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