Emelie Burl
Susan Schulman Literary Agency LLC
My Manuscript Wish List®
Emelie joined Susan Schulman in 2021 after fourteen years of working as an independent bookseller. She considers herself a literary omnivore, representing books for all ages and across many different genres. She loves anything and everything cozy (fantasy, mysteries, romantasy, non-fiction, horror, etc), and gravitates toward themes of found family, magic, nature, self-acceptance, folklore, diversity, queer joy, and female rage. She lives in central Missouri with her husband, two huskies, and her books.
I am always on the hunt for books with the following:
- Immersive storytelling that makes you want to build a blanket fort and disappear into the world of the pages. I don’t need to like or even love all of the characters, but I do need to want to spend time with them in their world.
- Stories that bend toward hope, but not without some teeth
- Grounded fantasy that makes me believe in magic or stories set in our world but with elements of magic
- Books and characters that can be described as “weird”, “zany”, or “unhinged”
- I’m a sucker for a journalistic deep dive that has a compelling personal narrative woven throughout.
- For picture books, I love clever, witty, laugh-out-loud stories that meet kids where they’re at. This essay on LitHub really captures everything I think children’s lit should be: weird. Because kids are weird! And we should let them be weird, and maybe encourage them to be even weirder! With books!
- I love when authors know just how much darkness a kid can handle, and how to guide them through it.
- Humor! Make me laugh as well as cry.
- Intergenerational friendship
Fun facts about me:
- I’m currently playing in at least two different D&D campaigns.
- I have two huskies who I love beyond any reasonable measure.
- I’ve lived in three different states and two different countries. And counting!
- I’m an avid knitter, yarn spinner, and gardener, stitching my homestead together one skein at a time.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit all queries through QueryTracker.
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Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
#ownvoices, #wndb, AAPI Fantasy, Adult, Adult Rom Com, Adult Romantasy, Adult SFF, African Fantasy, Africanfuturism, Asian Fantasy, BIPOC, BIPOC Fantasy, Children's, Children's Nonfiction, Children's and Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction, Cli-Fi, Climate Fiction, Commercial MG, Commercial YA, Contemporary Culture, Contemporary Fantasy, Contemporary YA, Contemporary Young Adult, Cozy Fantasy, Cozy Mystery, Cozy mysteries, Dark Humor, Dark topics with a light touch, Diverse Protagonists, Diversity, Ecology, Environment, Epistolary, Essay collections, Essays, Fabulism, Fairytale Retellings, Fantasy, Fantasy Grounded in Reality, Fantasy Romance, Fantasy YA, Female Friendships, Feminism, Feminist, Feminist SF/F, Film/TV, Folklore, Found Families, Funny MG, Gaming, Geek Culture, Gothic, Gothic Fantasy, Grounded fantasy, Hauntings, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fantasy; Fantasy Grounded In Reality, Humor YA, Immigrant Voices, Indigenous Futurism, Indigenous Sciences, Intersectional Feminism, Intersectionality, LGBT YA, LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Fantasy, LGBTQ+ rom coms, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAP, Latinx Fantasy, Literary Fantasy, Literary MG, Literary Middle Grade, Literary YA, Literary YA & MG, Literary YA/MG, Low Fantasy, MG, MG Action Adventure, MG Fantasy, MG Horror, MG Nonfiction, MG adventure, MG contemporary, MG mystery, MG/YA, Magic, Magic Realism, Magical Realism, Magical Realism YA, Magick, Marginalized Voices, Mental Health, Middle Grade, Middle Grade Adventure, Middle Grade Contemporary, Middle Grade Fantasy, Middle Grade Horror, Middle Grade Humor, Middle Grade Mystery, Middle grade magical realism, Modern Retellings of Fairy Tales, Modernized Mythologies, Mothers and Daughters, Multicultural, Multicultural Romance, Narrative, Narrative Nonfiction, Nature, Nature Writing, Neurodiversity, Novels in Verse, Pop Culture, Pop History, Portal fantasy, Rom-com, RomCom, Romantic Comedy, STEAM, STEM, Same-Sex Romance, Slice of life, Soft Fantasy, Speculative, Speculative Fiction, Speculative Middle Grade, Steamy RomComs, Strong Females, Sustainability, Upmarket YA, Urban Fantasy, Verse, Women's Fiction, YA, YA Contemporary, YA Contemporary Romance, YA Contemporary Romance with layers, YA Crossover, YA Fantasy, YA Historical Fantasy, YA Mystery, YA Rom-Coms, YA RomCom, YA Romance, YA Romantasy, YA SF/F, YA fantasy/light sci-fi, YA horror, YA rom com, Young Adult, afrofuturism, campus novel, character-focused fiction, comedy, coming of age, commercial, commercial middle grade, contemporary MG, contemporary middle grade, diverse and own voices, diverse heroines, diverse voices, eco-fiction, enemies to lovers, epistolary novels, fairy tales, fantastical, fantasy of manners, feminine narratives, folklore history, found family, friendship, friendship stories, fun SF/F, gender, ghost story, inclusive sf/f, indigenous futurisms, light fantasy, memoir, middle grade non-fiction, narrative non-fiction, narrative non-fiction YA/MG, non-Western fantasy, non-western settings, queer, queer narratives, quirky, romantasy, romantic fantasy, speculative slice of life, spooky mg, sweet romance, traditional fantasy, weird fiction, witchcraft, witches, witty
I’d like the next…
