2019-10-01_Writer_s_Digest

18 I WRITER’S DIGEST I October 2019

MEETTHEAGENT

BYKARAGEBHART UHL

PUPPY PHOTO ©

GETTY IMAGES: GEORGE PETERS;

ADIRONDACKS PHOTO ©

GETTY IMAGES: POSNOVR

Kara Gebhart Uhl (pleiadesbee.com) writes and edits from Fort Thomas, Ky.

Kristin

van Ogtrop

INKWELL MANAGEMENT

K

ristin van Ogtrop grew up in Delaware, a fact she says often

draws this response: “You’re the fi rst person I’ve ever met

from Delaware!” She has an undergraduate degree in English

from the University of Virginia and a graduate degree (“mostly

useless, frankly,” she says) in English from Columbia University.

Ogtrop says she was “once a very athletic person” and placed

third in the state of Delaware in high jump. She loves to cook,

has three boys, a husband, and “a rotating cast of perfect dogs

(except for the shedding)” who have been released as puppies

from Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

Ogtrop has worked in magazines for many years and was

editor-in-chief of Real Simple from 2003 to 2016. She’s also

written a humor book for working moms called Just Let Me Lie

Down (Little, Brown 2010).

Visit Ogtrop online at InkWellManagement.com and on

Twitter and Instagram @kvanogtrop.

SEEKING

“Upmarket

fiction”

“Lifestyle”

“Bigideabooks”

“Spectacular

memoirs”

WHY SHE

DOES WHAT

SHE DOES

PITCH

TIPS

“Be brief.”

“Be original.”

QUERY PET

PEEVES

“Query writers who

compare their memoirs

to Wild or Eat, Pray,

Love”

“I love stories, I’m

infi nitely curious, and

I’m a dilettante.”

FUNFACT

“I only have time for one hobby,

which is gardening. But I make

the same mistake over and over,

which explains why if I ever

write a memoir, it might be

called Everything Is Invasive.”

FAVORITE

BLOG:

ColdAntlerFarm.

Blogspot.com

LIVING AUTHOR:

Kazuo Ishiguro

PLACE:

The Adirondacks

MOST

PROUDOF

CLIENTS

“Having both a

family and a career

that are mostly

healthy most of

the time.”

Elizabeth Passarella,

author of the essay

collection The Virgin

Surprise: A Southern

Evangelical Finds Her

Place in New York

(forthcoming from

Thomas Nelson)

“Emails

addressed

‘Dear agent’”

DEAD AUTHOR:

Flannery O’Connor

POEM:

Anything by Mary

Oliver about dogs