Our Agents
Our Agents
Lara represents bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators of board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle grade, and YA fiction and nonfiction, and authors of adult fiction.
Lara is currently open to adult fiction queries only. (In all categories of children’s and YA fiction and nonfiction, Lara is open by referral only.)
In adult fiction, Lara is seeking:
~Thrillers, the twistier the better, both commercial and literary (think Tana French’s THE LIKENESS, Alyssa Cole’s WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING, Ruth Ware’s THE TURN OF THE KEY)
~Horror with purpose (think Stephen Graham Jones’s THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER, Nicola Yoon’s ONE OF OUR KIND, the anthologies NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT and OUT THERE SCREAMING)
~Historical fiction that feels immediate and hooky, especially retellings from a new perspective (think Ayana Gray’s I, MEDUSA, Percival Everett’s JAMES, Liz Moore’s THE GOD OF THE WOODS)
~Grounded and unexpected SciFi and Fantasy (think R. F. Kuang’s THE POPPY WAR, Nnedi Okorafor’s LAGOON, Samantha Sotto Yambao’s WATER MOON)
In all categories, Lara relates to outsiders, and her most treasured reads are character-driven stories with sparks of magic (bright or haunting) and fascinating facts interwoven beautifully into the main narrative. She is seeking page-turners, underrepresented perspectives, and anything that makes her do a mental double-take. She loves characters who are fully rendered on the page and deeply human in their dreams, failures, and triumphs. Most of all, she appreciates intersectionality, anti-colonial narratives, and stories that take a wide view of the world and history in all of its interconnectedness.
Lara has a BA in English and Fine Arts from Amherst College and an MA in English Literature from Columbia University, where she studied feminist and postcolonial theory. Prior to joining ABLA in 2010, she studied architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) then began her career in publishing as an assistant at the B.J. Robbins Literary Agency. She lives in her hometown of Los Angeles, on unceded Tongva land, with her family, including two kids who love children’s books almost as much as she does.
RECENT DEALS
Stonewall Honor-winning author Gabe Cole Novoa's RATIONAL CREATURES and an untitled sequel, pitched as a retelling of Jane Austen's PERSUASION, in which a trans man is reunited with the man he loves, whose heart he broke, and must decide whether to reveal his true identity as they strike up a friendship. Sold to Sourcebooks Casablanca at auction.
Literacy ambassador Mychal Threets's LIBRARY KIDS series of three early readers, each featuring a different library adventure inspired by the real library kids the author met in his time as a librarian. Sold to Simon & Schuster.
NYT-bestselling author of ALL BECAUSE YOU MATTER Tami Charles and her 14-year-old son Chris Charles’s THAT BEAUTIFUL MIND, celebrating the joy and creativity of neurodivergent minds like Chris's. Sold to Scholastic, in a good deal, in an exclusive submission.
Literacy ambassador and librarian Mychal Threets's I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE HERE, a celebration of library joy in which a group of librarians welcome children to a neighborhood library and revel in the warm space it offers all members of the community. Sold to Random House in an exclusive submission.
Educator Ashley Iman's RUBY RENE ALWAYS GETS HER WAY, the second book in the Ruby Rene series, in which she discovers that sometimes listening to others with a curious mind can be just as important as making yourself heard. Sold to Kokila/PRH in an exclusive submission.
Indigenous scholar and teacher Trisha Moquino's THE LAND WE LIVE ON, a family story rooted in the Pueblo people's relationship with their land, as well as an invitation to young readers to practice active land acknowledgement in their communities. Sold to Candlewick at auction.
Author of the SEAFIRE series Natalie C. Parker's THE ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO BABYSITTING, a queer adventure in which a teenager and her superpowered friends match wits against an underground league of assassins to find out why they're targeting the child she's babysitting, what it has to do with her parents' murder, and which side her crush (who happens to be her best friend's sister) is actually on. Sold to Candlewick.
Author of CROWNCHASERS Rebecca Coffindaffer's THE BLOODY AND THE DAMNED, a YA fantasy that follows a deadly assassin with a suppressed heart of gold who will do anything to get their sisters back from a notorious gang of outlaws, even teaming up with the ex-best friend who broke their heart. Sold to Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan.
Pasha Westbrook's debut BRAIDED ROOTS, a semi-autobiographical picture book, in which a young girl's single father braids her hair while telling her stories about her Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen ancestors and weaving their family history together into a strong whole—within her braid and herself. Sold to Scholastic at auction.
Nicole Melleby and Katherine Locke, eds.'s ATHLETE IS AGENDER: TRUE STORIES OF LGBTQ PEOPLE IN SPORTS, an illustrated collection featuring contributions from professional athletes and acclaimed authors, including Adam Rippon, Schuyler Bailar, A.J. Sass, Marieke Nijkamp, Vincent Tirado, and Erik Brown, among others. Sold to Christy Ottaviano Books/Hachette.
Author/illustrator of LOVE IN THE WILD Katy Tanis's next two board books in the series, LOVE UNDER THE STARS and LOVE UNDER THE SEA. Sold to Mudpuppy in an exclusive submission, in a two-book deal.
THINGS I LOVE:
Creative ambition
Illuminating twists
Atmospheric settings
Little-known facts
Retellings
Cold brew forever
I'm seeking gripping yarns told by master storytellers, the kind of tales that make everything else fall away until you reach the end, and even then, you know the story will stay in your imagination forever.
REPRESENTATIVE TITLES
“Literature allows us—no, demands of us—to experience ourselves as multidimensional persons. And in doing so is far more necessary than it has ever been.” -Toni Morrison, “Literature and Public Life"
AWARD WINNERS
& BESTSELLERS
