Representing Award-Winning Fiction, Non-Fiction, YA Literature, and Children's Books
Carrie Howland, President
Carrie Howland founded Howland Literary, LLC in 2018, after thirteen years as an agent, most recently at Empire Literary.
Carrie holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Albion College, where she was the Poetry Editor of The Albion Review. Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals and magazines.
She attends several conferences, both nationally and internationally, throughout the year. Her craft talk from the Adirondack Writers Conference, "Beyond the Query Letter," is available on the Howland Literary website.
In her spare time, Carrie volunteers as a foster for a local dog rescue and is an active member of the Junior League. Her passions include music, pop culture, and the Midwest.
She has been featured in several publications discussing her work as an agent including Poets & Writers, SCWBI insight, Akashic Books, and Slice Magazine.
Carrie is accepting submissions for: adult literary, upmarket, and commercial fiction as well as memoir, narrative and prescriptive non-fiction. Please send your query letter and first 20 pages to submissions@howlandliterary.com.
For non-submission inquiries, she can also be reached at carrie@howlandliterary.com
Cassie Mannes Murray, Agent
Victoria Dillman, Associate Agent
Victoria Dillman, Associate Agent
Before pivoting into publishing, Cassie Mannes Murray was a high school teacher for six years, and ran an infamous book blog known as Books & Bowel Movements where she worked with several brands, including publishing houses and indie presses. She holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from North Carolina State University, and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from University of North Carolina Wilmington where she worked with Ecotone and Lookout Books.
She has published fiction and essays in The Rumpus, Joyland Magazine, Passages North, Hobart, Fugue Journal, and StoryQuarterly. Her essays have received notables in Best American Essays, and she's received a Pushcart nomination. Links to her writing as well as an in-depth agenting wishlist can be found on her website. Her pronouns are she/her.
Because she believes genre categories are for marketing purposes, Cassie would like to work with authors who are difficult to categorize, or are attempting to bridge gaps between multiple genre categories. She wants to work with writers that are passionate about writing, particularly at the sentence level.
Cassie will be closed to submissions from February 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022 while she is on maternity leave and then reading client manuscripts. On July 1, she will open to queries in fiction and nonfiction.
Cassie is ONLY acquiring NONFICTION proposals and manuscripts at the moment, including narrative nonfiction, essay collections, science, history, lifestyle, advice/relationships, how-to, parenting, pop culture, sports, true crime, young adult nonfiction, graphic novels, and some memoir.
SPECIFIC INTERESTS:
- BIPOC storytelling
- QUEER narratives
- poetic sense to the sentence structures
- folklore
- books about girlhood, and coming-of-age
- atmospheric storytelling
- voice-driven work
- pop culture deep dives
- science (think: Mary Roach)
- climate stories
- memoir + cultural aspect / second angle
- essay collections
- intersectional feminist hot takes
- deep dives into niche culture
- weird history
- sports history (like Grantland's old website)
- social justice (particularly when it comes to education)
- nerd culture / fandoms
- "the internet"
- body image
- non-western narrative styles
- cross-genre work
Please send your query and first 20 pages to submissions@howlandliterary.com
For non-submission inquiries, she can be reached at cassie@howlandliterary.com
Victoria Dillman, Associate Agent
Victoria Dillman, Associate Agent
Victoria Dillman, Associate Agent
Before Howland Literary, Victoria Dillman was an assistant and foreign rights associate at Sobel Weber Associates and an intern at Linda Leith Publishing, as well as a reader for the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Awards. She holds a B.A. in English from McGill University, and an MFA in Fiction from The New School. Her pronouns are she/her.
Victoria is most interested in adult literary/upmarket fiction and narrative and expert-driven nonfiction. She would particularly like to hear from underrepresented communities including neurodivergent, queer, and BIPOC voices.
In fiction, she looks for a well-paced plot with a strong, distinctive voice. She is fascinated by complex and nuanced characters with conflicting desires. She especially loves literary fiction with a speculative or magical element. She is also intrigued by hybrids of literary-genre fiction: pieces that work to subvert genre conventions. She will always be captured by family relationships, particularly the complexities of sibling dynamics and intergenerational trauma. As someone who grew up internationally, Victoria is drawn to narratives exploring transitory homes and cultures.
In nonfiction, she is looking for projects that have a passion for and in-depth knowledge of niche topics. She is drawn to narratives that focus on the individual and offer fresh perspectives on our world. Some of the topics she is interested include social justice, climate change, mental health, cults, true crime, and counterculture.
Please send your query and first 20 pages to submissions@howlandliterary.com
For non-submission inquires, she can be reached at victoria@howlandliterary.com
Zoe Aline Howard, Assistant
Zoe Howard is a Senior in the Creative Writing BFA program at University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she will also receive a certificate in Publishing. In 2021, she worked with Lookout Books. Her pronouns are she/her.
Zoe is most interested in books that treat setting as delicately as character, that value voice above plot, and that really dig into the hot, muggy south where she grew up. She also wants to see nonfiction that engages a personal voice to teach readers about the niche subjects that currently thrive on TikTok.
For non-submission inquiries, she can be reached at zoe@howlandliterary.com