Our Agents
Our Agents
For the past 18 years, Kelly has been championing writers and artists in nearly every category, format, and age group within children's literature. She loves working with debut authors and illustrators as well as bestsellers and award-winning creators who are deep into their careers, and excels at developing strategies for clients at each stage of the creator's journey.
Kelly represents all categories and genres of children's books. Right now, she's looking for submissions in the following categories:
Graphic novel creators (artists and author-illustrators only; she is not open to GN script writers).
Illustrators and author-illustrators of picture books. This includes illustrators who want to illustrate another writer's words, or artists who want to write and illustrate their own stories.
Contemporary novels and fantasy in middle grade and YA.
Within these categories, Kelly is particularly interested in stories on the following topics, themes and story elements:
Fiction and nonfiction centering queer, trans, and nonbinary identities
Stories celebrating alternative family structures
Comedy/humor
Innovative writing/storytelling (including visual storytelling)
Bicultural and biracial stories rooted in a creator's lived experiences (in the vein of Darius the Great is Not Okay and The First Rule of Punk)
Joyful queer friendship stories and joyful queer romance
Rich explorations of friendship and sibling relationships
Kelly is on the board of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) where she also co-chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Kelly grew up overseas, primarily in Singapore, and now lives in Southern California. She is very active in several local LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and otherwise spends a lot of her time rooting for her daughter's softball team.
RECENT DEALS
Danielle Daniel's middle grade novel-in-verse, REASONS TO LOOK AT THE NIGHT SKY, a story about eleven-year-old Luna, a space enthusiast determined to secure a spot in NASA's summer camp. When her home and beloved science classroom undergo significant changes, she must learn to adapt and celebrate new ways of seeing the world around her - including the way she once viewed her beloved night sky. Sold to Tundra in an exclusive submission.
Laurenne Sala's next picture book, AN ALTAR FOR ABUELO in which a child celebrates their abuelo's life while also grieving his death. Sold to Candlewick.
ENCORE!, a romcom graphic novel by Miles Burks, adapted from his popular Webtoon. When Clay Noguchi's ex-best friend Aaron Santos lands in his theatre class due to an unfulfilled graduation requirement, the boys rekindle their friendship, but the painful history between the two threatens to stand in the way of their growing friendship. Sold to HarperCollins at auction.
A new YA duology starting with A FATE SO COLD co-written by NYT bestselling authors Amanda Foody and C.L. Herman. Set in a world where magicians bond with immortal, semi-sentient wandsto defend against brutal magical winters, two star-crossed chosen ones wield the most powerful and feared wands in history, and they can only save their home and fulfill their destinies if one of them slays the other. Sold to Tor in a six-figure deal. (Amanda is represented by Whitney Ross at Irene Goodman Literary Agency.)
NYT bestseller Sharon Cameron's ARTIFICE, a YA novel set in 1940's Amsterdam, about a girl who sells art forgeries to the Nazis in order to fund the rescue of Jewish babies through the Dutch resistance. Sold to Scholastic in a six-figure deal.
Eisner nominated artist Michelle Mee Nutter to illustrate two more graphic novels written by Megan Wagner Lloyd. In LUNA, a girl attempts to understand her late mother through the naturalist notebooks she left behind while trying to connect with her grandmother and reconcile her ideas of family and home. In OUCH, a car accident puts a young adventurer in the hospital with a broken pelvis and she has to figure out how to stay occupied as she recovers, faces a new normal, and considers how she can return to her old life. To Graphix/Scholastic in a six-figure deal.
THINGS I LOVE:
Macarons
Earl Grey tea
Nature documentaries
Travel
Comics/graphic novels
I'm the product of a kindergarten teacher mom and a salesman dad. Pretty much the perfect combination for a kids literary agent!
REPRESENTATIVE TITLES
"Writing is nothing more than a guided dream." Jorge Luis Borges
AWARD WINNERS
& BESTSELLERS
