During my twenty years at Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman Literary Agency, I represented acclaimed literary fiction such as Charles Frazier's National Book Award Winning COLD MOUNTAIN, Arthur Golden's International Bestseller MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, the novels and stories of Judy Budnitz (named one of Granta’s 21 Best Young American Novelists), and bestselling Young Adult author Sarah Dessen, along with many other authors of extraordinary talent. In February, 2011, I joined industry leader Writers House, and I am thrilled to be expanding my list here! Writers House is a perfectly balanced agency: We're big enough to have the kind of leverage needed in today’s complicated marketplace, but our approach reflects the personalized service usually associated with boutique agencies.

While my list has always been extremely selective, allowing me to give my clients the attention and support services they deserve, I am always looking for talented writers who know how to engage readers with compelling characters and masterful storytelling. Whether I'm reading literary fiction or narrative nonfiction, memoir or young adult, I look for books that, from the beginning, make me want to just drop everything and read all day. I look for complex, believable, sympathetic characters that win me over completely, compelling me to care about them and making me desperate to know what happens to them. I want to be transported into another world when I read, but I also want new and unexpected insight into the world we all live in.

If your work fits this description, I would love to hear from you! Please see my submission guidelines below.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, Arthur Golden
COLD MOUNTAIN, Charles Frazier
LOCK AND KEY, SOMEONE LIKE YOU,ALONG FOR THE RIDE, and other bestselling books by Sarah Dessen
BLOODROOT, Amy Greene
NICE BIG AMERICAN BABY and FLYING LEAP, Judy Budnitz
THE HILL ROAD, Patrick O'Keeffe

THE MOON AND MORE, Sarah Dessen (Viking Children's)
GOLDEN, Jessi Kirby (Simon & Schuster)
UNCLE JANICE, Matt Burgess (Knopf)
BEAUTIFUL FOOLS, R. Clifton Spargo (Overlook Press)
100 QUESTIONS YOU'D NEVER ASK YOUR PARENTS, Elisabeth Henderson (Macmillan)
POLINA'S SKY, C. A. Larsen (Henry Holt)
THE VISITORS, Patrick O'Keeffe (Viking)
BROTHERHOOD, Anne Westrick (Viking Children's)
THE BALLAD OF BARNABAS PIERKIEL, Magdalena Zyzak (Henry Holt)
BLOG THIS, Gwendolyn Heasley (HarperCollins)
IF YOU COULD BE MINE, Sara Farizan (Algonquin)

Please see the Writers House website for more info.

* Email queries to jgarnett@writershouse.com

* Email is preferable (and faster), but you can also submit by snail mail to: Leigh Feldman, Writers House, 21 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10010. Please note: There is no need to include a SASE, but please do include your email address so that we can contact you.

* Please include the first chapter or the first 10 pages of your manuscript (or proposal) with your query letter.

* I'd love to know what led you to query me in particular, and please let me know if you are querying other agents as well.

* Please DO NOT query two agents within Writers House simultaneously.