Bios

THOMPSON LITERARY AGENCY

48 Great Jones Street #5F

New York, New York 10012

–

716-257-8153

info@thompsonliterary.com

Kiele Raymond (Senior Agent) joined TLA in 2017 to seek out bold new voices in literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Her list includes critically acclaimed and award winning writers such as Lee Matalone, Tana Wojczuk, Ari Braverman, Peace Adzo Medie, Nichole Perkins, Destiny O. Birdsong, and Candice Wuehle. Kiele received her B.A. in Anthropology and English Literature from Johns Hopkins University and her M.A. in the Humanities from the University of Chicago before launching her publishing career as an editor at Simon & Schuster. Her studies in modernism, sociolinguistics, and affect theory continue to influence her reading tastes and she treats each project with great editorial care. Kiele is open to queries and particularly interested in narratives set in and around the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the American Southwest.

Please use Query Manager to send Kiele a query.

Sandy Hodgman (Director of Foreign Rights) has worked in publishing for almost two decades. A graduate of Colgate University, she began her career in the Editorial Department at John Wiley & Sons and then Little, Brown. Moving over to the foreign rights side of the business, she has handled the UK and translation rights at The Robbins Office, HarperCollins Publishers, LJK Literary Management, and The Einstein Thompson Agency before forming Hodgman Literary which represents UK and translation rights on behalf of a select group of literary agencies. She has worked with authors including Madeleine Albright, Ree Drummond, Mireille Guiliano, Gregory Maguire, Rafael Nadal, Ruth Reichl, Jeremy Rifkin, Maria Toorpakai, and Mason Currey, among many others.

Sandy is a fixture at the London Book Fair, BookExpo America, and the Frankfurt Book Fair and travels overseas to maintain relationships and promote our titles throughout the year.

Tess Brown (Assistant to the Founder and Agents) Tess Brown grew up in Reno, Nevada and trained as a vocalist for over a decade. After a year in the Voice program at CalArts, she realized her true passion for writing and the world of literature. She graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature & Publishing and moved to New York at the start of 2019. She still gets lost on the subway. Tess enjoys exciting genre fiction and has a soft spot for dry, witty narratives.

Kara Rota (Senior Agent) grew up in Sewell, New Jersey reading and counting down the days until she could move to New York City and work at a magazine, which she did in 2005 after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. Before joining TLA, she worked as an Executive Editor at Chicago Review Press from 2019-2023, acquiring narrative nonfiction, music, and pop culture titles. Previously from 2014 Kara worked at Macmillan, acquiring and editing cookbooks, mind/body/spirit projects and other nonfiction for multiple Macmillan imprints including Flatiron and St. Martin's Press. She also served as director of recipe website and Macmillan portfolio company Cookstr.com. At TLA, Kara is excited to represent nonfiction authors including activists, artists, witches, and revolutionaries; cookbooks about more than food, parenting books that see care work as central to social change, illustrated projects that inspire delight, and other nonfiction books that seek to change the world. She lives in Evanston, IL with her husband, their daughter Maeve, and Cat.

Please use Query Manager to send Kara a query.

Kiele Raymond (Senior Agent) joined TLA in 2017 to seek out bold new voices in literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Her list includes critically acclaimed and award winning writers such as Lee Matalone, Tana Wojczuk, Ari Braverman, Peace Adzo Medie, Nichole Perkins, Destiny O. Birdsong, and Candice Wuehle. Kiele received her B.A. in Anthropology and English Literature from Johns Hopkins University and her M.A. in the Humanities from the University of Chicago before launching her publishing career as an editor at Simon & Schuster. Her studies in modernism, sociolinguistics, and affect theory continue to influence her reading tastes and she treats each project with great editorial care. Kiele is open to queries and particularly interested in narratives set in and around the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the American Southwest.

Please use Query Manager to send Kiele a query.

Kara Rota (Senior Agent) grew up in Sewell, New Jersey reading and counting down the days until she could move to New York City and work at a magazine, which she did in 2005 after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. Before joining TLA, she worked as an Executive Editor at Chicago Review Press from 2019-2023, acquiring narrative nonfiction, music, and pop culture titles. Previously from 2014 Kara worked at Macmillan, acquiring and editing cookbooks, mind/body/spirit projects and other nonfiction for multiple Macmillan imprints including Flatiron and St. Martin's Press. She also served as director of recipe website and Macmillan portfolio company Cookstr.com. At TLA, Kara is excited to represent nonfiction authors including activists, artists, witches, and revolutionaries; cookbooks about more than food, parenting books that see care work as central to social change, illustrated projects that inspire delight, and other nonfiction books that seek to change the world. She lives in Evanston, IL with her husband, their daughter Maeve, and Cat.

Please use Query Manager to send Kara a query.

Sandy Hodgman (Director of Foreign Rights) has worked in publishing for almost two decades. A graduate of Colgate University, she began her career in the Editorial Department at John Wiley & Sons and then Little, Brown. Moving over to the foreign rights side of the business, she has handled the UK and translation rights at The Robbins Office, HarperCollins Publishers, LJK Literary Management, and The Einstein Thompson Agency before forming Hodgman Literary which represents UK and translation rights on behalf of a select group of literary agencies. She has worked with authors including Madeleine Albright, Ree Drummond, Mireille Guiliano, Gregory Maguire, Rafael Nadal, Ruth Reichl, Jeremy Rifkin, Maria Toorpakai, and Mason Currey, among many others.

Sandy is a fixture at the London Book Fair, BookExpo America, and the Frankfurt Book Fair and travels overseas to maintain relationships and promote our titles throughout the year.

Tess Brown (Assistant to the Founder and Agents) grew up in Reno, Nevada and trained as a vocalist for over a decade. After a year in the Voice program at CalArts, she realized her true passion for writing and the world of literature. She graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature & Publishing and moved to New York at the start of 2019. She still gets lost on the subway. Tess enjoys exciting genre fiction and has a soft spot for dry, witty narratives.

Meg Thompson (Founder) grew up in Lubbock, TX and moved to NY to attend New York University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a degree in British and American Literature. She started in publishing in 2002, working closely with President Bill Clinton in his Harlem office as a researcher and fact checker on his memoirs, My Life. She then joined LJK Literary Management, LLC in 2005. She worked at LJK for six years, before founding her own agency with Susanna Einstein, the Einstein Thompson Agency. After three successful years at ETA, Meg decided to launch her own agency, Thompson Literary LLC. Her clients include #1 NY Times bestselling cookbook author Lisa Leake of 100 Days of Real Food, NY Times bestsellers Ken Denmead, Kelle Hampton, Tom Hart, Gabrielle Blair, and Jeremy Rifkin, NY Times and New Yorker essayist Tim Kreider, Daily Rituals author Mason Currey, adventure reporter and Ghost Wave author Chris Dixon, caterer to the stars Mary Giuliani, author of the Gypset series and NY Times Style reporter Julia Chaplin, New Yorker cartoonist and essayist Emily Flake, designer Ayse Birsel, Octopus! author, NPR, and Scientific America journalist Katherine Harmon Courage, NPR Science reporter Nell Greenfieldboyce, Missy LeHand biographer Kathryn Smith, Global Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships and Lead Benefit Auctioneer at Christie’s Auction House, Lydia Fenet, women’s rights activists Maria Toorpakai, Tanya Selvaratnam, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, among others. She is interested in biography, memoir, music, popular science, politics, social justice, cookbooks, sports, health and wellness, spirituality, fashion, art, design, adult art books, popular culture, and anything that advances our cultural and social dialogue to a more elevated level. Meg is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA).

Please use Query Manager to send Meg a query letter, including any salient biographical and platform information as well as previous publications. Attach your full nonfiction proposal, or the first 50 pages of your manuscript. While Meg considers all submissions seriously, she is unable to reply to all of them, and will only respond to projects that interest her within six weeks.

Samantha Wekstein (Senior Agent) grew up in Westchester, NY. She attended the University of Maryland, College Park and received a B.A. in English. She now lives in NYC with her husband and dog. After internships with Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency and Rowman & Littlefield, she began her career in 2013 at Writers House LLC. She then briefly worked as an assistant at The Agency Group (now UTA) before returning to Writers House for the next 5 years where she began supporting the CEO, and then the Founder, before becoming an agent. She’s been lucky to work with a variety of best-selling and award winning authors across all genres. She joined TLA in 2019 where she’s excited to grow her list. In YA, she loves creative and epic fantasies, but she is also drawn to realistic stories with multi-dimensional female characters. She is always interested in elevating diverse voices, particularly through feminist narratives. She is seeking middle grade of all stripes, but especially stories that deal with themes of friendship, adventure, or encountering tragedy for the first time. She is also on the lookout for whimsical, meaningful, and funny picture books. On the adult side she is drawn to commercial voices in Romance, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

For more information on her tastes, please click here. Her clients include Lani Forbes, Korrie Leer, and Jessie L. Star, among others.

John Thorn (Affiliate Agent) brings to TLA more than four decades in the book industry, as a publisher, author, and literary representative. He is the Official Historian of Major League Baseball. Apart from his creation, with Pete Palmer, of the fondly recalled encyclopedia Total Baseball, he is often visible on ESPN, The History Channel, and other television outlets. He was also a major on-screen presence in and chief consultant to Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, Baseball. He has served as curatorial consultant and literary representative to the Museum of the City of New York, for whom he created New York 400, and currently works with the National Museum of American Jewish History and Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is interested in sports projects, of course, and historical nonfiction of all sorts.

Please use Query Manager to send John a proposal. Those who submit nonfiction proposals, preferably on a historical subject, may expect a reply; John prefers not to see writing samples as part of an initial submission.

Meg Thompson (Founder) grew up in Lubbock, TX and moved to NY to attend New York University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a degree in British and American Literature. She started in publishing in 2002, working closely with President Bill Clinton in his Harlem office as a researcher and fact checker on his memoirs, My Life. She then joined LJK Literary Management, LLC in 2005. She worked at LJK for six years, before founding her own agency with Susanna Einstein, the Einstein Thompson Agency. After three successful years at ETA, Meg decided to launch her own agency, Thompson Literary LLC. Her clients include #1 NY Times bestselling cookbook author Lisa Leake of 100 Days of Real Food, NY Times bestsellers Ken Denmead, Kelle Hampton, Tom Hart, Gabrielle Blair, and Jeremy Rifkin, NY Times and New Yorker essayist Tim Kreider, Daily Rituals author Mason Currey, adventure reporter and Ghost Wave author Chris Dixon, caterer to the stars Mary Giuliani, author of the Gypset series and NY Times Style reporter Julia Chaplin, New Yorker cartoonist and essayist Emily Flake, designer Ayse Birsel, Octopus! author, NPR, and Scientific America journalist Katherine Harmon Courage, NPR Science reporter Nell Greenfieldboyce, Missy LeHand biographer Kathryn Smith, Global Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships and Lead Benefit Auctioneer at Christie’s Auction House, Lydia Fenet, women’s rights activists Maria Toorpakai, Tanya Selvaratnam, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, among others. She is interested in biography, memoir, music, popular science, politics, social justice, cookbooks, sports, health and wellness, spirituality, fashion, art, design, adult art books, popular culture, and anything that advances our cultural and social dialogue to a more elevated level. Meg is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA).

Samantha Wekstein (Senior Agent) grew up in Westchester, NY. She attended the University of Maryland, College Park and received a B.A. in English. She now lives in NYC with her husband and dog. After internships with Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency and Rowman & Littlefield, she began her career in 2013 at Writers House LLC. She then briefly worked as an assistant at The Agency Group (now UTA) before returning to Writers House for the next 5 years where she began supporting the CEO, and then the Founder, before becoming an agent. She’s been lucky to work with a variety of best-selling and award winning authors across all genres. She joined TLA in 2019 where she’s excited to grow her list. In YA, she loves creative and epic fantasies, but she is also drawn to realistic stories with multi-dimensional female characters. She is always interested in elevating diverse voices, particularly through feminist narratives. She is seeking middle grade of all stripes, but especially stories that deal with themes of friendship, adventure, or encountering tragedy for the first time. She is also on the lookout for whimsical, meaningful, and funny picture books. On the adult side she is drawn to commercial voices in Romance, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

For more information on her tastes, please click here. Her clients include Lani Forbes, Korrie Leer, and Jessie L. Star, among others.

John Thorn (Affiliate Agent) brings to TLA more than four decades in the book industry, as a publisher, author, and literary representative. He is the Official Historian of Major League Baseball. Apart from his creation, with Pete Palmer, of the fondly recalled encyclopedia Total Baseball, he is often visible on ESPN, The History Channel, and other television outlets. He was also a major on-screen presence in and chief consultant to Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, Baseball. He has served as curatorial consultant and literary representative to the Museum of the City of New York, for whom he created New York 400, and currently works with the National Museum of American Jewish History and Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is interested in sports projects, of course, and historical nonfiction of all sorts.