Suzie Townsend

SUZIE TOWNSEND is an agent at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc.

Prior to joining New Leaf, Suzie graduated film school, earned her Masters of Education, taught high school English, and coached a swim team. In her spare time, she read everything she could, which prompted her move to publishing. She got her start as an intern at FinePrint Literary Management where she was hired as an assistant before making the move to literary agent. She’s been part of the team at New Leaf Literary & Media since its inception in 2012. Suzie loves strong characters and voice-driven stories that break out of the typical tropes of their genres, and she’s always looking for unique new voices in stories.

SUZIE IS LOOKING FOR: Women’s Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult and literary Middle Grade. She’s especially looking for inclusive and diverse stories with new and unique voices in all genres and age groups.

In Women’s Fiction, she’s looking for upmarket bookclub fiction, historical that explores cultural heritage particularly untold non-European historical events, contemporary fiction that exposes a new light on a topical issue, or that features quirky, dysfunctional families. She also loves magical realism in the vein of Sarah Addison Allen or Alice Hoffman. She’s also especially interested in Psychological Suspense featuring strong and complicated protagonists who have dark secrets.

In Romance, she’s a fan of strong characters with agency who are proactive participants in their own stories. She enjoys when the heroes/heroines act against their stereotypes and surprise her while still being swoonworthy. Some of her favorite historical romance authors are Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, and Courtney Milan. In contemporary, she loves high concept trope driven stories by authors like Christina Lauren and Jill Shalvis, and she’d love to a great and dark romantic suspense series like Karen Rose and Elle Kennedy.

In SFF in both the Adult and YA spectrum, Suzie loves strong characters and voice-driven stories that break out of the typical tropes of their genres. She’s a huge fan of expansive world building and atmospheric settings. She’s excited about stories rooted in history, mythology and legends, especially those that are lesser-known or underrepresented in traditional publishing.

In contemporary YA, she’s particularly looking for authentic teen voices and raw emotional stories that will make her laugh, cry, and swoon, as well as novels that tackle social justice issues with nuance and empathy. Some of her YA favorites are The Sun is Also a Star, I’ll Give You the Sun, All the Bright Places, Before I Fall, Where She Went, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Hate U Give

And in Middle Grade, she’s looking for literary and character driven stories with poignant prose, whether it’s historical, contemporary, magical realism, or even fantasy. In addition to the novels she’s worked on, some of her favorites are Savvy, When You Reach Me, Summer & Bird, Lost in the Sun, The Thing About Jellyfish,Brown Girl Dreaming, Inside Out and Back Again, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and Wolf Hollow. She’s also an animal lover and a sucker for beautifully written emotional stories that involve animals like A Dog’s Way Home and Pax.

Suzie loves novels with a commercial hook, compelling storytelling, and beautiful writing, and she’ll follow a character that she loves anywhere. She’s excited to add more writers of diversity (including, but not limited to, all ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental and physical health, and socioeconomic status) to her list.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to query@newleafliterary.com

How to Query:

• Send query to query [at] newleafliterary [dot] com. Please do not query via phone, twitter, facebook, instagram or LinkedIn.
• The word “Query” must be in the subject line, plus the agent’s name
• ie – Subject: Query, Suzie Townsend
• You may include up to 5 double-spaced sample pages within the body of the email
• NO ATTACHMENTS, unless specifically requested
• Include all necessary contact information
• You will receive an auto-response confirming receipt of your query
• We only respond if we are interested in seeing your work

Guidelines & Details