I’m looking for stories that surprise and delight, characters I can’t stop thinking about, tropes turned on their ears, and, above all, sharp writing.

I’d love to find the charm, wit, and twists of The Wedding People by Alison Espach. The pace and stakes of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston. The cutting commentary of When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole. Other recent reads that have stuck with me include Northern Spy by Flynn Berry, Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon, and This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

While my MSWL highlights what I’m looking for, I am often delighted by manuscripts that surprise me, stories I didn’t have the words to ask for and didn’t know I was missing until they came across my desk.

#MSWL

• High-concept, twisty stories with a strong voice in the areas of women’s fiction, thriller, and speculative.
• Timely commercial fiction in which the personal intersects with the world at large, offering a biting commentary on the times we’re living in and making readers sit up and say, “Yes, that, exactly!”
• Stories that explore complex and challenging family dynamics and unlikely (and possibly toxic) friendships.
• Stories about reinvention and second acts—especially with touches of magic, time slips, or other speculative elements.
• Voicey, confident, atmospheric mysteries set in close-knit communities; creepy islands and Midwest-set stories are a plus.
• Because I came to Chicago by way of Poland and Canada, I’m always looking for stories about the immigrant experience.
• Elin Hilderbrand and/or Louise Penny for the Third Coast—I’d love to see a clever sleuth out of a resort town in Michigan.

Open

• Literary/commercial novels that tackle timely issues and uncomfortable or complicated relationship dynamics and leave the reader grappling long after the last page is read (Intermezzo, Little Fires Everywhere, All Adults Here)
• High-concept, character-driven novels with one foot squarely in genre (Wool, Bird Box, Station 11)
• Absolutely delightful and emotionally engaging novels that can be read over and over again because experiencing that world and those characters is a joy (Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Wedding People, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Less)
• Character-driven novels in the thriller, speculative, or science fiction and fantasy realm that illuminate the world we live in through the lens of an imagined world (The Fifth Season, Mexican Gothic, The Maid, The Thursday Night Murder Club)
• Historical novels that feature a narrative voice and story that is under-represented in history or a story never before told (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Downstairs Girl)
• Young-adult novels that pack a serious or a delightful emotional punch delivered in a contemporary setting, #ownvoices, or in a past, future, or imagined world
• I am not currently looking at submissions for middle-grade novels or picture books.
• Please do not send me the following: memoir, nonfiction, screenplays, short-story collections, poetry, or material for the Christian/inspirational market

Open