Roger Copenhaver

Yes & Literary

My Manuscript Wish List®

Query Status: OPEN

Hi! I’m Roger Copenhaver and I’m the founder of Yes & Literary, launched in April 2025. My pronouns are he/they and I’m a gender non-conforming nerd who’s passionate about books, video games, and food.

Yes & is a literary agency dedicated to amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices and other marginalized storytellers. My goal in launching the agency was to help enrich the kinds of stories that are told by queer people about queer experiences as all our stories have unique elements to them that deserve to be celebrated.

Fall 2026 Specific Wishlist

PIRATES! PLEASE!
Queer lit RPG
Queer cozy fantasy
MM romance written by men and masc presenting authors
Stories with gender diverse and trans representation written by gender diverse and trans authors
New takes on dystopian and dystopian in the vein of Chain Gang All Stars and Daggermouth
Outside of books, anything compared to KPop Demon Hunters, Hadestown, The Menu, White Lotus, One Piece, The Devil Wears Prada, Sense8, Hazbin Hotel, and the video game South of Midnight.

Roger’s favorite authors are N.K. Jemisin, Jeff VanderMeer, and Adam Silvera. They loved Christopher Paloni’s Inheritance Cycle growing up and always open to books that would be happy sitting next to any of these authors on the shelf.

For nonfiction, Roger’s interested in select narrative nonfiction, histories that haven’t been told in a big way, almost anything pop culture, and gaming. They’re open to very select memoirs that have a unique hook.

General Wishlist

Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Speculative –

I’m most interested in dark and urban fantasy, unique takes on dystopian, climate fiction, and magical realism. I’ve been on the search for a great queer pirate adventure. I’d love to see stories with themes that involve nature like magical plants, animals that talk, tree spirits, etc. I’d love to see more witchy books with unique and realized magic systems and new takes on magical creatures: some of my favorite being zombies, dryads, dwarves, dragons, and elementals. Speculative and magical elements involving food always excite me.

Romance –

I’m primarily interested in contemporary romance and want stories that really capture the idea of queer desire. Give me the next Heated Rivalry. I’m interested in everything from hot and steamy high heat moments, to non-traditional and non-monogamous relationships, to stories about asexual characters. While I love romantasy, I’m only interested if there’s a unique hook that pushes the boundaries of the genre.

General and Literary Fiction –

I’m looking for unique, edgy, and strong voices with upmarket literary sensibility. I’d love to see more weird and unusual fiction. I’d also enjoy more stories about siblings or ways to highlight family relationships in new ways. I’m always interested in smart historical reimaginations and thinking through the what-ifs. I’m interested in a range of queer stories that are unapologetically about queer identity to stories with subtle hints where queerness is inherent to the story, but the story isn’t about identity itself.

Non-fiction –

I’m interested in very select memoirs, ideally ones with humor or just a really unique life experience. I’m less likely to pick up a memoir that is primarily about a trauma unless it has a very unique hook. Expert driven non-fiction is something that excites me and I love things about pop culture, food, and entertainment.

Fun facts about me:

I’m a big gamer and Teamfight Tactics is my current go-to, but I play a variety of games.

I love good food and whiskey, specifically bourbon. Weller 107 is a favorite.

I used to compete and the coach competitive collegiate debate at the highest levels.

Submission Guidelines

Queries can be submitted here: https://www.yesandlit.com/query

* Please note, any submissions not done through the official form and outside of an open query window will be deleted and not reviewed.

Guidelines & Details

Vital Info

roger@yesandlit.com

@https://bsky.app/profile/yesandliterary.bsky.social

Website

Agent

Fiction:

Action/Adventure, BIPOC Crime Fiction, BIPOC Literature, Bookclub, Caribbean Literature, Commercial, Contemporary, CyberPunk, East Asian Literature, Eco-Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Humor, LGBTQ, Literary, Magical Realism, New Adult, Romance, Romcom, Science Fiction, Speculative, Speculative Literary, Upmarket Speculative, Young Adult

Non-Fiction:

Art, Biography, Cookbooks, Cultural criticism, Current Events, Fashion, Feminism and women\'s issues, History, LGBTQ, Memoir, Pop Culture, Relationships and family, Self-help, Spiritual, Witches/Witchcraft

Favorite sub-genres:

#ownvoices, #wndb, AAPI Fantasy, AAPI Sci-Fi, Accessible Literary Fiction, Action-Adventure, Activism, Adult, Adult Rom Com, Adult Romantasy, Adult SFF, Adventure, African Diaspora, African Fantasy, African Sci-Fi, Africanfuturism, Apocalyptic, Asian Diaspora, Asian Fantasy, Asian Sci-Fi, BIPOC, BIPOC Fantasy, BIPOC Mystery, BIPOC Sci-Fi, Biography & Memoir, Category Romance, Classic retellings with BIPOC characters, Climate Fiction, Commercial YA, Commercial and Literary, Complicated Relationships, Contemporary Culture, Contemporary Fantasy, Contemporary Inspirational Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary YA, Contemporary Young Adult, Cozy Fantasy, Cultural Criticism, Cyberpunk, Dark Female Friendships, Dark Humor, Dark topics with a light touch, Diaspora Narratives, Disability, Diverse Protagonists, Diversity, Dystopia, Dystopian, Engaged Activism, Epic Fantasy, Fairytale Retellings, Fantasy, Fantasy Grounded in Reality, Fantasy YA, Feminism, Feminist SF/F, Food, Food Writing, Gaming, Geek Culture, Gothic Fantasy, High Fantasy, High-Concept Literary Commercial Fiction, High-concept YA, Historical Fiction, Humor, Immigrant Voices, Indigenous Futurism, Indigenous Sciences, Inspirational, Inspirational Fiction, Intersectional Feminism, Intersectionality, Issue-Driven, LGBT YA, LGBTQ Contemporary, LGBTQ Romance, LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Fantasy, LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi, LGBTQ+ rom coms, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAP, Latine Diaspora, Latinx Fantasy, Latinx Sci-Fi, Latinx stories, Literary Crossover, Literary Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Literary Science Fiction, Literary YA, Magic, Magical Realism, Magical Realism YA, Marginalized Voices, Mental Health, Mind/Body/Spirit, Minority Voices, Modern Dating, Modern Retellings of Fairy Tales, Monsters, Multicultural, Multicultural Romance, Multiple POV, Narrative Nonfiction, Neurodiversity, New Adult, Occult, POC, Personal Development, Politics/Current Affairs, Pop Culture, Pop History, Racial Justice, Relationships, Religion, Rom-com, RomCom, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Drama, Same-Sex Romance, SciFi Romance, Science Fiction YA, Self-help, Sexuality, Social Issues, Social Justice, Southern Fiction, Speculative, Speculative Fiction, Spirituality, Strong Females, Supernatural, Supernatural Elements, Time Travel, Transformative Justice, Trauma, Underrepresented Voices, Upmarket Commercial Fiction, Upmarket Fiction, Upmarket Nonfiction, Upmarket YA, Urban Fantasy, Wisdom, YA, YA Contemporary, YA Contemporary Romance, YA Contemporary Romance with layers, YA Crossover, YA Fantasy, YA fantasy/light sci-fi, YA memoir, Young Adult, advice, afrofuturism, alternate history, animal fantasy, anti-capitalist sci fi, book club fiction, celebrity, contemporary, cook book, culinary, current affairs, dark academia, dark fantasy, diverse and own voices, diverse heroines, diverse voices, fairy tales, faith-based stories, feminine narratives, friendship, friendship stories, gender, high-concept science fiction, immigration, indigenous futurisms, invisible disability, light Sci-Fi, light fantasy, literary, love stories, memoir, narrative non-fiction, non-Western fantasy, non-Western historical fiction, non-western settings, nonfiction, queer, queer narratives, rom-coms, romantacy, romantic New Adult, sci-fi, science fiction, science fiction epic, sweet romance, upmarket genre fiction, visible disability, weird fiction, witches

I’d like the next…

Dearly Departed by: Chip Pons

Heated Rivalry by: Rachel Reid

Find My Way Down to You by: Julian Winters

Daggermouth by: H.M. Wolfe

Sky Full of Elephants by: Cebo Campbell

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (but make it queer!)

An Accident of Dragons by: Cheri Radke

Water Moon by: Samantha Sotto Yambao

Legends and Lattes by: Travis Baldree

The City We Became by: N.K. Jemisin

Hell’s Heart by: Alexis Hall

They Both Die at the End by: Adam Silvera

Pet by: Akwaeke Emezi

There There by: Tommy Orange

Canon by: Paige Lewis

My favorites include…

Books:

The City We Became by: N.K. Jemisin

Sourdough by: Robin Sloan

There There by: Tommy Orange

Eragon by: Christopher Paolini

Game of Thrones by: George R.R. Martin

The Wize Wize Beasts of Wizarding Wizdoms by: Nagabe

Film & TV:

The Devil Wears Prada

One Piece

KPop Demon Hunters

Game of Thrones

The Menu

Crazy Rich Asians

White Lotus

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Sense8

Heartstopper

Hazbin Hotel

Theatre:

Hadestown

Into the Woods

Waitress

Torch Song

Wicked

Dear Evan Hansen

The Prom

The Bands Visit

Kimberly Akimbo