Discover Howland Literary
Maggie Sadler earned her joint Masters with honors in Comparative Literature and English from the historic University of St Andrews and her Masters in Literary Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland, where her literary interests ranged from folklore retellings to nineteenth-century maritime adventure fiction and interrogating audience reception across creative mediums. Outside of the agency space, Maggie also works as an editor and writing coach. Maggie marries these complimentary experiences with an intentional, growth-minded approach as a literary agent.
Maggie primarily seeks adult literary fiction and upmarket fiction with distinct character voices, lyrical prose, and propulsive plots. She loves books that quietly yet unapologetically challenge and deconstruct genre, craft, or structural conventions—books that take risks. She appreciates a careful, restrained hand with magical elements, one that gently asks the reader to reconsider the boundary between the real and the fantastical. Above all, Maggie craves raw, authentically human writing and wildly innovative concepts that have her whispering, “I needed this manuscript yesterday.”
Maggie would love to see the following in my query box, but she is always open to being surprised:
White Whales:
- Innovative and evocative folklore/fairy tale retellings that sour or devour the conventions of its source text—particular interest is afforded to non-Western tales and settings.
- Unusual, somewhat unhinged concepts in the vein of Daryl Gregory’s Revelator—let’s get weird.
- Treacherous, unreliable narrators.
- Quirk-ridden liminal spaces such as islands and rural areas. Maggie is also particularly interested in settings that seem to exist outside of time and space, like the labyrinth in Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.
- Notes of grounded, lush, and atmospheric magical realism, wherein the potential for the fantastic flits at the edge of our vision, in the style of Karen Russell, Julia Fine, Kirsty Logan, or Hayao Miyazaki.
- Intelligently, painstakingly crafted love letters to the Gothic—atmospheric, simmering with uncanniness and dreadfulness—set anywhere but the Deep South.
- A novel that introduces readers to a unique area of study or handicraft.
- An intelligent, well-researched take on the Golden Age of Piracy that foregrounds an unputdownable hook and jagged-edged character arcs—think John Silver in Black Sails.
- Strange women doing strange, sometimes terrible things à la The Lamb by Lucy Rose, Open Wide by Jessica Gross, and The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh.
- Complex, tangly, and fraught relationships. Romantic, platonic, familial, brief encounters—anything that forces us deeply consider what it means to connect with other humans.
In adult fiction, I’m seeking:
- Accessible literary fiction with a propulsive hook, expertly crafted tension, and gently stylish prose that turns timeless themes on their axes.
- Upmarket fiction that explores insightful and nuanced socio-cultural commentary with a high-concept hook, authentically human characters, and distinct emotional resonance.
- Historical fiction that foregrounds marginalized perspectives and under-explored locales.
- Work that revels in genre play—if the project is best described as “X meets Y with strains of Z,” consider her interest piqued.
- Across fiction genres, Maggie is also on the hunt for narratives in translation.
In adult narrative nonfiction, I’m seeking:
- Topics: travel, health and wellness, ecology and nature, cultural criticism
- Maggie welcomes nonfiction projects that combine expertise with passion and a fresh, compelling perspective to tell previously untold stories with timely urgency.
- A lifelong student, Maggie ultimately craves the opportunity to step away from a nonfiction narrative with new knowledge and insights.
In both fiction and nonfiction, Maggie keenly welcomes work from debut Indigenous and First Nations, BIPOC, and queer storytellers.
Anti-MSWL:
- High, epic fantasy
- Science fiction of any kind
- Highly commercial fiction: contemporary romance, thrillers, mysteries, beach reads
- Post-apocalyptic or dystopian narratives
- The Young Man’s OdysseyTM
- Books about wars throughout the twentieth century (please, no more narratives set during WWI, WWII, or the Vietnam War; she’s begging you)
- Any work for young adult audiences and younger—Maggie is exclusively focusing on work for adult readers at this time