2019-10-01_Writer_s_Digest

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

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
Free download pdf