What makes a manuscript rise above the rest? 

Two editors and a literary agent will discuss their manuscript wish lists and share passages from recent or forthcoming books which pulled them in as close readers. Featuring: Amara Hoshijo, editor at Soho Press, Chelcee Johns, editor at 37 Ink, and Michelle Brower, partner and literary agent at Aevitas Creative Management. Moderator: Iwalani Kim

Amara Hoshijo is an editor across the Soho Press crime, literary, and YA fiction imprints. She is primarily interested in crime fiction with unusual settings and protagonists, literary fiction with speculative elements, and bringing diverse voices to the forefront in every genre. She also manages Soho's subsidiary rights initiatives and was a 2019 Frankfurt Fellow.

Chelcee Johns, acquiring editor, joined 37 Ink/Simon & Schuster in the fall of 2017. She has been instrumental to the publications of NYT bestseller Tough Love by Susan Rice, National Book Award longlisted Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders by Linda Sarsour, and Olympic Pride, American Prejudice by Deborah Riley Draper with Blair Underwood among others. She is acquiring both fiction and nonfiction. Chelcee has spent the past decade working in print and digital media as an editor at Moguldom Media Group/Interactive One and an agent at Serendipity Literary Agency.

Michelle Brower has represented Whiting Award Winner Jaquira Díaz, National Book Award finalist Erika L. Sánchez, the New York Times bestseller The House Girl by Tara Conklin; bestselling historical fiction author Hazel Gaynor; the Barnes & Noble Discover Pick The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler; and After Disasters by Viet Dinh, which was named a finalist for the 2017 PEN/Faulkner Prize. She has a MA in Literature from New York University.

Brower represents fiction and narrative nonfiction. Her interests include book club fiction (a commercial concept with a literary execution), literary fiction (including with an element of genre), and smart women’s fiction. She also represents select young adult, middle grade, and memoir projects. She splits her time between New York and Seattle.

What Do Agents and Editors Look For?