Laura Kincaid
Holiday House
My Manuscript Wish List®
I’m Laura (she/her), an assistant editor at Holiday House, and a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course and Rowan University’s MA in Writing. Previously, I was a volunteer at the Philly-based indie publisher, Lanternfish Press. Currently I am looking for young adult fiction, middle grade fiction, and graphic novels.
I love unique voices, immersive worldbuilding, and character-driven stories regardless of genre, but I am a fantasy & speculative fiction fan at heart from fairies to cryptids. I am passionate about supporting stories from underrepresented communities. I am drawn to stories that authentically share the perspective of LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and differently-abled peoples. Open to projects in a range of tones/moods from the darkly moody to the funny & uplifting, as long as the prose is high quality and fits tone/audience.
Things I love to see
- Speculative or genre stories that use the extraordinary/supernatural to explore very human themes (grief, love, self-realization/identity, liberation from oppression, etc)
- High fantasy that does something refreshingly new or unique
- Magical realism and surrealism
- Historical fantasy
- Folkore, fairy tales, mythology
- Horror with a speculative twist
- Atmospheric and lush writing
- Characters with distinctive or unique voices
- Settings that feel like characters
- Fae, faeries, and everything whimsical
- Cryptids and other monsters
- Multi-genre or genre-bending stories
- Stories at the intersection of genre and literary work
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to la***********@ho**********.com
I accept agented and unagented submissions. Please email queries to la***********@ho**********.com and include #MSWL in the subject line. I prefer to see full manuscripts (for fiction) / full proposals (for nonfiction or graphic novels).
Please note Holiday House company policy regarding responding to submissions: Due to the volume of manuscripts we are receiving, Holiday House does not to respond to materials that we are not interested in publishing, and we are unable to acknowledge receipt of unagented materials. We do, however, make every effort to carefully consider each submission we receive. If we are interested in your manuscript, we will respond within four months of receiving it.
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Vital Info
I’d like the next…
My favorites include…
YA Books: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, Hell Followed With Us by Joseph Andrew White, Murder for the Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst, Damsel by Elana K. Arnold, Ash by Malinda Lo, The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer, Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender, The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson,
MG Books: The Carrefour Curse by Dianne K Salerni, Dear Mothman by Robin Gow, Lolo Weaver Swims Upstream by Polly Farquhar, Here in the Real World by Sara Pennypacker, The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu, The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, Wicked Nix by Lena Coakley, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
Graphic Novels: My Aunt is a Monster by Reimena Yee, The Daughter’s of Ys by M.T. Anderson & Jo Rioux, Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case, The Legend of Brightblade by Ethan M. Aldridge, Salt Magic by Hope Larson & Rebecca Mock, Another Kind by Trebor Bream & Cait May, The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang, The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
Adult Books: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, a Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, Sisters of the Black Vast by Lina Rather, The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Finna by Nino Cipri, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, Bunny by Mona Awad, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
Movies/TV: Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Over the Garden Wall, The Owl House, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Princess Bride, Kubo and the Two Strings, Severance, The Mandalorian, WandaVision, The Haunting of Hill House, Knives Out, Sinners,
Podcasts: Welcome to Nightvale, The Magnus Archives, The Penumbra Podcast, The Adventure Zone.
