DATE: March 20, 2010
CONTACT: Stephanie Bearce
LOCATION/TIME: St. Charles Community College (St. Louis, MO) ALL DAY
Ammi-Joan Paquette
Ammi-Joan joined up with the Erin Murphy Literary Agency as an associate agent in early 2009. She works from her home in Massachusetts, and only accepts queries through a referral or from attendees of conferences she has attended. She represents all forms of children’s and young adult literature. At this time, she is particularly interested in creative nonfiction, sports-related projects, novels that explore religious topics, “big-feel” character-driven picture books, and anything that tickles her funny bone. She would love to see a great mystery. She is also the published author of THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO TRACKING FAIRIES (Tanglewood, 2009).
Jennifer Mattson
A former editor at Dutton Children's Books, where her claims to fame (dubious and otherwise) included coauthoring THE OFFICIAL EASY-BAKE OVEN COOKBOOK and acquiring a picture book written by then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Jennifer Mattson spent five intervening years reviewing more than 1000 children's books at BOOKLIST magazine before joining Andrea Brown Literary Agency as an associate agent. Like others at the Northern California-based agency, Jennifer exclusively represents children's-book clients. Her specific interests include author-illustrators; humorous, character-driven middle-grade fiction; sharp-witted contemporary YA fiction; and, especially, unusual, high-concept middle grade and YA fantasy with a strong sense of voice and place. She also has a weakness for stories about young entrepreneurs and the performing arts, particularly dance. Jennifer's first sale, Tom Leveen's debut YA novel, PARTY, releases in Spring 2010 from Random House Children's Books.
Stephen Fraser
Stephen is a literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City, a full-service agency which handles both children’s and adult books. At Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, Stephen has edited such creative talents as Mary Engelbreit, Gail Gibbons, Michael Hague, Ann Rinaldi, Kathryn Lasky, Brent Hartinger, Stephen Mitchell, Dan Gutman, Gregory Maguire, and Daniel Pinkwater. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, he has a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College in Boston, MA and has written children’s book reviews for
The Christian Science Monitor,
Five Owls, and
Publishers Weekly. Stephen is a popular speaker at writers' conferences throughout the country.