Dorian Maffei
Kimberley Cameron & Associates
My Manuscript Wish List®
Dorian Maffei is actively building her list in a variety of genres in both YA and adult. While she appreciates most fiction that blends genre lines, she is especially interested in speculative fiction, literary science fiction, upmarket book club fiction, thrillers, reimagined fairy tales, magical realism, unique voices, contemporary novels with a dash of mystery, horror and suspense, and innovative storytelling that sometimes veers on the weird. She values work that provokes a deep-rooted connection after the last page and explores the peculiar within the mundane. She is always open to submissions with diverse experiences and characters, and welcomes underrepresented and marginalized voices. She hopes to find work that features these experiences as the norm.
At the top of her list right now is book club fiction with a speculative twist and a unique, interesting concept along the lines of The Measure, The Other Valley, or Never Let Me Go. She’s also interested in books in the upmarket space that have something to say and are full of suspense like the works of Angie Kim.
She is currently on the hunt for more horror and suspense in both YA and adult. She’s a sucker for anything that can be described as both haunting and beautiful, and would love to find something in these genres that has twists and turns, lyrical writing, and keeps her up past her bedtime. Atmosphere and mood are important, and she is always pulled into stories with rich world building. Give her spooky and spellbinding!
On the opposite end, she is also looking for fun, light reads, especially if they have a touch of magic or a wonderful voice. It’s easy for her to fall in love with a project if it has a great high-concept hook whether it’s upmarket, YA rom-com, or a page-turning thriller.
Lastly, she is open to YA novels-in-verse, especially if they comp to Me (Moth) by Amber McBride.
Authors she adores (in no particular order) include Toni Morrison, Peng Shepherd, Aimee Bender, Kazuo Ishiguro, Nova Ren Suma, Kelly Link, Charles Yu, Samantha Hunt, Manuel Gonzales, Amber Sparks, Isabel Allende, Karen Russell, Lucia Berlin, Ray Bradbury, Lydia Davis, Octavia Butler, Ben Marcus, Eowyn Ivey, Colson Whitehead, Miranda July, Neil Gaiman, Helen Oyeyemi , Amelia Gray, Roselle Lim, Gabriel García Márquez, Alissa Nutting, Tupelo Hassman, Adiga Aravind, George Saunders, Sarah Addison Allen, Karen Joy Fowler, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Shirley Jackson, and Tiffany D. Jackson.
Give me something that will grab me by the heart!
Submission Guidelines
Please submit through my online submission form:
http://QueryMe.Online/dorianmaffei
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
Fabulism, Feminist, Gothic, Literary Horror, Literary Science Fiction, Magical Realism, Multicultural, Psychological Thrillers, Soft Fantasy, Speculative, Suspense
I’d like the next…
YA: Ace of Spades, Bone Gap, The Walls Around Us, Blanca & Roja, The Dead and the Dark, The Keeper of Night, Sadie, We Were Liars, Undead Girl Gang, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, Monday’s Not Coming, Hot Dog Girl, Me (Moth), Rules for Vanishing, Bone Weaver, Firekeeper’s Daughter, Where Darkness Blooms, The Getaway, She Is a Haunting, and Delicious Monsters.
Adult: The Only Good Indians, The Winter People, Paul Tremblay, Mexican Gothic, Grady Hendrix, Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune, The Lost Apothecary, An Unkindness of Ghosts, Folklorn, The Scent Keeper, The Silent Companions, The Other Black Girl, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, These Silent Woods, Summer Sons, The Push, A History of Wild Places, The Plot, Jackal, Daisy Darker, The Hacienda, The Cartographers, Wrong Place Wrong Time, You’re Invited, The Return, Sisters of the Lost Nation, The Fox Wife, and The Other Valley.
My favorites include…
Books: The Cartographers by Peng Shepard, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Cruddy by Lynda Barry, Get in Trouble by Kelly Link, Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Girls by Emma Cline, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Holes by Louis Sachar, Ana and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit, Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
Film/TV: 1899, His House, Dark City, Mr. Nobody, Sunshine, The Lodge, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Arrival, Big Fish, Amélie, The Truman Show, Pan’s Labyrinth, Twin Peaks, Ozark, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, The Sinner (seasons 1 & 4), School Spirits, and Archive 81.
