Zoe-aline howard, agent

Zoe-Aline Howard joined Howland Literary while earning her BFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Certificate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has had the privilege to work across publishing in multiple capacities, including an internship at Lookout Books, and her current role as a literary publicist at Pine State Publicity. After five years in Wilmington, NC, she's looking for the next place to call home. 

In both adult literary and upmarket fiction and adult nonfiction, Zoe is interested in writing that centers place (and especially how place informs an author’s or character’s perspective); and voice. Her recent deals (including Morgan Day's The Oldest Bitch Alive, Lauren Haddad's Fireweed, Sara Maurer's A Good Animal, & Maria Pinto's Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless) are representative of that intersection. 

In adult fiction, she is looking for voice-driven and/or character-driven literary and upmarket projects, especially books which take familiar elements (whether structurally, thematically, or otherwise) and subvert them: girls who reveal something larger about the human experience (Dogs of Summer), speculative elements (Sharks in the Time of Saviors), surprising iterations on perspective and form, new representations of familiar settings, novels embedded in a subculture, broken archetypes. Surprise her! Other favorites include: Idaho (Emily Ruskovitch),Who Will Run the Frog Hospital (Lorrie Moore), Swamplandia! (Karen Russell), Cowboys Are My Weakness (Pam Houston), The Pisces (Melissa Broder), Girl Meets Boy (Ali Smith), see MSWL for more. 

In adult nonfiction, she is looking for deep dives. She’s especially interested in narrative nonfiction, research-driven books with memoir elements, and essay collections that blend cultural criticism and a sharp authorial perspective with other elements. She has a soft spot for nature writing, pop and material culture—what we engage with, and why—and the connections between people and the places they inhabit. Favorites include: Lesbian Love Story (Amelia Possanza), Wintering (Katherine May), Monsters (Claire Dedderer), The Ugly History of Beautiful Things (Katy Kelleher), Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir (Lauren Slater), M Train (Patti Smith). 

She wants the wildest, weirdest, and most heart-felt. 

Please submit all queries via Zoe's Query Manager link.  

For non-submission inquiries, she can be reached at zoe@howlandliterary.com.