2019-10-01_Writer_s_Digest

AGENT ROUNDUP

ILLUSTRATION

©EMILY

ILES

W

e askedfiveagentswholoveliteraryfictionto

explainwhat“literary”meanstothem,com-

mentontheimportanceofcharacter,talk

aboutbeautyinlanguage,anddetailwhatmakesa manu-

scriptmagic.Interestedinpitchingoneoftheseagents?

Turnbacktotheagentroundupforqueryingdetails.

HOWDOESLITERARYFICTIONDIFFERFROM

GENREFICTION?

CAPRON:Asa generalrule,literaryfictiontendstobe

drivenbyvoiceortheprotagonist’semotionalevolution.

Thatcreatesthemomentumofthestory.Genrefictionis,

generally,moredrivenbyplot.However,wecanseelots

ofoverlapbetweengenresthesedays.Forexample,it’s

absolutelypossibletohavea veryliterarythriller.Even

then,though,it stillcomesdowntothequestionofthe

narrativebeingdrivenbyvoiceandcharacter.

HYDE:Whileliteraryfictionis a termthatis widelyused

inpublishing,it’srifewithissues,andI imagineevery

agent,editor,writer,bookseller,orcriticyouaskcould

havea differentanswertothisquestion.Perhapsit’sele-

vatedlanguage,a focusoncharacteroverplot,a serious-

ness,orattempttogetat“bigideas”ratherthantosimply

entertain.Butformethelineblurssomuchbetween

genreandliterary,andmyfavoritesareoftenbooksthat

straddleboth.I wantit all.

JOHNSON:Literaryfictionis moreaboutthetellingofthe

story—inthevoice,theobservations,inalchemyofthe

characters—thaninthestorylineitself.It’snotthe“what

happened”somuchasthehow-did-the-narrator-think-

it-happened.There’sgenerallynoneedfora spoileralert

withliteraryfiction,becausethepointisn’tonlytheplot;

a goodliterarynovelcan’tbespoiled.

WARNOCK:Afewtraitsusuallycomeupinthiscompari-

son:increasedfocusonthecharactersvs.plot,elevated

writing,andexperimentation.Forme,it’smostlya

matterofseeingtheauthormoreonthepage.WhenI

readcommercialfiction,I’mlookingtogetlostinthe

story,andI tendnottowantmyattentiondrawnto

thetextitself.WhenI readliterary,I’malsoreading

forsubstance,butI wanttonoticehowtheauthorsays

whattheysay.I wanttobedazzledandinvitedtopar-

ticipateinthosenarrativechoices.I liketodistillit as:

Commercialfictionis a summerblockbusterwhereas

literaryfictionwinsSundance.

LOVE LETTERS

BY KARA GEBHART UHL

Five agents discuss what they

are looking for in literary

Å ction submissions, where the

line blurs with genre Å ction,

and their favorite literary

reads in this roundtable.

32 I WRITER’S DIGEST I October 2019