Lee Melillo

I will be open to queries from June 16th to July 15th.

I represent YA, crossover, and Adult Fiction written by, for, and about traditionally underrepresented communities in commercial and upmarket spaces. For me, this means stories with commercial hooks that can reel in a wide range of readers and subsequently deliver well-executed, memorable reading experiences. Across the board, I look for a strong sense of voice, atmospheric prose, and snappy, witty dialogue. I also love a sharp, weird sense of humor appealing to a generation of readers raised online, and narratives centered around relationships, whether platonic, familial, professional, or romantic.

I’m looking for the following in the genres I rep:

Contemporary

• Stories about complex issues with both personal and societal challenges (Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface).
• Ensemble casts and rag-tag found families. Give me women/queer folks engaging in badassery, revenge, feminine rage, etc. (Bandit Queens), or rejects and anti-heroes united towards a common goal (Thunderbolts*)
• Cozy slice-of-life about community spaces (Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop)
• Stories set in entertainment (Seth Rogen’s The Studio) or publishing (Book Lovers) with a comedic or meta bent.
• Private schools! New England prep schools, Ivy Leagues, etc. from the perspective of outcasts or scholarship kids.
  • Dark Academic meets eat-the-rich vibes (Ninth House), losergirls seeking revenge or status boosts (Heathers), or stories centered around educational classism. Looking for more BIPOC rep in these stories, especially from Latine and Black authors (would love HBCU stories or elite schools in the Global South).
• ROM-COMS! with yearning and slow burns that twist tropes on their heads.
  • Favorite tropes include lovers-to-enemies, idiots-to-lovers, professional or academic rivals-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine, jock/nerd, co-stars, and a “I can fix him” / “I can make her worse” dynamic (think The Acolyte).
  • And please, no: toxic relationships, sketchy power dynamics, miscommunication-as-conflict, or love triangles (unless it’s a poly story or everyone is queer and indecisive). NO STORIES WHERE THE ONLY BIPOC/QUEER/FAT REP IS A FUNNY SIDEKICK.
  • Also, spice is welcome, but tension is even better. Make me gasp like a Victorian man seeing an exposed ankle.

Historical 

• Meticulously-researched, atmospheric historical fiction. I prefer an element of mystery or suspense or other propulsive plot element, like in June Hur’s books. I also prefer historical events I am unfamiliar with, especially from places outside of Western Europe or post-colonial America.
• Narratives built around the peasants/regular folk of the time, whether high-stakes or slice-of-life – I’m not against stories featuring nobility/royalty, but would prefer they aren’t the good guys or main focus of the story.

Fantasy

• Preferably low-medium fantasy that is either set in our world or a similar one, like A. B. Poranek’s Where the Dark Stands Still. I’d also like cozy, comedic fantasies in the vein of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, or academic fantasy, like Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series, but for a YA audience and/or ideally centered around BIPOC characters or non-Western settings.
• Romantic B-plots are welcome, but please, no full-blown Romantasy. I need a central plot engine beyond romance in fantasy.
• Stories inspired by local folklore/myth in both contemporary and historical settings. (Hotel del Luna, Goblin) I’m also interested in the invention of new myths for the modern age, a la American Gods.
• Anything that captures the heart of an animated Barbie movie, ideally with FAIRIES (!!!) or mermaids, for teens and adults.
• Dark magical realism from Latine writers.

Horror / Thrillers 

• Bubblegum thrillers (Promising Young Woman) or comedic thrillers (Bodies Bodies Bodies).
• Socially-conscious horror that uses horror as metaphor, like I Saw the TV Glow or any of Jordan Peele’s work. I’m particularly interested in horror that explores classism (Parasite), body image (The Substance), and queer horror.
• Please, nothing overly gory/graphic. I prefer my horror more psychological than literal. And nothing in these genres related to pregnancy/birth/miscarriages, please.

Sci-fi / Dystopia 

• YA dystopias inspired by present-day issues (classism, colonialism, climate crisis, reproductive rights, etc.) that explore their effects.
  • If your story has a “Chosen One” trope, please subvert it. I’m not really interested in stories about “special” people with “destinies.” Just regular people put into impossible situations where they try and do the right thing.
• Otherwise, I’m only interested in grounded Afrofuturism and underwater/deep sea aliens in the sci-fi realm at the moment.

And here are some hyper-specific wants:

• Lush, cinematic settings with cottagecore, fairycore, piratecore (!!!), romantic academia, etc. vibes.
• Complicated FMCs who are cutthroat and messy and often wrong, like Dr. Santos from The Pitt or Shiv Roy from Succession. 
• Queer characters, characters with mental illness and particularly OCD, or heroines with autism in interesting, offbeat settings.
• Fangirls and fandom: Directioner losergirls, K-pop idol sasaeng thrillers, 2010s YouTube inspired anything, etc.
• ‘Late bloomer’ coming-of-age tales – give me 20 or 30-somethings having their first kiss, career changes, new friend groups, etc.
• YA with DCOM vibes, especially Minute Men, Halloweentown, Twitches, Sky High, Stuck in the Suburbs, or Lemonade Mouth. 
• Interesting story structures/framing devices, like One Day or The Pitt. 
• LOVERS-TO-FRIENDS: exes & ex-situationships who become good friends. Give me the trials and tribulations of loving someone just not in that way and working to make a friendship happen, like a reverse When Harry Met Sally. Happy (platonic) ending required.
• Anything, seriously anything, written by Pacific Islanders!

I’m NOT the best fit for…

Erotica; high fantasy or space operas; US military/police/modern politics; Greek/Roman mythology; British historicals; most sports; stories romanticizing gang life or the mafia; explicit depictions of sexual assault, self-harm, or violent cruelty towards people or animals; or anything where a pet dies.

Again, I do NOT represent nonfiction/memoirs, picture books, middle grade, or graphic novels of ANY KIND! 

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to query@dunhamlit.com

Dunham Literary accepts query letters by email only! After receiving a query letter, we request any and all projects that might be right for us. To submit a query letter by email, the correct address is: qu***@*******it.com

Authors: Please paste the query letter and the first five pages of your manuscript in the body of the email. Do not link to Google Docs or upload your query or pages as attachments. We do not open attachments with writing samples. Please do not send full manuscripts unless they are requested by us after receiving your query letter. We try to respond within four weeks from the time we receive query letters, but sometimes we are faster or slower.

Guidelines & Details