I also love stories featuring relationships—the good, the bad, and everything in between: friendship and found family, “friend break-up”, complicated family dynamics. And I adore romance (especially LGBTQIA+!), but prefer it as a subplot.

YA and upper MG contemporary continue to be my first priority! Lyrical prose, novels-in-verse, “dark and gritty,” “issue-driven,” character-driven, voice-y. I want to feature LGBTQIA+ voices, BIPOC voices, disability and chronic illness, mental health and neurodivergence, grief.

Graphic novels across the market, but see 🧵 for general themes that I’m interested in.

Literary / commercial-literary erotica. Especially if bi / queer.

‘Accessible’, light historical - both commercial-literary & literary, across adult & YA markets. Especially non-Western.

my forever #mswl 😮‍💨

apropos of nothing in particular if YOU are writing epic fantasy about kingdom-rending lesbian situationships send it to ME #mswl

I made some tiny updates to my #MSWL to reflect a few more things I'm excited to see (and maybe remove a few things that haven't been working for me). If you comp What Happened in Skinner, please query me!!
litagentmara.com/mswl/

My next #MSWL

Literary “Romance”—I want a deeply thematic & potentially twisted story about complexity of relationships/ love.

HEA ok but prefer not.

Lots of interiority but center around an external happening!

LGBTQ+ yes! But prefer when sexuality is not the main conflict

- Kid lit centering queer history
- Explorations of sustainability through an intersectional lens, food justice, urban gardening, and our relationship to the land

- Queer contemp and historical fiction with gorgeous prose and a strong hook
- Queer and/or BIPOC romance across categories. Steam (in adult) is welcome but not required!
- Cozy mysteries for millennials
- SFF with a strong romantic element, or romance with a strong SFF element

Adult/YA Romantasy:

I really want to see queer stories here (and everywhere else too!). I especially want sapphic and trans/nonbinary characters. High or low stakes is okay here so long as the romance is believable and I get the worldbuilding! 9/?

In ADULT 💘Romance:
* Dark or Light*
* HEA required (even if the HEA not everyone's preferred HEA)
* Please indicate the heat level/sensuality in query
* Includes but not limited to: LGBTQ / work from diverse authors / chars with diverse backgrounds

- Esp. Settings in Alaska, Nat'l Parks, Outdoors, Wilderness, etc)
- Romantic Mystery
- Romantic Suspense
- Inspirational Romance (especially suspense: kidnappings, cold cases, witness protection, etc)
- RomCom
- Contemporary
- Historical (including Regency/England early 1800's)
- Paranormal (light/grounded in real world)
- Fantasy (light/grounded in real world), no fae, no dragons.

#MSWL March 2024

Hyper-specific MSWL:
- I’m still looking for trans & queer horror! Think Saltburn, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Hell Followed w/ Us
- villain protagonists & love interests
- SFF dark academia
- competitions, heists, trials/games (including sports/clubs!)
- disability & mental health rep

Adult:
- genre bending & blending across the board!
- fantasy and horror in the same vein as YA: gripping, dark, cerebral, exciting
- near future sci-fi with alternate/parallel realities, androids, and science that feels real
- queer romance with commercial hooks!

YA & MG:
- I am looking for fast paced, high stakes adventures in all genres!
- fantasy and horror in particular — send me your gothic, psychological, magical tales
- diverse stories & queer romance
- clever, voicey protagonists and villains!

I'm very open to #diversity of every kind. It's such a given in my house (with gay kids), and my sales list is very diverse, so I didn't really think about specifying that. I'm sorry for any confusion.
#MSWL

Some queer #MSWL ! First, stories about marginalized and queer people going abroad and finding themselves. Or queer romance featuring equestrians. Any tennis centered queer books PLEASE?! And a general call out for trans stories from trans authors.

as hopefully offers solidify & client duty calls, I’ll become more selective and slow responding with requests

that being said, for March I’d love to see more YA in my inbox, especially queer + BIPOC (the the latter applies to everything)

4) In the adult nonfiction space, I'm dying for books by LGBTQ+ evangelicals who are challenging the Christian space from within the faith and bringing new perspectives (Kate Bowler, Matthew Vines, Rachel Held Evans)

In honor of being 6 days out from opening to queries for the first time, a few top-of-wishlist #mswl items...

1) Romantasy, extra points for crossover. I know, I know. Everyone wants it. And so do I. ;) Extra points for sea shanty vibes, loyal animals, disability rep, LGBTQ+ rep

Here's a fun #MSWL visual

Top themes: historical fantasy, queer, anticolonial, badass women, adventure, dark speculative, social horror, atmospheric