only query agencies that are a great fit for your work. Otherwise, you’re just wasting time and postage.
About Claire: Claire Dunnington is a literary agent at the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. She began working at the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency in 2006. She has a BA in Expository Writing from Brown University and an MFA from Columbia University in Nonfiction. The agency is on Twitter here.
She is seeking: YA fiction, and in particular looking for strong realistic YA fiction and literary middle-grade fiction. (For reference, some authors she enjoyed when she was growing up were Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Louis Sachar, Jerry Spinelli, Noel Streatfeild, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and Virginia Euwer Wolff). She is happy to consider dystopian and futuristic YA, but is much less interested in vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and the like.
How to submit: “Our general query email is assistant@vickybijuragency.com (for all queries–Vicky represents many categories, including nonfiction, literary fiction, commercial fiction, and mystery), but authors with YA fiction can query me directly at claire@vickybijuragency.com. A prospective author should send a query letter including a brief synopsis and the first chapter of the manuscript. This should be pasted as text in the body of the e-mail, rather than attached.”
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