Detroit Writing Workshop:
May 3, 2025
In-Person Writers Conference 

Carrie Howland Yellin is a literary agent and the President of Howland Literary, LLC, which she established in 2018, after thirteen years as an agent, most recently at Empire Literary. She represents young adult, middle grade, and select picture book authors. Carrie holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Albion College, where she was the Poetry Editor of The Albion Review. She has been featured in several publications discussing her work as an agent including Poets & Writers, SCWBI insight, Akashic Books, and Slice Magazine. Carrie Howland joined Empire Literary after eleven years as an agent at Donadio & Olson, Inc. Learn more about Carrie here.

Kat Foxx [SOLD OUT OF PITCH APPOINTMENTS] is a literary agent at The Rights Factory. In fiction, she’s looking for Adult and YA thriller/mystery/suspense, gothic and supernatural horror, historical fiction (preferably pre-20th century), historical fantasy (witches, ghosts, time travel, past lives, etc.), and romcom and romance (light spice). She also enjoys fairytale/folklore retellings and some speculative fiction, anything nostalgic, anything to do with past lives and soul connections, haunted houses, ancestry, and midwifery/natural childbirth. Kat loves creepy, scary stories that makes her eyes water and gives her goosebumps! For Upper MG, she’s pretty much open to genres provided it’s cute and has a good message. Across ages and genres, stories that normalize blended, single-parent, adoptive, racially and/or culturally diverse, and same-sex families are high on her list. Kat is always seeking projects from BIPOC, disabled, neurodiverse, and historically underrepresented writers and would love to see more LGBTQIA+ stories/writers. For nonfiction, Kat is seeking memoirs that read like fiction, motherhood/natural pregnancy and childbirth/midwifery/planned unassisted births, single parenthood (especially if paired with overcoming an abusive relationship with the other parent), past life/reincarnation, the “brotherhood” mentality of law enforcement, narcissistic abuse recovery, true crime, wine/food/travel, a history of witches and witchcraft, and ancient locations/civilizations. Learn more about Kat here.

Bonnie Swanson is a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management. Across the board for all age groups, she wants to see underrepresented authors. (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, etc). She has very eclectic tastes and sometimes doesn’t know what she’s looking for until she reads it. In adult book and young adult books, she seeks: She is dying for a good speculative psychological horror mystery! (Think a gender-bent/gay Sherlock Holmes, set in Middle Earth or outer space, with all the creepy feels of Silence of the Lambs!) Normalized queerness where it isn’t the focus of the plot or subplot. She’s a sucker for a good romantasy (HEA required). Issue-driven stories that address timeless social issues and the people who fight to change them, stories where the underdog wins, non-traditional characters who feel real (even if they are in outer space), accessible literary prose, the Oxford comma. In Picture Books, she likes: The story must be child-centered and give them all the agency. They have enough grownups telling them what to do in their real lives; in books kids should get to be the heroes. Fiction or Nonfiction is okay and if it rhymes, it must be absolutely PERFECT! In Middle Grade, she likes: Bonnie is SUPER selective! But she likes stories based on kid-focused issues that have a touch (or more) of magic. She would love to see an aged-up version of the Junie B. Jones series with a nonbinary main character in a magical school setting. No animal stories please where they are the characters. Learn more about Bonnie here.