Julie Gourinchas

hello friends! my colleague, the brilliant Lorna Hemingway, is on the hunt for new projects! she represents everything in the children's space from board books to YA and is specifically looking for:

- contemporary romance
- coming of age (especially BIPOC)
- gorgeous, punchy graphic novels

#mswl

I know I've only just made a #mswl thread a month ago but given the new year and all I'm tempted to make an ✨aesthetic✨ one – all pretty and shit, get those Canva skills cracking – to cross-post here and on Instagram.

also I am reading @sapphomancer .bsky.social’s Metal from Heaven and I’m only a chapter or two in and this is some of the most insane, voicey, incredible writing I’ve ever read. bravo.

(and also, if anyone can comp this: #MSWL )

okay. okay wait. okay. bear with me........... #mswl

a speculative new gilded age and the folk hero outlaws of the evolving modern era ????? oh good god let us cook, someone give it to me

someone please please PLEASE give me an upmarket speculative novel set in a travelling circus. a slightly more literary, fresh new take on THE NIGHT CIRCUS. bonus points if strong sense of aesthetic or historical anchoring. pls!!! #mswl

rewatching Flanagan's (incredible, jaw-dropping) Midnight Mass and if anyone can comp to this show ... I would like to see it, please #mswl (this is your October version of "Julie is once again on the hunt for literary vampire stories")

idk this is kind of a #mswl vibe … liminal spaces … nineties neon coding … speculative horror … mmm yes

screaming sobbing clawing at the walls ... #mswl in every way that matters !!!!!!!

once again (the Interview with the Vampire rot is still rotting...) I am desperate for dark, gothic, literary takes on vampires in my inbox #mswl

big #mswl energy

#mswl

just watched the latest @JazzaStudios video and he dropped the word "Da Vinci-punk" and hello, #mswl in a big way

I really really really *really* feel horrormance is about to be the next ✨big thing✨ in pub, so – my #mswl is looking hungry for any literary/upmarket versions of that, love stories with dark, twisted, tragic beats (someone comp me IWtV or so help me god!!!) 🖤🩸🦷

yes hi I would like some monstrous, yearning love stories please #mswl

some things I am *not* looking for atm (an anti-MSWL if you will):

- crime or military anything
- contemporary romance
- [usually] first-person voice (I'm sorry – it's a hard sell for me, but not impossible!)
- high/epic fantasy
- space-faring sci-fi (unless the hook is fresh!)

I'll add more as I go, but I want to highlight again how much VOICE, PROSE, + ATMOSPHERE are really the things that draw me into a story. I want to hear your character's voice ringing in my head. I want to feel the mist curling at my ankles. I want to live in your world!!

#mswl

- magical realism
- literary fiction that feels *playful* and *joyful* about the genre, rather than snobbish and gatekeep-y. I have no fear of the weird or wacky, so long as it has something intelligent and important to say.
- fiction about unconventional relationships

#mswl

- anything set in a part of the world different to the US, Canada, or the UK (or, if set in the UK, set in the north of England, northern Ireland, rural spaces, etc)
- fresh, different takes on monster stories (vampires!!!! pls) that explore aspects of humanity

#mswl

- folklore and mythological retellings, particularly non-Eurocentric/non-Greco-Roman/non-Christian traditions
- neo-western
- unconventional, unreliable, unlikeable narrators and central characters
- trans and queer joy, but also trans and queer rage
- diverse perspectives

#mswl

- speculative fiction
(I prefer grounded, literary sci-fi + fantasy. few secondary worlds, but rather our world steeped in liminal magic and/or technology. anything creepy, toothy, gritty, strange, something that sends a shiver down your spine.)
- steampunk everything

#mswl