Brenda Bowen, Senior AGENT
Brenda Bowen represents authors and artists of books for young readers from preschool to young adult; she also represents some adult titles: fiction, humor, and cookbooks. Her clients have won the MacArthur Fellowship; the Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor; the Caldecott Medal and Caldecott Honor; the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent; the Sibert Medal; the Stonewall Award; the Geisel Honor; the William C. Morris Honor; the New York Times Best Illustrated Book prize; the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal; as well as many other awards and citations. Brenda’s clients have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, and have been translated around the globe; she represents Oscar-, Emmy-, and Tony-Award winners; career authors and artists; and newcomers making their debuts. She can’t decide which she loves more: a bold picture book, a lyrical middle-grade novel, or a sweeping work of historical fiction.
Brenda has the unusual advantage of having seen publishing from all sides. As well as being an agent, she was a children’s book publisher for many years; she’s an award-winning author of some forty books for children; she’s written one novel for adults, and is at work on another. She lives with her family in New York City, and spends August in a cottage in Maine, where the menu almost always includes blueberry corn muffins.
Right now, Brenda is not accepting picture book manuscript submissions, but she is looking for adult historical fiction. More on her wish list, here.
A few books I loved reading in my free time…. Mel Fell, by Corey R. Tabor; Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone, by Tae Keller; Heartstopper, by Alice Oseman; Oh William!, by Elizabeth Strout, Things To Look Forward To, by Sophie Blackall, The Age of Phillis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Book of St. John, Fergus Henderson & Trevor Gulliver.